Lewis Dedication Draws International Acclaim

Weekend Unveils Next Industrial Revolution

While many students slept off Friday night's adventures, some of today's leading thinkers in environmental design gathered for a symposium called "The Ecology of the Second Industrial Revolution" as part of a weekend-long event dedicating the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies. Natural light shone in across the south wall and the Living Machine provided a backdrop for a discussion about the future of designing, building and lifestyle changes.

On Friday evening, architect William McDonough gave a speech entitled "Building Like a Tree: Turning Over a New Leaf." It was a recurring metaphor throughout the weekend and CEO of Interface, Inc. Ray Anderson compared the building to "a tree in a barren land," whose "seeds would disperse and take root in far-reaching places." Professor of Environmental Studies David Orr related the movement to air travel and said, "This is Kitty Hawk and we're ten feet off the ground."

Director of Public Programs Jane Mathison said, "There were close to 300 people at the dedication in an audience made up of Oberlin students, alums, donors, and students from other colleges that were just very interested in the project."

On Friday afternoon, the Dedication Ceremony began with speeches from Oberlin Acting President Clayton Koppes, architect William McDonough, Orr, philanthropist and building namesake Adam Lewis, Chair of the Oberlin Board of Trustees Thomas Klutznick and Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of the Interior Ken Smith. Tours were then given of the building, followed by McDonough's aforementioned speech.

The panel on Saturday morning was moderated by ABC Correspondent Robert Krulwich '69. Anderson, McDonough and Orr were joined on the panel by author Janine Benyus, Vice President of Technology at BP Solar Peter Bihuniak, and Earth Day founder Denis Hayes. The group discussed details and concepts behind the building, as well as ideas for our time.

Orr told the Review, "We are in a transitional era that will requireŠchanges in commerce, materiality, solar design changes, how human intentions are played out and how we educate."

One topic discussed by the panel was the shift of businesses from selling equipment to selling products of service. Anderson's company Interface, Inc. provides the carpet for the building. The carpet squares are leased from the company, and Interface replaces and repairs the carpet as needed.

When a tile gets too worn out, it is returned to the company where it is recycled and made into new carpet. Anderson aims to have a closed-loop industrial system where a certain amount of resources are taken from the Earth once and suspended in the cycle.

Orr called this style of business "a smart way to do thingsŠIt is a cradle-to-cradle as opposed to cradle-to-grave operation." Orr also pointed out that the company avoids having to constantly buy new supplies of petrol from the Middle East because they "make carpet from carpet."

Krulwich asked if one could really "eat the seats" of the building referring to Mcdonough's explanation in his Atlantic Monthly article "The NEXT Industrial Revolution," of the biodegradable seating material. McDonough said that the seats would take less than a month to decompose if exposed to the elements.

BP Solar supplied the solar panels for the building. Orr cited the company as an example of where the Next Industrial Revolution is taking place. The President of BP aims to have all BP gas stations powered by solar energy. Orr would have liked to buy the building's solar power as a product-of-service much like the carpet but said that "BP was not ready."

Orr said that he anticipated two more years of construction and that the weekend was "the right kind of event for the building which is a work in progressŠWe did not want a mob scene because the building is not complete," adding that the building was "not designed to ever be complete."