Following one of our most important episodes to date, James Mary O’Connor, Principal-in-Charge at Moore Ruble Yudell, talks to Henry McDonald about the importance of affordable social housing and sustainability.
We cannot be deciding whether I’m going to do the latest benchmark building here sustainably. I think it has to be the norm. It has to be the norm that we build sustainability.
James Mary O’Connor
Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, James Mary O’Connor came to Charles Moore’s Master Studios at UCLA in 1982 as a Fulbright Scholar. James received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from Trinity College in Dublin, his Diploma in Architecture from the Dublin Institute of Technology, and his Master of Architecture from UCLA.
including Kobe Nishiokamoto Housing in Japan, the Horace Mann Elementary School and Fairmont Towers Hotel Addition, both in San Jose, California. International work has become a focus, with large-scale housing and planning projects such as the Potatisåkern and Tango projects in Malmö, Sweden, the mixed-use development Project Yoda in Manila, and Tianjin-Xinhe New Town in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China.
With irrepressible energy, James has also led Moore Ruble Yudell teams in national and international design competitions, such as the Beijing Wanhao Century Center, and the winning design for the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, Maryland. Over the past 15 years, James has taught design studio, lectured, and has been invited as a guest critic at UCLA, USC, SCI-Arc, University of Calgary, Alberta, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Tianjin University School of Architecture, China, and Tongji University School of Architecture, Shanghai, China.
We’re all looking at climate change, we’re all looking at the need for sustainability. So if you can do that, by moving into a new home that’s more sustainable, it’s more economical to run. You do feel as though you’re also making good input into the whole sustainability as well.
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