McLennan Design

08/25/2026

METROPOLIS PLANET POSITIVE AWARDS FINALIST
Henrico County Public Schools
Living Building for the Center for Environmental Studies & Sustainability
Henrico, VA

It is a doubly exciting time for our Henrico County Public Schools Living Building: our team is celebrating not only the official start of construction with the project groundbreaking effort, but also an awards win, notching recognition as a Finalist in the 2026 Metropolis Planet Positive Awards! We are thrilled to see this project begin to take shape on-site, and will have many more exciting updates to come in the months ahead, so stay tuned for more!

ARCHITECTS:
Perkins&Will Bainbridge Island
Perkins&Will North Carolina
OWNER: Henrico County Public Schools
CONTRACTOR: S.B. Ballard Construction Company
Graphics: Perkins&Will

LINK to Timelapse Video: https://www.sbballard.com/live-camera-feeds/

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08/05/2026

Our team honors the life and legacy of Pliny Fisk III - a true green building pioneer.

Pliny Fisk III, the exuberant and visionary co-director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems (CMPBS), died on July 27 in Austin, Texas, due to complications of ALS. He was 82 years old.

06/25/2026

I’m thrilled to have The Magic of Imperfection be named a Finalist for The Eric Hoffer Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing.

Please enjoy the Intro to the book by clicking on this link: https://isu.pub/esBKYun

The 3/4 Baked Recipe For Success
Introduction From Jason F. McLennan’s New Book

Break free from perfectionism and finish your creative projects. This unconventional guide shows you how to overcome creative blocks and finally complete your work through strategic imperfection. The world is full of creative people. So why do some get their ideas out in the world while others don’t? Why are some incredibly prolific while others struggle with deadlines or can’t complete projects? In this book, Jason F. McLennan—a master in “getting stuff done”—shares secrets to boosting productivity, innovation, and personal success. By adopting his “¾ baked” philosophy and the key lessons that surround it, readers will be able to dramatically increase their output while also keeping their creative juices flowing. McLennan’s recipe for creative success includes the following ideas:

• Look forward to failure
• Discover the power of feedback

We’ve all heard the phrase “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” Perfection is often what holds so many people back. Trying to reach it means that nothing much can get completed, and inspiration itself is often blocked as people either procrastinate or endlessly self-edit. By chasing perfection, it remains elusively further away.

The world is full of half-baked ideas—but almost no perfect ones. With The Magic of Imperfection, readers will learn how to seriously amp up what they do, how fast they do it, and simultaneously how well it gets done.

LINK TO BUY: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQGYDPQM/?bestFormat=true&k=the%20magic%20of%20imperfection&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-ww_k0_1_18_de&crid=3ESR51862KLMD&sprefix=The%20Magic%20of%20Imper

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05/11/2026

MY LIFE IN GASTRONOMY
Ten dishes that reshaped my understanding of food and culture
by Jason F. McLennan

READ ONLINE: https://bit.ly/4tZ0Xuc

After architecture and music, it is food that excites me most from a cultural perspective. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to travel the globe to many far-flung places, and I’ve come to appreciate the powerful cuisines that emerge from place, climate, and culture and how they shape people and their experiences. When I travel, I relish the chance to sample local dishes and expand my palette to new tastes and my mind to new possibilities. Taste is, in turn, complemented and enhanced by smells, tactile experiences, and visual delights.

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SPORTS & SUSTAINABILITY This issue explores the intersection of sports and design, highlighting standout Perkins&Will athletic projects such as Northeastern University’s Multipurpose Athletic Facilit

04/13/2026

THE STATE OF SPORTS ARCHITECTURE: https://isu.pub/GtItdPK

Every sports architecture project—whether a 70,000-seat stadium or a community athletics center—offers boundless opportunities to inspire, energize, educate, and affirm a simple truth: we’re better when we gather to cheer or play together.

We’ve brought together leaders from the Perkins&Will Sports Practice to share their perspectives on the future of sports architecture and the evolving role these spaces play in our communities.

