DesignDC - Green is the New Black - Resilient Design for an Uncertain World

Date

Tuesday, September 30 2025-Thursday, October 02 2025
Time

Multi-day event.
Location

District Architecture Center

How can architecture lead the way to foster a more resilient city—and planet—during uncertain environmental and socioeconomic times?

As the world confronts the challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, and societal upheaval, DC’s architecture and design practitioners continue to evolve. DesignDC will showcase innovative solutions to shape the built environment in a way that is sustainable and forward-thinking.

During this conference, design professionals across the industry will explore new approaches and existing best practices that highlight responsive design strategies and the integration of green technologies into architecture.

Sessions and tours will address:

Tips and tricks to start building a resilience practice
Resilient design and adaptability in a volatile environmental and socioeconomic climate
Sustainable materials and energy-efficient design

Agenda:
September 30, 5:00 – 8:00pm: Opening Keynote and Reception
October 1, 8:30am – 5:00pm: Education Sessions + Closing Keynote (7.0 HSW|LUs for sessions on this day)
October 2, 2:00 – 4:00pm: Offsite Tours
Details below.

September 30: Opening Keynote
The People’s Architecture: Collaborators, Communities and Champions
Carol Ross Barney, FAIA

Public spaces and places are vital components of our infrastructure, contributing to the livability of our cities. They reflect our history, values, and aspirations for the future, serving as communal areas where culture and diverse backgrounds converge, while also celebrating our shared principles. Thoughtful design unlocks the potential of public places and spaces, with architects playing a key role in fostering community and driving progress. Design is our super power.

This lecture explores the crucial importance of collaboration—highlighting the communities and advocates whose support is essential for achieving outstanding public spaces and places.

Exceptional public areas cultivate community bonds, embrace diversity, and inspire unity through shared culture and core values. To attain design excellence in public projects, strong advocates from clients, users, and design teams are essential.

The People’s Architecture needs champions to create diverse, memorable and intriguing spaces and places for all.

October 1: Education Sessions + Closing Keynote

8:30 - 9:00am: Doors Open + Check-in

9:00am - 10:00am: Designing Low-Carbon Buildings
By focusing on embodied carbon today, we can reshape the environmental legacy of the built environment for decades to come. Using real-world case studies, attendees will learn how early design interventions lead to low-carbon material choices and how to prepare and generate a Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment (WBLCA), including key inputs, available tools, and best practices for interpreting results.

10:00am - 11:00am: Sustainability and Liability: Legal Issues and Best Practices
This session will explore best practices and strategies for being a positive driver of environmental progress while avoiding the unique legal pitfalls that arise when trying to affect human behavior and cultivate
experiential stewardship to nature and each other through design. Based on ‘lessons learned’ from recent projects, presenters will outline proven techniques for mitigating liability while successfully designing for the environmental and social good.

11:00am - 12:00pm: From Scarcity to Strategy: Regenerative Planning in Uncertain Times
In an era of climate disruption, political fatigue, and rapid change, planners are often asked to do more with less. But for many of us--and the communities we come from--that’s not a new challenge. This session explores what it means to design in circles: a planning philosophy rooted in return, feedback, and refinement. Through two resilience planning efforts--PLAN Danville and Climate Ready DC 2.0--presenters will examine how circularity shaped not just the process, but the practice: merging data with lived experience and refining climate strategies based on real feedback.

1:00pm - 2:00pm: The Value-Inclusive Design Model: A Pathway to Sustainable, Culturally Responsive, and Community-Driven Material Commons
The VID Model advocates for the incorporation of diverse stakeholder voices, particularly marginalized communities, in the design process. By prioritizing communal input, designers are encouraged to consider materials that are locally sourced, culturally significant, and regenerative. This approach not only strengthens community identity but also promotes sustainable material practices that align with the principles of radical material responsibility, thereby fostering a future that honors both people and the planet.

2:00pm - 3:00pm: Circular by Design: A New Approach to Materials
Circular design is a powerful way to reduce environmental impacts because it minimizes emissions and waste while unlocking the latent economic value of building materials. By pairing material optimization and
reuse with adaptable space planning, circular design maximizes the long-term utility of building materials as assets. This session introduces the Circular Design Primer for Interiors, a guide developed to help design
teams integrate circular economy principles into their projects – minimizing waste, reducing embodied carbon, and maximizing the long-term value of materials.

