How Perkins&Will Turns Values-Driven Design Into Practice

Perkins&Will’s report Stewardship in Action: A Values-Driven Approach to Design frames sustainability, material health, equity, community partnership, and design performance not as separate initiatives, but as operating principles. In conversation with interiors+sources’ Robert Nieminen, firm principals and executive leaders Phil Harrison and Lindsey Peckinpaugh discuss how the firm’s values have remained steady even as its scale, tools, and responsibilities have changed. They also share why the next phase of design leadership depends on better data, healthier materials, ecological literacy, and a wider talent pipeline. For a full view of the firm’s holistic, values-based design approach, listen to the podcast episode at iands.design/55341316.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

i+s: Perkins&Will has released a report called Stewardship in Action, A Values-Driven Approach to Design. What does that mean in practical terms, and how would a client or a community feel that difference in a finished project?

Lindsey Peckinpaugh: The values-driven approach has tremendous impact on all aspects of our business. We’re proud that our work has deeper meaning and intentionality behind it. It shows up in the attention to detail and craft in our spaces, our commitment to health and well-being.

So many of our spaces are connected to nature and designed to be biophilic. They are meant to be of human scale, connecting the communities in which they belong. That powers the sense of optimism and hope that I hope you encounter in our projects.

i+s: For architects and interior designers who don’t have a big environmental, social, and governance (ESG) team or global framework behind them, what are some specific actions they could take to move their practice closer to this concept of living design?

LP: There are things we should all prioritize. We’re focused on institutionalizing energy modeling and building performance modeling. We are signatories of the AIA 2030 commitment and are behind in making sure that we’re getting the information needed to make better design decisions. We have to embrace energy modeling as an ethical responsibility. We can’t make the work better if we don’t know how our design assumptions are performing.

We issued new guidance on advanced material health called the Switch List, which is a companion piece to the Precautionary List [resources available at perkinswill.com]. We’ve published it as a resource that firms of any size could have access to. It identifies chemicals and pollutants or toxins in materials that we have committed to phase out of our specifications.

Last, I’d say we all need to be focused on nurturing the talent pipeline. We’re doing this through our partnerships with NOMA [the National Organization of Minority Architects], through mentorship programs like Black in Design and ACE, and numerous scholarship programs.

i+s: What changes, then, did you have to make to achieve sustainability goals?

PH: We found ourselves adding layers to the design process, which makes it harder and more stressful for our design teams. Eventually, it’s a less creative process if all you’re doing is record-keeping as opposed to designing. That has been a challenge, so you have to step back and rethink the whole process. We’re trying to reintegrate these new methods into the design process in a more natural way, so the teams are more empowered by the information, as opposed to burdened by the administrative processes.

i+s: For small and mid-sized firms, what’s the takeaway? How do they implement some of these principles?

PH: It’s ironic that you suggest that a large firm has all the resources. We envy small firms because, by definition, they have an agility. Making change in a small organization is naturally easier, in a sense. Maybe there’s not the same level of resources, but in a very transparent world, we share a lot of the tools we’ve developed on the internet because we want to have systemic change. We don’t want to be the only firm doing these things. If the industry shifts, our job becomes easier.

i+s: That impact is seen in real-world projects. The report highlights the regenerative designs such as Bainbridge Island, Net Zero Studio, and the Meadoway restored ecosystem. How are you redefining success on projects to include biodiversity and ecological health?

LP: We hired our first full-time ecologist in the firm, Juan Revolo, who is part of our Bainbridge studio. Juan’s been […] helping our teams increase their literacy and fluency about ecology. We’re looking for opportunities where our design decisions can restore habitat and connect biodiversity. The Meadoway project, for example, is a 16-km ecological corridor connecting parks and neighborhoods throughout the Toronto area, restoring natural habitat and seeding new life. Juan is helping us have a deeper understanding and take more time in the discovery phase of projects to learn and understand these things.

i+s: You talked about the Switch List that Perkins&Will is using now to phase out harmful substances. What does that look like, to embed ecological thinking and healthy materials into the everyday practice, especially when budgets and schedules can present a challenge?

PH: One of the largest myths is that high performance correlates with high cost. Just because you’re designing differently doesn’t mean it has to cost more. Our industry has had patterns of norms, the things that cost less. Therefore, people just use the low-cost items, so we get stuck in a rut. The point of environmental or ecological thinking is to think differently. Often we find lower-cost solutions by removing entire things out of buildings.

As we start looking at embodied carbon or material health impacts, we see these things are making our buildings sicker, or these things are making them more expensive. There’s a high-tech approach—which can be more expensive—but there’s a common-sense approach to design that is more about editing and streamlining designs and finding ways to be in harmony with the world around us, as opposed to using technology to fight against the world.

i+s: Looking ahead, what impact do you want Perkins&Will to be known for most?

LP: I like to think about us having both a depth and a breadth of impact. On the back cover of our impact report, you probably saw that beautiful quote from our founder, Larry Perkins, where he talks about seeking the quiet trust and appreciation of our clients and public whose interests we thoughtfully serve. That’s a commitment to a depth of impact—that every client in every location, regardless of the scale or complexity of your project, we want you to feel like you’re our most important client, that we’re taking deep and serious care with your resources, your time, your investment.

That earnestness and commitment to honesty and integrity in our work—I want us to continue to be known for that. The breadth of our impact, because we continue to expand globally, is about figuring out how to stay on the forefront of the industry and be the provocateur, the challenger, to move the needle forward.