Paul Knight: Architect Turned Weatherization Professional

Yeah, so that thought that, you know, we could make buildings more efficient, lower cost, was that a popular thought at the time, or was that something you were kind of going against the grain?

I was going against the grain in some sense in that other architects felt that energy efficiency, solar design would inhibit their creativity.

And my thought was to blend it in to the design of buildings so it didn't stand out.

Use it as an opportunity for improving your designs.

Yeah.

So from an architect's perspective, what does that look like?

Well, you want to be able to look at a building and... say that they really now know that it's energy efficient.

It should look like any other building, well-designed, but it shouldn't stand out saying, look at me, I'm very energy efficient.

That stuff should be blended, should be integrated into the overall building design.

Interesting.

Just in terms of construction? Construction,

yeah, materials, all the buildings put together.

Absolutely,

yeah.

Gotcha.

So then you had the two-year stint up in Chicago.

Did that extend or was it somewhere else after that?

Well, the two-year contract, I thought I, I'm from Northern Ohio and I never lived in a big city before.

So I thought the two-year stint in Chicago would be really good.

but then I'd go back to Ohio and be a real architect.

But after two years, the contract was extended, and I really enjoyed the work.

Ended up getting married, staying locally here, kids, grandkids.

What kind of work were you doing at that point?

My first project, well, I was first hired for the two-year stint.

It was actually to develop a computerized residential energy audit