I+s: LPA’s New Book Issues a Wake-Up Call: ‘No Excuses’ on Sustainable Design
LPA Design Studios’ new book, No Excuses: Integrated Design for a Sustainable Future, challenges architects and designers to break down silos and embrace a performance-driven, collaborative approach to climate and equity goals in the built environment.
LPA Design Studios, the Irvine, Calif.-based integrated architecture, design, and planning firm, is adding to the architecture and design (A&D) bookshelf with No Excuses: Integrated Design for a Sustainable Future, a new title now available for pre-order.
In the book, CEO Wendy Rogers and President Keith Hempel trace LPA’s 60-year journey from its humble beginnings in Leason Pomeroy’s garage to a national design practice with more than 500 employees, 10 disciplines, and seven studios.
But No Excuses is more than a retrospective: It’s a challenge to the A&D industry to engage in a more integrated approach to sustainable design.
A More Accountable, Integrated Design Process
Combining insights into the firm’s culture of shared responsibility and research-driven design process, No Excuses is hailed as a “call to action” by LPA. Rogers and Hempel offer a framework for firms across all roles responsible for the creation of the built environment.
Hempel told i+s, “We’ve been able to achieve results by making performance and sustainability part of the goal-setting process for every project, regardless of scale or budget. We always strive to offer clients options that demonstrate the value and opportunities of more efficient, resilient designs that are aligned with their larger vision and project constraints.”
Moving Beyond Silos to Build Smarter Spaces
The authors push back on siloed design models, showing how building and landscape architects, engineers, interior designers, and researchers work as a unified team to determine how sustainability, inclusivity, and performance considerations can achieve client goals. Their case studies—from commercial and civic buildings to schools and healthcare facilities—illustrate how this combined effort yields future-focused, high-performing spaces.
“One of our core beliefs is, we don’t do this alone,” Rogers told i+s. “Achieving results requires a collaborative, inclusive approach that brings all the stakeholders together and ensures every voice is heard.”
A&D Leaders Align on Climate, Equity, and Innovation
In doing so, LPA aligns with other leading voices in the A&D community calling for a proactive, inventive, and equity-focused approach to meeting climate goals.
In the book’s foreword, Architecture 2030 founder Ed Mazria writes that no matter the project scale, “every decision counts, and sustainability can always be integrated into the design process.” While Mazria is referring specifically to the LPA approach, his conclusion that “shared commitment empowers LPA to transcend individual limitations and achieve collective success” applies to the wider design field as well.
No Excuses: Integrated Design for a Sustainable Future is available via Amazon.