Q&A Perkins&Will Sports Practice Leaders:
DON DETHLEFS, Perkins&Will Denver
MAX RICHTER, Perkins&Will Vancouver
TYLER HINCKLEY, Perkins&Will Boston
PHILIP O’SULLIVAN, Perkins&Will Toronto

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04/03/2026

LOVE+REGENERATION: Sports & Sustainability Issue
SPRING 2026 • VOL. 8 • ISSUE 1
LINK TO ISSUE: https://issuu.com/thelorax/docs/l_r_26_spring_issuu?fr=sZjBkMzkxMTg0NTI

Welcome to the SPORTS & SUSTAINABILITY Edition of Love+Regeneration!
This issue explores the intersection of sports and design, highlighting standout Perkins&Will athletic projects such as Northeastern University’s Multipurpose Athletic Facility. It also reflects on the Climate Pledge Arena and the creation of the GOAL system, a framework for the continuous improvement of sports environments. Alongside these features are thoughtful contributions from our team, including Josh Fisher’s exploration of his passion for skating and Johanna Collins’ application of biomimicry in practice. On a lighter note, the issue concludes with a short personal piece, “My Life in Gastronomy,” offering a more reflective look at food and experience.

Enjoy the issue, and share comments please – we enjoy hearing from those that read our magazine!

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04/02/2026

Join us at Living Future 2026 in Seattle, April 15th at 1pm!

https://www.livingfutureconference.org/event/2026/why-attend

04/02/2026

Twenty years ago, the launch of the Living Building Challenge changed the trajectory of the built environment.

At a time when “green building” largely meant slightly reducing harm, the Living Building Challenge asked a far more ambitious question: What if our buildings could give more than they take?

It introduced a bold new standard — one grounded not in promised, unverified performance, but in proven results. Projects were required to demonstrate real, year-long operational outcomes. They had to generate their own renewable energy, manage water responsibly, eliminate harmful materials, and create spaces that nurture human health, equity, and beauty. It reframed sustainability from being “less bad” to being truly regenerative.

We were the first standard in the world to introduce equity and beauty as foundational pillars of green building. We were the first standard in the world to require the end of onsite combustion, helping to usher in visions of a purely renewably-powered world. We were the first standard in the world to require materials free of red list chemicals and FSC wood products with full chain-of-custody – ushering in a movement of material and supply chain transparency. We were the first to include biophilia, urban agriculture, and many, many other notable foundations now common in other programs that have looked to us as the visionary leaders blazing a new trail forward.

That shift was visionary in 2006, and remains so today. As we mark this significant milestone, we also look ahead to what's next and what is required of us.

Today the built environment remains one of the largest contributors to global emissions and environmental degradation – in a world greatly impoverished since 2006 – despite our best collective efforts. And yet, it remains an industry ripe for further leadership and one of the greatest opportunities still for transformation. The principles that defined the Living Building Challenge two decades ago feel more urgent than ever. And over 20 years we have been building models for the future to learn from – Living Buildings that now inspire thousands in communities all over the globe.

Register for Living Future 2026: https://lnkd.in/g2spNeNN

The time is right for Living Future 2026, where leaders, practitioners, and innovators who continue to push beyond conventional limits will gather and redefine what’s possible for the next 20 years. This anniversary is not simply a celebration of what has been achieved. It is a call to advance our future.

We would be honored to have you join us.

Warmly,
Jason McLennan
Founder of the Living Building Challenge

03/30/2026

Green Building Movement w/Jason Podcast

https://changemakershandbook.substack.com/p/where-the-movement-stalled-interview

WHERE THE MOVEMENT STALLED:
Elena Bondareva interviews Jason F. McLennnan

Elena Bondareva sat down for an interview with Jason F. McLennan, the founder of the Living Building Challenge and the Living Future Institute, the Chief Sustainability Officer with Perkins+Will, and a prolific author. They discussed the gap between building an industry and building a movement — and why being right has never been enough to change systems. Watch the full interview on Substack or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

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