Design on the Edge: The Making of a High-Performance Building.

Design on the Edge: The Making of a High-Performance Building By David W. Orr The MIT Press, 2006; 272pp.; $27.95; www.mitpress.mit.edu

IT IS HARD TO BE A PIONEER, BUT WHEN THE environment is going to hell in an SUV cup holder, the hassle is worth it. That is one of the lessons David Orr learned while trying to build the Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College (Ohio), the first substantially green building on a college campus.

The Lewis Center is green with a capital G, including everything from solar arrays to produce energy, to a wastewater reclamation system called "Living Machine" that utilizes wetlands plants, to regionally appropriate Landscaping. Orr includes enough information in his book about the planning and design process, as well as the political intrigue encountered, to be interesting and provide useful information, but not enough to bog the story down. The project is shown, warts and all, as when Orr presents a variety of reasons the building isn't as energy efficient as it should be. Along the way he talks of bureaucratic foot-dragging demoralization of the design team, and design mistakes that hampered the mechanical systems. He also includes a history of Ecological Design, and meditations on mankind's relationship to buildings and the process of institutional change.

With sustainability currently in vogue, current projects shouldn't find the same resistance Orr encountered, but the book would be a resource on what to include and pitfalls to avoid on other projects.