Citizen Architect: Maureen Guttman, AIA

by Tracy Ostroff
Associate Editor

How do you . . . make a difference by being involved in state government.

Summary: As the new director of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Green Government Council, Maureen Guttman, AIA, is a strong voice for the profession and an advocate for environmentally sustainable practices in planning, policymaking, and regulatory operations in Pennsylvania government. Appointed to her new position early last month, Guttman will work in partnership with commonwealth agencies to help cut energy costs, move toward energy independence, and stimulate Pennsylvania’s economy.

Those are big goals, but they are targets that Guttman, an AIA Board member, says she is uniquely qualified, as an architect, to fulfill. Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty and Department of General Services Secretary James P. Creedon announced Guttman’s appointment in early April and she hit the ground running. Previously, Guttman was the facilities architect for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

Guttman says the council is reconstituting itself to be in line with and articulate Gov. Edward Rendell’s (D) priorities. She already has had conversations about implementing energy strategies in state government that will help wean the nation of foreign oil. Also at the forefront is a dialogue about tackling the challenges of climate change, including looking at how buildings contribute to carbon emissions. Guttman, a political appointee, notes the governor is focused on coming up with a carbon reduction program. She says Pennsylvania’s approach is similar to that of the AIA, with phased reductions over 20 years and a 25 percent reduction by 2025. The governor is cutting a wide swath and is working on it “line item by line item.”

Part of Guttman’s charge is ensuring that Pennsylvania agencies are working together to achieve these goals. “The time is right to make headway,” Guttman says enthusiastically. “The mission is big, but it is a good place to start.” She is looking for a holistic approach that will encourage buy-in from agency heads. She is also looking at the stock of commonwealth-owned buildings, many of which are older properties, and policies related to standards for new construction, transportation, and land-use.

Perfect storm for architects
“It is a perfect storm for architects to be involved,” Guttman says. Rendell and McGinty are counting on her, she notes, to find the common threads across the agencies and how they manage their facilities.

“Maureen is well qualified to assume the responsibilities of this position given her extensive background in green building design and construction and her detailed knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) environmental design standards for high-performance green buildings,” McGinty, a former top environmental advisor to Vice President Al Gore, notes in the press release announcing Guttman’s appointment. The release also points to Guttman’s key contributions to a multimillion dollar reconstruction project to achieve LEED certification at four maintenance facilities operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

Guttman says her experience, education, and training make her, and architects in general, a good fit for public work and advocacy. “We are able to see, perhaps, what the issues and challenges are even if they are not readily apparent,” Guttman says. “We put it in the hopper and stir it up and offer possibilities and solutions that are more creative than what others may come up with.”

Citizen Architect
Guttman encourages architects to get involved, like she has done over the years, working in the public sector, running for public office, and being involved in public life. “We need more people thinking they have something to contribute. There’s a void waiting for us.” In addition to her well-respected private practice and Board work, she serves on the ICC Energy Code Development Committee. She says she will probably run for elected office again.

Guttman says her experience is exactly what being a “citizen architect” is about, using the same toolkit she uses to produce structures as she uses to produce policy. She also sees it as a larger question that we must be asking as we celebrate the Institute’s 150th anniversary. “What is the future of our profession?” Guttman answers that it is only as rich as the opportunities that architects create for themselves through pubic engagement.