The story of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College--the firstsubstantially green building to be built on a college campus--encompasses more thanthe particulars of one building. In Design on the Edge, David Orr writes about theplanning and design of Oberlin's environmental studies building as part of a largerstory about the art and science of ecological design and the ability of institutionsof higher learning themselves to learn.The Lewis Center, which has attractedworldwide attention as a model of ecological design, operates according toenvironmental principles. It is powered entirely by solar energy, featureslandscaping with fruit trees and vegetable gardens, and houses a Living Machine, which processes all wastewater for reuse in the building or landscape. Orr puts theLewis Center into historical design context and describes the obstacles andsuccesses he encountered in obtaining funds and college approval, interweaving theparticulars of the center with thoughts on the larger environmental and societalissues the building process illustrates.Equal parts analysis, personal reflection, and call to action, Design on the Edge illustrates the process of institutionalchange, institutional learning, and the political economy of design. It describeshow the idea of the Lewis Center originated and was translated into reality with thehelp of such environmental visionaries as William McDonough and John Todd, and howthe building has performed since its completion.College and universityadministrators will spend 17 billion dollars on new buildings over the next fewyears. Design on the Edge is essential reading for architects, planners, andenvironmentalists who need to sell the innovations of ecological design to waryinstitutions, and for educators and students whose profession is undermined by thevery buildings they work in--and for anyone who has ever tried to change anorganization for the better.

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