William McDonough + Partners [WM+P] is an award-winning architecture and community design practice dedicated to place-specific, high performance designs that support ecological health and human well-being. We practice a positive, principled design approach that draws inspiration from living systems and processes. At its heart, this unique approach celebrates the abundance of nature.
William McDonough, the firm’s founding partner, has played a prime role in defining sustainable design for three decades. Founded in New York in 1981, the practice was relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1994, when McDonough became Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. As one of the pioneers of the green building movement, Mr. McDonough has earned the reputation of being “the leading environmental architect of our time.” His first major commission, the design of the first “green office” in the United States, for the Environmental Defense Fund (1985), set the modern green building movement in motion, inspired the formation of the U.S. Green Building Council, and established many of the principles and practices that have come to define sustainable design.
Our work includes numerous projects for institutions, Fortune 500 companies, and other corporate clients around the world. Many of these clients, such as Google, YouTube, VMware, and DropBox are located in the Bay Area of California.
Among the firm’s achievements are several recognized landmarks of the sustainability movement: Herman Miller’s “Greenhouse” Factory and Offices; Gap, Inc.’s Corporate Campus (now YouTube’s headquarters); and the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies at Oberlin College. Other flagships of 21st century environmental design include: Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge truck plant, celebrated for its pioneering 10-acre “living roof”; NASA’s Sustainability Base, the “first space station on Earth,” one of the most innovative buildings in the federal portfolio; and Park 20|20 in the Netherlands, a new model of mixed-use, transit-oriented, Cradle to Cradle-inspired urban development, awarded a 2010 ASLA Honor Award for creating a dynamic environmental system that enhances the local community, its ecosystem and its economy.