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Margot McDonald

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

• Professor, Architecture
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• Curriculum Vitae [PDF]

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Margot McDonald is a professor of architecture at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo teaching
building energy courses (heating, cooling, lighting, acoustics, water and waste),
historic preservation, and 4th year design in the B.Arch. program at Cal Poly-SLO. Her
professional consulting work includes collaboration with Sasaki Associates on the
sustainability master plan for Cal State University-Monterey Bay and as a team member on
a campus proposal for a biological solid waste and wastewater resource recovery facility
for Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. Most recently she has been recognized for leading the
Sustainable Environmental Design Education (SEDE) program
(http://www.calpoly.edu/~sede/home), a comprehensive curriculum framework for architects
and landscape architects funded by the California Integrated Waste Management Board. She
has been a design juror for the energy utilities programs, “Savings by Design” and the
"Leading Edge Student Energy Competition." She is the faculty advisor for the
Sustainable Environments Minor, an interdisciplinary degree program that collectively
received an AIA/Committee on the Environment eco-literacy award in May 2005. In 2006, She
was appointed chair of the US Green Building Council’s Formal Education Committee and
elected to the Board of Directors of the American Solar Energy Society (ASES). She began
her affiliation with ASES in 1987 after attending a national solar conference as a
graduate student working under University of Oregon Professors John Reynolds and G.Z.
Brown. She has also served as Chair and Vice-chair of the Solar Buildings Division of
ASES. 

Professor McDonald is a registered architect in the State of Oregon. She holds a Masters
in Architecture degree from the University of Oregon as well as undergraduate degrees in
Mathematics and French from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is
currently is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in the Geography Department at UC-Santa Barbara
where she is designing a climate classification system for passive and low energy
buildings in California. 

Margot McDonald (ARCH) was elected in 2007 to the American Solar Energy Society’s Board
of Directors for a two-year term. She has been a member of the society for almost twenty
years during which time she has served as a technical reviewer for the national
conference, chair of the Solar Buildings Division, chair for the passive solar (SOLAR
2004) conference, and guest associate editor for the affiliated scientific peer review
publication, the International Solar Energy Society’s Solar Energy Journal. 

In summer 2006, she was also appointed chair to the US Green Building Council’s Formal
Education Committee addressing the needs of green building education in K-12 and
post-secondary (college and university) settings. The committee held a retreat in
Washington, DC this August and will hold an Educator’s Forum at GREENBUILD 2006 in Denver
later this year. 

Also this summer, she was a design juror for the 2006 Leading Edge Student Energy
Competition together with architect Hank Koning of Koning Eizenberg, Santa Monica, and
Greg Ander, AIA, Southern California Edison. This year’s competition had over 400 entries
in two challenge categories that ranged from community college through graduate students
focusing on energy efficiency and green building. This year’s theme was "Recreation,
the Design of an Environmental Museum and Interpretive Center at the Orange County Great
Park in Irvine, California" (site of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station). 

In fall 2006, she was invited to be a reviewer for the national American Institute of
Architect’s (AIA) 50-to-50 Initiative that will provide architects with a tool kit for
the 50 top ways to achieve a 50% reduction in carbon emissions in building operations by
2010. The tool kit will be showcased at the AIA National Convention in San Antonio, Texas
this May when Prof, McDonald will join a panel of experts from other U.S. universities
speaking on ecological design education. Prof. McDonald’s work on green building
curriculum was recognized in the recently released book, Ecological Design and Building
Schools (New Village Press, 2005). 

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