McDonough, “Hero of the Environment,” inspires audience at School’s Foard Lecture

William McDonough

William McDonough, world-renowned architect and Time magazine’s Hero of the Environment in 2007, presented the Fred T. Foard Jr. Memorial Lecture on April 1 at The William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill.

McDonough is founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, Architecture and Community Design and co-author, with Michael Braungart, of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

The talk described “Cradle to Cradle Design,” a model for building and development that mimics and protects nature’s systems. More than 800 people attended the lecture, a record for the annual event.

“The earth, by design, is meant to be growing things,” McDonough said in his presentation. “When we look at our dead buildings, our dead surfaces, we realize we’re abrogating that potential for fecundity. Human artifice should be like a living thing, celebrating growth, the sun’s energy and metabolism.”

He described how the use of toxic building materials (e.g., chemicals in furniture and carpet and fossil fuel for heating and cooling) creates an unnatural and unsustainable environment. Rooftop gardens, natural materials and solar energy are central to the new design, he said.

Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH, dean of the Gillings School of Global Public Health, noted in her introduction that the selection of an architect to give the public health lecture made perfect public health and environmental sense.

“Designing spaces that encourage physical activity can be good for the environment, economy and public health,” she said. “McDonough’s ‘cradle to cradle’ principles … teach us a lot about how to improve public health through design.”

In October 2007, McDonough and his partners broke ground on a green mixed-use residential project in the heart of downtown Chapel Hill. The Greenbridge development will offer 98 residences, a retail area, green roofs, solar panels, rainwater runoff systems and a community learning center to teach sustainable living practices.

The Foard Lecture is sponsored each year by UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. Co-sponsors of this year’s event were the UNC Institute for the Environment and Greenbridge Developments LLC.

Jeanne Lambrew, PhD, deputy director of The White House Office of Health Reform, has accepted an invitation to speak at next year’s forty-second annual Foard Lecture, scheduled for Thursday, April 15, 2010 at The Friday Center.

Webcasts of talks at the School, including McDonough’s, can be viewed at /webcast/webcasts-61/.

Photos of the event are available online.

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.