3:00pm - 4:00pm: The Greenest Building: The Black Magic of Adaptive Reuse and Modernizing Existing Buildings
Are global supply chains constrained? Is there uncertainty in construction costs and schedules? New buildings are no longer primary the focus of development in the DMV with double digit vacancy rates and changing norms for daily work and living. For the design professional in today’s uncertain market conditions, the design challenges exponentially increase when attempting to implement long-term resiliency, or cutting-edge sustainable practices. This session will explore how existing buildings can provide green paths towards design excellence and a profitable future in real estate.

4:00pm - 5:00pm: Closing Keynote

October 2, 2:00 – 4:00pm: Offsite Tours
Space is limited. Tours are open for DesignDC 2025 registrants. Additional registration required within main registration portal.

Vital Voices: Rooted in History + Designed for a Sustainable Future - 2.0 HSW|LUs
This tour will give participants the exclusive chance to explore Vital Voices’ headquarter, a site that reimagines a historic building on Embassy Row as a model of sustainable design. The project transforms the seven-story brick structure into a state-of-the-art headquarters that embodies the mission of Vital Voices: an international nonprofit dedicated to empowering women leaders and advancing human rights around the globe. The design approach focused on creating a “livable” democratic workplace that is both functional and symbolic, while the reimagined floorplan opens up expansive sightlines and introduces natural light throughout the space.

Construction Tour: Artful Resiliency at the Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden - 2.0 HSW|LUs
This construction site tour of the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden will explore the challenges of revitalizing a public garden designed for resiliency and sustainability while supporting the museum’s mission of exhibiting its world-renowned collection of modern and contemporary art. The project is aiming for Sustainable SITES Gold Certification. Proper PPE including footwear, long pants, and hard hats are required for all participants.

Stead Park Recreation Center: DC’s First Net-Zero Energy Community Center - 2.0 HSW|LUs
Stead Park is a modest but mighty intervention, implementing best practices and a responsive approach to yield big results for the city’s ambitions for sustainability. Located a short walk to the heart of the Dupont Circle neighborhood, participants will receive a site and building tour of Stead Park, set to become the first net-zero energy community center in Washington, DC. The modernization is an addition to, and renovation of, an existing, historic community center that enhances access to an array of multigenerational programming. In addition to highlighting the District’s ongoing commitment to sustainable practices, Stead Park is also one of the first projects completed under DC’s new Ready2Play Parks Master Plan, which seeks to use data-driven design and operational standards to address public health gaps across the city’s eight wards. The project is emblematic of the Plan’s vision: site-level interventions can mean bigger impacts at the city scale, helping to build a more resilient urban environment.

600 Fifth - Excellence through Reuse - 2.0 HSW|LUs
Welcome to 600 5th NW in Washington, DC, the recently repositioned WMATA Headquarters / Jackson Graham Building in Judiciary Square. This tour will present the decision-making processes relating to the rationale and economics of preserving the existing structure and the inherent benefits. 600 5th NW provides significant environmental and economic solutions for the repositioning an existing building structure and transforming it into a Class-A office building. New green spaces, roof terraces, site water retention and a PV array contribute to the project’s sustainability. This, along with imaginative re-working of the floorplates, has created new daylit and comfortable interiors that provide intimacy while delivering unmatched views from the terraces. The entire 600 5th team is proud of this next-generation building enhancing its important site the District.

Mass Timber: Sycamore and Oak Retail Village - 2.0 HSW|LUs
Once a neglected urban lot, this vibrant development has transformed into a dynamic hub for the community. Designed to inspire, it offers a welcoming space where residents, artists, and entrepreneurs can shop for fresh food and locally made products, enjoy a meal, stay active, listen to live music, or simply connect with others. Guided by extensive community input, the project team created a sustainable and adaptable gathering place that fosters health, wellness, and a strong sense of belonging. Join this tour to explore a site that demonstrates the versatility of mass timber, showcasing its role in promoting both environmental and economic sustainability. This innovative project also highlights how wood can be a catalyst for inclusive development, creating a welcoming space that nurtures a true "community within a community."

Keynote and educational sessions will take place at the District Architecture Center, 421 7th St NW.

Sponsors:

DesignDC Opening Night Reception Table Sponsor: Porcelanosa Group