Prominent Architect to Give Talk at Holy Cross on 'Green' Religious Buildings

WORCESTER, Mass. – Michael J. Crosbie, associate professor and chair of the architecture department at the University of Hartford’s College of Engineering, Technology and Architecture and the editor-in-chief of Faith and Form, will give a lecture titled “God's Green House: Sustainability in Sacred Places” on Tuesday, Feb. 26 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross.  The program is part of the Religion and Ecology Series, which is supported by the Barrett Endowment for Ethics Programming.  The event is free and open to the public.

“Religious institutions are finding common ground in interfaith cooperation concerning ecological justice,” says Virginia Raguin, professor of visual arts at Holy Cross and frequent preservation consultant. “We are delighted to bring Professor Crosbie to campus, since he has long been an advocate of religious architecture that can respond to both transcendental meaning and immediate practical realities.”

Crosbie’s talk will focus on the religious underpinnings of sustainability and how communities of faith have become leaders in the green movement.  He will examine a number of religious buildings of different religions around North America. These sustainable sacred places have been designed and constructed to consume less energy, preserve natural resources, use recycled and recyclable materials, and allow these communities of faith to give sustainable form to their religious beliefs.

Joanna E. Ziegler, professor and chair of the visual arts department at Holy Cross, and Todd Lewis, professor of religious studies at Holy Cross, are both teaching seminars this semester that offer two approaches to the intersection of faith and ecology.

“My students and I believe that Holy Cross has a commitment to explore the crucial importance of sustainability because of the College's mission to help students learn to serve others,” explains Ziegler. “The question of how faith communities participate in the sustainable movement is an important component of our curriculum.”

Over the course of his career, Crosbie has been the editor of numerous national magazines, and is presently the editor-in-chief of Faith and Form, a journal on religious art and architecture.  He has written over a dozen books on architecture, including Architecture for the Gods (Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000), The Passive Solar Design and Construction Handbook (John Wiley & Sons, 1997), Count (John Wiley & Sons, 1993), Architecture Animals (John Wiley & Sons, 1996), and Architecture Shapes (John Wiley & Sons 1993), and has made hundreds of contributions to journals such as Architecture Week.

Crosbie is a licensed architect who has worked at Centerbrook Architects, a nationally renowned firm.  He also consults with Steven Winter Associates, one of the nation’s leading firms in maintaining endurable architecture.  For over 20 years, he has been involved in architectural education and has lectured at architecture schools throughout the world.