Climate, Health, Equity: One Firm's Default

Corey Squire and Amy Donohue join Evan Troxel and Candace Kitchen to talk about how Bora Architecture & Interiors turned sustainability from a rotating champion's cause into a named, firm-wide default: climate, health, and equity. They dig into the "Bora Perfect Project," why window wall ratio and orientation matter more than any energy model, why mass timber is the firm's starting assumption rather than an exception, and the moment a young intern spoke up in a leadership meeting to stop a project from drifting off its own goals.

This episode is especially relevant for architects and firm leaders who keep hearing "we don't have the budget for sustainability" and want a sharper answer than a pitch deck. Corey and Amy make the case that sustainability is a communication challenge, not a technical or computational one, and walk through exactly how naming your values changes hiring, client conversations, and what actually survives value engineering.

Key topicsGetting sustainability ideas into actual projects: the Bora Perfect Project (climate, health, equity)Window wall ratio and orientation as the real levers, not energy optimizationNaming values to change hiring, recruiting, and client conversationsThe AIA Framework for Design Excellence, confirmed on-air as the correct framework name (not "Framework for 2030")Knowledge capture and transfer inside a firm; the intern who spoke up

Connect with the GuestsCorey Squire, AIALinkedInBora Architecture & InteriorsPeople, Planet, Design: A Practical Guide to Realizing Architecture's PotentialAmy DonohueLinkedInBora bio pageBora Architecture & Interiors

Firms and PracticesBora Architecture & Interiors — bora.coRichard Meier & Partners Architects — https://meierarchitects.us/. Amy's early-career firm in New York, cited as a counterexample.

Frameworks and StandardsAIA Framework for Design Excellence — aia.org/design-excellence/aia-framework-design-excellence. Corey co-created this, replacing sustainability-as-side-conversation with a definition of good design itself.AIA COTE Top Ten Award — https://www.aia.org/design-excellence/awards/cote-top-ten-award. The 25-year-old awards criteria that became the technical backbone of the Framework for Design Excellence.

The Harvey Mudd College ProjectR. Michael Shanahan Center for Teaching & Learning — bora.co/project/shanahan-center-for-teaching-learning/. Evan's personal reference point for Bora's work; Amy's project.BubbleDeck voided-slab technology — ArchDaily coverage. The str