Sierra Club Headquarters Design

Description: The junior studio undertook the design of the mid-western Headquarters for the Sierra Club in Cincinnati, Ohio. The program includes roughly half office space and half public outreach and education spaces (a library, an auditorium, and galleries). Founded in 1892 by Jon Muir after successfully campaigning to create Yosemite National Park, the Sierra Club is committed to educating the public through positive campaigns combining education, lobbying and litigation to effect change today rather than in the future. Following the model of this proactive environmental organization, the studios considered environmental and ecological issues not as crisis, but as an opportunity. While the environmental issues we are facing are urgent and real, students are encouraged to question the negative and regressive strategies of amelioration through legislation and certification, and instead, use the primary tool of an architect, design, to focus on how architecture can create positive and innovative responses to climate change.