Tag: Sustainability

Mother Knows Best: Designers Smart to Play by Nature’s Rules

Nature at the Confluence in South Beloit, Illinois, incorporates all native species for the meadow and other landscape areas, and the walls are made of exposed aggregate from the adjacent Rock River. When designing spaces for a park, road, campus, etc., it’s not unrealistic to expect our work to be replaced in a few decades.… Read More »

LEED Certification: Is It Worth Obtaining?

The Westlawn Gardens project in Milwaukee was certified as the world’s highest-rated LEED Neighborhood Development at the time it was built. Ayres partnered with Torti Gallas Partners, which provided this photo. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) started about 25 years ago as an effort to build smarter, healthier, and more energy-efficient and sustainable… Read More »