Since our firm's start, we have incorporated the techniques of sustainable design. As knowledge has increased across the profession, we continue to expand our toolkit. Our earliest practices: maximizing daylight, orienting buildings for optimal heating and cooling cycles, selecting lasting locally sources materials, insulating and venting building exteriors for enhanced comfort and performance.

Where the evolution is headed now:

• Greater use of metrics and standards —both Weeksville and Louis Armstrong are LEED Gold.
• Far more sophisticated techniques of enclosure: super insulation, continuity of insulated surfaces, ventilated rainscreen skins.
• Sensor-driven lighting and air quality controls for better response to changing weather conditions
• Greater use of engineering conservation techniques from on-site stormwater storage to geothermal cooling and heating.
• More tools for responsible material selection from high recycled content to local sourcing and manufacture to low off-gasing requirements.
• Better roofs ranging from high albedo reflective surfaces that minimize air conditioning loads to planted areas that insulate and offer better techniques of water drainage.

Each of these techniques is considered for its positive aesthetic potential whether the flowering bird-inviting sloping greens, the cool shadows of canopies, or the spiritual qualities of filtered light.