Lance Hosey

Lance Hosey (September 11, 1964 - August 27, 2021) was an American architect. In 2020, he joined HMC Architects, a large California-based firm, as the design industry's first Chief Impact Officer.[1] Previously, he was a principal, design director, and co-leader of design resilience at Gensler.[2] He had been a project director with "green pioneer" William McDonough and was the first Chief Sustainability Officer with the international architecture firms RTKL Associates[3] and Perkins Eastman.[4]

Earlier in his career, Hosey worked as a designer with Rafael Viñoly[5] and with Charles Gwathmey[6] in New York. He also served as president and CEO of the sustainability research institute GreenBlue,[7] founded by McDonough and Michael Braungart and named one of "10 Green NGOs Business Should Know About."[8]

Hosey was born and raised in Houston, TX, where he studied jazz saxophone[9] at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. He graduated from Columbia College, in New York, in 1987 and Yale School of Architecture.[10][11] Hosey was featured in the “Next Generation” program of Metropolis (architecture magazine)[12] and Architectural Record’s “emerging architect” series,[13] and was a fellow of the Michael Kalil Endowment for Smart Design[14] and a resident of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center.[15] In 2014, he was elevated to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows, which recognizes "architects who have made a significant contribution to architecture and society."[16] In 2015, the US Green Building Council / Green Building Certification Institute named him a LEED Fellow, the "most prestigious designation" for a green building professional.[17] As of 2016, he was one of only 30 people to receive both honors.[18]

In 2021, Forbes cited Hosey as a "visionary architect."[19] Builder magazine has written that he is "on a crusade to revolutionize what it means to be sustainable."[20] Metropolis magazine said Hosey was "inventing a new kind of architecture that instead of being at odds with the environment, works with it."[21]

Hosey's writings appeared in The New York Times,[22] The Washington Post,[23] and Fast Company,[24] and he had been a columnist with The Huffington Post[25] and Architect magazine (2007-2010).[26] His books include The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design (Island Press, 2012), the first book to study the relationships between beauty and sustainability;[27] Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design (Ecotone, 2007) (co-authored with Kira Gould), the first book in the design industry dedicated to sustainability, diversity, and innovation;[28] and Green Homes: New Ideas for Sustainable Living (HarperCollins, 2007), for which he wrote the introduction, “The Ecology of Home.”[29] In 2018, he won the Sarah Booth Conroy Prize for Journalism and Architectural Criticism from the Washington, DC chapter of the American Institute of Architects.[30]

Hosey gave keynotes at TED,[31] the Idea Festival,[32] and SXSW Eco.[33] Hosey died on August 27, 2021.[34]