"Is it possible to design buildings so well and so carefully that they do not cast a long ecological shadow over the future that our students will inherit? We now know that such things are possible -- that buildings can be designed to give more than they take."

The following is excerpted from remarks David W. Orr, Professor and Director of Oberlin's Environmental Studies Program, made at the Lewis Center's groundbreaking ceremony in the summer of 1999.

"Three years ago we began the effort to design a building for the Environmental Studies Program. We intended to create not just a place for classes but rather a building that would help to redefine the relationship between humankind and the environment -- one that would expand our sense of ecological possibilities. We began by asking:

• Is it possible -- even in Ohio -- to power buildings by current sunlight?
• Is it possible to create buildings that purify their own wastewater?
• Is it possible to build without compromising human and environmental heath somewhere else or at some later time?

• Power society by sunlight and stabilize climate,
• Disinvent the concept of waste and build prosperity within the limits of natural systems -- in ways that can be sustained over the long term,
• Preserve biological diversity and restore damaged ecosystems, and
• Do these things while advancing the causes of justice and nonviolence.

"To these ends the Adam Joseph Lewis Center will serve as a part of the larger education of the Oberlin community aimed to promote the practical skills and analytic abilities necessary to reweave the human presence in the world."

Next: Design Process