When Michael Phinney studied architecture in the 1990s at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, unconventional modern buildings were all the rage. But those structures didn’t appeal to him. “They were these super-twisted, folded metal kinds of things,” Phinney says. “They felt cold.”
As an architect, Phinney has gone in a completely different direction from the architects who once made waves with their sculptural and imposing buildings. Look through his firm’s portfolio, and you’ll find properties that blend in with their environment. Many have large windows to let in the light, and many use modest materials such as wood and stone. Because while Phinney bucked the futuristic trend that was dominant during his college days, he sunk his teeth into another nascent trend—nay, a movement—and hasn’t let go since.
The sustainable architecture movement can be traced back to the 1960s and ’70s when environmentalism gained popularity, but it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the green building wave really started picking up momentum. In 1990, the UK introduced the world’s first green building standard, and in 1993, the US followed suit with the establishment of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Eager to dive into this new world of design, Phinney actually wrote his college thesis paper on environmental awareness in architecture.
Founded 22 years ago, Phinney Design Group is a multi-disciplinary architecture, interior design, and construction management firm that specializes in sustainable design and green building, both for new builds (residential and commercial) and retrofits of existing properties. Most of the firm’s projects are in the Capital Region, Lake George, and Lake Placid areas, but the company recently expanded to the Hudson Valley, where it’s currently renovating a vacant mansion and turning it into a boutique 55-room hotel called The McKinstry, and New York City, where it just opened a satellite office.
After graduating from RPI, while working with Albany’s WCGS Architects, Phinney served as project designer and project architect for the first LEED-certified building in New York: the 15-story headquarters for the State’s Department of Environmental Conservation in downtown Albany, which was completed in 2001. “I saw this as a huge opportunity to do something I was really passionate about, learn a lot, and get paid for it,” Phinney says. So he started his own firm.
“A lot of what we do is restoration and preservation projects,” says Cira Masters, director of marketing and business development for Phinney Design Group. “The most green and sustainable thing you can do is restore a building that’s already here.”
What exactly does sustainable design entail, though?
In an industry that accounts for some 37 percent of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions, green buildings incorporate technologies that reduce their carbon footprint, such as energy-efficient appliances, and produce clean energy, such as solar panels. Many also make use of what Phinney simply calls “common sense.” For example: considering the changing angle of the sun during the design process and constructing overhangs that block the summer sun and let the winter sun in.
“A lot of this is just common sense stuff that we knew for a really long time and forgot,” Phinney said. “My philosophy is: Let’s do all the common sense stuff we can, and then we’ll add technology to it. That’s what we do on every project type.”
