Practice with Purpose: A Guide to Mission-Driven Design

by LEDDY MAYTUM STACY Architects (As Told by), Robert McCarter (Introduction), Edward Mazria (Foreword by), Marsha Maytum (Contribution by)

Overview

Practice with Purpose is about designing buildings beyond their property lines to address some of society’s most urgent challenges: the climate emergency, racial and ethnic injustice, chronic homelessness, educational crises, and the preservation of the embodied carbon and culture of existing buildings. 

To successfully contend with these ecological and societal emergencies, the design values and practice of architecture must be rapidly transformed within the next decade. Architects must become creative agents of change, providing the vision and skill to lead our communities toward an equitable, climate-positive future for all. 

Twenty years ago, San Francisco–based Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects rededicated its practice to focus on these urgent issues. Its mission-driven designs not only address the critical concerns of twenty-first century architecture, but also bring clients and users into the dialogue. LMSa’s award-winning works show the creative potential of building a practice with purpose. In this book, LMSa shares its experience and insight as a call to action to the architecture profession. Through case studies, data-driven essays, user testimonials, and thought-provoking questions, LMSa offers design strategies to architects who want to make an environmental and social impact.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781957183046
Publisher:	ORO Editions
Publication date:	01/31/2023
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects (LMS^A[BL1] ) is thirty designers who share a common belief in the trans-formative power of architecture to help lead the way to a just, healthy, and regenerative future for all. The San Francisco–based firm is a nationally recognized model for all architects who would build a positive firm culture around addressing the climate emergency and advancing social justice through architectural innovation. LMS^A has received more than 175 design awards, including eleven national AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten Awards for integrated sustainable design excellence. In 2017, it received the American Institute of Architects Architecture Firm Award, the institute’s highest honor for a practice that has

consistently produced an influential depth and breadth of work for over a decade. LMS^A demonstrates the capacity of a small firm to make big contributions toward addressing

some of the profession’s most pressing concerns.

 [BL1]Please always use a superscript A in LMSA

Robert McCarter, Professor of Architecture at Washington University; author of several books, including Place Matters (ORO 2019)

Edward Mazria, Founder and CEO of Architecture 2030; recipient of 2021 AIA Gold Medal

 Marsha Maytum FAIA, LEED AP, is a founding Principal at Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects (LMS^A) in San Francisco, winner of the 2017 National AIA Architecture Firm Award. Marsha has focused her career on community, cultural, and socially-responsible projects that promote sustainable design, including the creation of new buildings, rehabilitation of historic buildings, and adaptive reuse of existing structures. LMS^A has received over 175 regional, national and international design awards, including twelve AIA COTE Top Ten projects. Marsha is a frequently invited juror and critic and has lectured nationally on the topics of sustainable design and adaptive reuse. She has served on the National AIA Committee on the Environment Advisory Group, and as its 2019 Chair. Marsha has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Oregon, the University of California, Berkeley and California College of the Arts. 

Read an Excerpt

This book is about building an architecture practice that focuses the transformative power of design on some of our society’s most urgent challenges—a practice where every environment created is viewed as an opportunity to serve the clients’ needs and the vital needs of the broader community and our planet, our only home.

 

During the crucial period of the next decade, architects and designers have an important role to play. We must become innovative agents of change, providing the vision and skill to lead our communities toward a just, climate-positive future for all.

 

There’s never been a more exciting time in the history of architecture to be an architect. We have abundant imagination, powerful tools, and important work to do.

Table of Contents

A guide to mission-driven practice in six themes

1.     Climate Action: Architects as agents of change

2.     Equity: Architecture is for everyone

3.     Habitation: Housing the unhoused

4.     Education: Twenty-first century schools

5.     Adaptation: Adaptive reuse in a climate-positive world

6.     Call to Action

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a call to action for the profession to "design beyond the property lines."  It features 15 case studies showing how architects can become creative agents of change, with designs that not only address the critical concerns of 21-century architecture, but also bing clients and users into dialogue."  —Architectural Record

"This volume borrows from the standard monograph structure and is richly illustrated with drawings and project photography. The projects and essays included clearly present a philosophy of practice, rather than standard marketing text. LMSA has evolved from what  Carter described as “constructed intention” in his earlier monograph. In addition to describing each project’s design features and materials, the book also includes anecdotes linking the project history to the firm’s principles. These include community-based tales, such as collective memories about a schoolyard, the impact of a tomato harvester on an agricultural campus, and the legacy of a Filipino performing arts theater."  —Metropolis Magazine

From the Publisher