Mary Ann Lazarus is founding Principal of MALeco, LLC, a sustainability consulting practice with a focus on resilient design. The practice is built on Mary Ann’s 35 year experience as a sustainable design leader at HOK, a global design services firm, and her role as the Resident Fellow on Sustainability and Design and Health at the American Institute of Architects in Washington, DC.
With over 35 years of architectural experience at HOK, Mary Ann served as firm-wide sustainable director for over a decade promoting the implementation of sustainable strategies in all of HOK’s work and clients. Mary Ann led a network of leaders across HOK’s global practice to raise awareness and create a consistent base of knowledge across the firm. She was instrumental to HOK’s research effort on a prototype market rate net zero design and HOK’s unique alliance with Biomimicry 3.8 to bring natural systems solutions to the built environment.
In her role with the AIA, Mary Ann provided strategic leadership to significantly improve the architectural profession’s impact in sustainability and design for health. She authored the AIA Sustainability Leadership Opportunity Scan that outlines the AIA’s top priorities for architects to drive sustainability leadership. Mary Ann worked closely with AIA National leaders and AIA member groups on implementing the key recommendations from that report.
Mary Ann has also had a long-term focus on resilient design. She played an instrumental role in the green building community’s response to Hurricane Katrina that led to the USGBC’s New Orleans Principles. More recently, she led HOK’s efforts in the collaboration with the USGBC in the design of the new William Jefferson Clinton Child Center and Orphanage in Port au Prince Haiti. Mary Ann serves on the Advisory Board for the Resilient Design Institute and led the team in the creation of three new Resilient Design pilot credits for the USGBC LEED rating system.
Mary Ann is considered a thought leader on sustainability and speaks regularly at national and international events. She was the 2012 “Perspective” Evergreen award recipient from Eco-Structure magazine. Mary Ann is co-author of The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design, Second Edition, Mary Ann is a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects and a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council. She was a member of the Vision 2020 Sustainability Council in 2014.
