William G. Reed

Regenerative and Integrative Planning and Design

Biography

Mr. Reed, a practicing architect for 35 years, is an internationally recognized thought leader, proponent and practitioner in integrative and regenerative systems design. He extends his expertise regularly to conferences, forums, and universities – demonstrating that this way of thinking and being makes both economic and environmental sense.  He sees the philosophy of sustainability as the framework from which all technical and many functional decisions are derived; with the objective to improve the overall quality of the physical, social and spiritual life of our living places.

In Regenesis he focuses on sustainable and regenerative building design and community planning issues.  Regenesis is involved in the development and practice of a whole and living system design process; a process that emphasizes building evolutionary capability within the design teams and communities engaged within our ecosystems. This work includes project management, facilitation, design consulting, and socio-ecological capability development for developers, government organizations, architects, builders, and the people in a place.

His professional career began with energy efficiency and solar design work in New England and moved to large commercial work with the firms of CS & D and RTKL.  In 1984, Bill established his own firm, WG Reed Architecture, focusing primarily on corporate, retail and institutional clients.  His firm merged with The Hillier Group to form Hillier-Reed in 1995.  He sold his firm in 1996. Bill received his Architecture degree from Cornell University and continues his studies independently with the most advanced theorists and practitioners of system thinking in the linking of natural and human ecology.  He has guest lectured and teaches at U. Penn, Harvard, MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Catholic, McGill, Universidad Iberoamericana, and FAU and has been featured in a variety of electronic media shows. 

Bill has published widely on sustainable issues in building and planning and coauthored the seminal book, The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building – redefining the practice of sustainability.  His recent work includes: Green design training and facilitation for a variety of institutional projects with the New York City Department of Design and Construction and Dormitory Authority of the State of New York; Genzyme Headquarters, Cambridge, MA; the West Palm Beach Waterfront Plan; ecological systems design for St. Mary’s County, MD; ecological planning for developments in MD, AZ, UT, CA; GSA Regional and National Headquarters. In addition to architectural and planning projects he is involved in the development and refinement of benchmarks determining what defines green building. He was one of the originators of the LEED Green Building Rating system and served on the Steering Committee of that program for its first ten years.  He continues this work on the Boards of One Planet Living; Awakening, Wellness and Enlightenment, Inc. in San Francisco; Ecological in NYC, and as an advisor for Environmental Building News.