Articles by Martin Pedersen

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

This article was originally published on Common Edge as “Joan K. Davidson and the Fight for New York.”

This article was originally published on Common Edge as “Kate Wagner on McMansion Hell, Criticism, and Her Love of Cycling.”

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

This article was originally published on Common Edge as “When It Comes to Climate Change, Traditional Practice Is Broken.”

This article was originally published on Common Edge as “Blair Kamin Ends His Run as Architecture Critic of the Chicago Tribune”

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

The news about real action on climate change tends to track toward the gloomy. It is easy to despair, given the severity of the problem and the time left to properly address it. But there is progress being made in the built environment—just not nearly fast enough to offset emissions elsewhere. In recent years the sector has added billions of square feet of new buildings, but seen energy consumption for the entire sector actually decline. A good chunk of the credit for that accomplishment can go to architect Edward Mazria and his dogged advocacy organization, Architecture2030. Mazria and his team, along with collaborators all over the world, keep doing the unglamorous work of revising building codes, working with mayors, governors, elected officials in Washington (and officials in China), forging new alliances, all while deftly working around the climate obstructionists currently occupying the White House. Recently I talked to Mazria, who spoke from his home in New Mexico, about his take on where we stand. Some of the news, alas, is pretty good.