HOUSTON, March 12, 2004 -- FotoFest 2004 announced that internationally renowned designer William A. McDonough will open the Global Forum on Water, April 1, 2004.
The evening lecture at Houston's Menil Collection begins at 7pm, and is sponsored by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) and the George P. and Cynthia Mitchell Foundation.
Global Forum on Water: Bringing Together Art & Science will bring together experts on science, technology, art, the environment and public policy to speak on water-related issues facing the world today.
Held April 1-4 during FotoFest's Biennial celebrating Water, March 12-April 12, the Forum will consummate weeks of events in Houston, and is being held in cooperation with Rice University's Center for the Study of Environment and Society, the Environmental & Energy Systems Institute, and the Shell Center for Sustainable Development.
McDonough is the founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, Architecture and Community Design. He is also the cofounder and principal, with German chemist Michael Braungart, of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC, a product and systems development firm. With his design of the Environmental Defense Fund offices, completed in 1985, McDonough helped launch the 'green building' movement.
His 10-acre "living" roof atop Ford's new truck plant in Dearborn, Michigan is expected to retain half the annual rainfall that falls on its surface while providing habitat and energy cost savings.
As co-author of Cradle to Cradle - Remaking the Way We Make Things, McDonough believes that, "instead of designing cradle-to-grave products, dumped in landfills at the end of their 'life,' products can be created for cradle-to-cradle cycles, with materials perpetually circulated in closed loops." McDonough is the only individual to receive the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development. In 1999 Time magazine recognized him as a 'Hero for the Planet'.
"William McDonough's ideas have had a major influence on our organization. His books are required reading as we focus HARC's mission to promote sustainable development in this region," says Todd Mitchell, HARC's President. Located in The Woodlands, Texas, HARC is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization dedicated to mobilizing the tools of science, policy and technology to improve people's lives and protect the environment with a special focus on Texas.
HARC's program areas include air quality, transportation, energy and green building; biodiversity and habitat; and water quantity management. HARC is also conducting on-going research related to water management and the environment for a number of Texas water bodies including Galveston Bay, Texas' coastal bay systems, the Rio Grande River and Houston's bayou systems.
FotoFest is the nation's largest, international photo festival, now in its twentieth year. The four-week, city-wide event will host photographic exhibitions in over 100 public spaces in Houston, and include film and video screenings on water, a workshop, portfolio reviews for artists and a fine print auction. Over 200,000 people are expected to attend.
To register for the Global Forum on Water or its live Webcast, log on to: http://www.fotofest.org/ff2004/forum.asp
Related websites: www.fotofest.org, www.ruf.rice.edu/~cses/water.html, www.harc.org, www.mcdonough.com.
