Santa Fe-Based Architect Awarded $100,000 Prize

The Santa Fe-based architect created Architecture 2030, a program for transitioning to carbon neutral development. Industries and organizations that have adopted the pledge include the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the American Institute of Architects, the U.S. Green Building Council and the National Governors Association.

Today Mazria was awarded the $100,000 Purpose Prize by the San Francisco-based think tank Civic Ventures. Mazria is one of five winners of the recognition designed for social entrepreneurs over 60 who use their experience and passion to make an impact on society’s biggest problems. Mazria plans to recycle the money into 2030 Palette, a set of global strategies for creating sustainable built environments.

Mazria is a problem-solver, said Alexandra Cespedes Kent, Purpose Prize director.

“He’s someone who’s applying his knowledge and experience in new ways,” she said. “He’s someone who’s got four decades of experience in architecture who’s continuing to use his networks, his experience and his knowledge to try and change the way the building sector does business.”

At 71, Mazria is an example of someone who continues to thrive professionally beyond mid-life, she added.

Mazria learned about the prize through a telephone call combined with an e-mail.

“It was pretty amazing,” he said in a telephone interview from his Santa Fe home. “I knew somebody had submitted us and that we were in the final round.”

Mazria became interested in sustainability when he was teaching at the University of New Mexico during the 1970s. It was the apex of the solar movement. In 1979 he wrote “The Passive Solar Energy Book,” which sold a half-million copies worldwide.

He discovered the building sector’s contribution to greenhouse gases while preparing to teach an office seminar in 2003. At that time, all the emphasis had been on the transportation sector, with SUVs targeted for much of the blame. When he published his findings in Metropolis, an architecture magazine, “the demand started coming in like crazy,” he said.

“It sent out a shock wave throughout the whole profession,” he continued. “We had symposiums throughout the U.S. The question is can it move fast enough, because there is no policy or political solution. The only solution to this issue is if the design community can move fast enough.”

Mazria launched Architecture 2030 to change standard building practices. The group issued the 2030 Challenge –– a set of benchmarks for reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment to “carbon neutral” by 2030.

Mazria will compile all of this data online.

He’s already using his award money to hire two people for Architecture 2030 and has contracted with consultants and graphic designers to advance 2030 Palette.

“It’s kind of a matrix on how to design low-carbon environments, everything from planning cities and towns to designing buildings and systems,” he said.

And it applies to much more than just new construction.

A building’s average lifespan is 60 years, Mazria explained. Three-quarters of the existing buildings over the next 30 years will be either new or renovated.

“So that’s a tremendous opportunity,” he continued. “We’re running out of time because we’ve procrastinated so long. So that’s where the money is going. It’s a great time to be involved in this.”

Mazria’s firm has won numerous awards for buildings in New Mexico and elsewhere. Those prize-winning designs include the Frederick M. Hart addition to the University of New Mexico Law School; an addition to Santa Fe’s Agua Fria Elementary School; the Rio Grande Conservatory in the Albuquerque Biological Park; the Cottonwood Lodge at Bishop’s Lodge Resort; and Santa Fe’s Genoveva Chavez Community Center, a project that has been plagued with condensation issues.

Mazria and his fellow Purpose Prize winners will be honored at a ceremony on Dec. 1 in Sausalito, Calif. Purpose Prize judges, including NBC’s Jane Pauley and movie producer Sherry Lansing, will speak.