Eera Babtiwale

“This industry needs you. It needs your skill, wisdom, empathy, open mindedness, hindsight and foresight. It needs your capacity to listen to every perspective and craft a plan that addresses multiple concerns. It needs your ability to uplift and empower others. Because to fight the effects of climate change through design, it will take all of this.”

#WomenWhoBuild Meet Eera Babtiwale,

As an Associate Principal and Vice President of Sustainability at HMC Architects, Eera has co-lead sustainable efforts firm-wide, including the sustainability analysis for over 30 projects . Eera is a regular speaker at sustainability conferences and a member of BD+C magazine’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2016. She is also the Vice Chair of the Board and the Chair of Green Schools for U.S. Green Building Council Inland Empire, where she facilitates sustainability workshops for schools, and a Board Member of the HMC Designing Futures Foundation, where she delivers sustainability workshops for kids throughout Southern California.

ArchNative sat down with Eera, virtually of course, to discuss her introduction to Architecture and Sustainability, her process for approaching each project she works on, and her advice for women entering the field.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey in Architecture and Sustainability?

For the past 17 years I have dedicated my career to sustainable development. It is a dedication that was solidified early on in life during my visits to India as a young child. I saw the beautiful hand carved temples, the Mughal palaces, even the Victorian colonial urbanscapes, and it was all mesmerizing to me. I also saw the squalor conditions that 60% of the population lived in, the lack of access to basic services and the abhorrent impact that unchecked development had on the land and on its own people. I witnessed the dichotomy between the haves and have nots, amplified in the wake of climate change. And so, I wanted to do something about it. I chose a specialty in sustainable architecture which allowed me to exercise my artistic, analytical and environmental sensibilities simultaneously.

Kaiser Prominente La Habra Medical Offices

What was your first introduction to the field and what made you decide to pursue it as a career path?

When I was in middle school, my uncle, who is an artist would send me a postcard. Half of the postcard was filled in with a beautiful illustration of a building or a landscape that he lived near in his neighborhood up in Minnesota. Sometimes it was a brownstone, sometimes a park setting. He asked me to fill in the other side of the postcard. When he would come out to California for a visit we would look at and chat about the postcard that we collaborated on. That was perhaps one of the first times I really began to fall in love with the beautiful details of architecture. For me it was very tactile, very human. It felt like home in a lot of ways.

As I grew older, my travels further informed me, as shared above. This required me to become very introspective about what I wanted to do in life. Introspection is something I continue to do to this day in fact. And I think that doing so allows me to evolve, which is a healthy thing.

You are an Associate Principal and the Vice President of Sustainability at HMC Architects, can you tell us a little bit about your role and responsibilities as well as what a typical day looks like for you?

I have the amazing opportunity to work at multiple scales --I work with dozens of project teams across the firm, collaborating with them on their designs, assembling a set of sustainability goals that are crafted around the project’s unique characteristics; I meet with clients from various markets, (higher education, prek12, and healthcare), to discuss with them their larger sustainability goals for their organizations; I have co-led crucial initiatives within our firm such as the HMC climate action plan, which challenges all of us to reduce carbon emissions caused by our building designs and carbon emissions caused by operations within each of our offices. It keeps me very busy, but it’s great to know that this is indicative of the fact that sustainability is at the core of what we do.

You have led the Sustainability Analysis for over 30 projects, can you tell us a little bit about the process for each project?

Every project is different. That means that we have to sit down with the project team, with the client, with the contractor, with our consultants, and stakeholders-- to really understand what everyone’s sustainability goals are. I find that one of the best ways to do this is through a sustainability visioning exercise, or through an eco charrette. That’s where you get to the heart of the project. Once you understand where everyone is coming from, it’s much easier to craft a set of sustainability strategies that is a good fit for the project. The strategies that we choose are of course informed by a thorough environmental analysis---that means looking at the climatic profile of the project, considering orientation, daylighting availability, wind direction, etc. The strategies we choose are also informed by the desires of those using and maintaining the building. So we ask a number of questions that help us ascertain qualitative criteria for the project---what type of light do the users want in their space? What kind of view do they want? Does the client want local materials to be celebrated? And we ask a number of questions that help us also define quantitative criteria—What is the target energy use intensity (EUI) of the project? What equipment do they currently use and have the bandwidth to maintain? What payback are they looking for? All of this is so important in order to make sure that the building is sustainable from as many perspectives as is possible.

What has been the most rewarding part of your career so far? What has been the most challenging?

Rewarding: Getting a client, or a seasoned architect, or anyone for that matter-- to see that this is more than just a designing and building a building, this is about designing and building a culture, a culture that is embedded within sustainability.

Challenging: Chiseling away at the misconception that sustainability has to cost more.

“Will and the Waste Monster” a Sustainable Story by Sandra Kate, Eera Babtiwale and Pablo La Roche

What has been your favorite project to work on?

There are many favorites!

My favorite non-building project: The McKinley Workshops (the kids were pure joy)

My favorite building project: San Bernardino TEC (the team was a such a pleasure to work with)

My favorite initiative: HMC’s Climate Action Plan (I’m proud of how HMC is walking the walk)

In addition to your work at HMC Architects, you are also the Vice Chair of the Board for U.S. Green Building Council Inland Empire, a Board Member for HMC Designing Futures Foundation as well as a Community Leader for the Child, Family Health Institute, how do you balance your career with these Extracurriculars?

It's a forever juggling act, and I certainly falter. But I try my best to give my all whenever I am immersed in the work with any one of these extracurricular activities. I also find ways to combine my efforts. So for example if I am working on an event with USGBC IE, I might find a way to collaborate with HMC and DFF. The McKinley Project is a perfect example of that. The workshops were provided to several school districts that HMC has worked with, so this was a great way of demonstrating our commitment to the school’s community, regardless of whether or not we had a project there; DFF supported the workshops by funding the hard costs and the ebook; and the USGBC IE scaled the workshops up by funding the training of teachers so that school districts up and down this State could take part.

What do you envision for the future of sustainability, in particular as it pertains to Real Estate?

I think right now especially, things are changing. And the AEC industry as a whole needs to pivot. In the wake of this pandemic, one of the most important things that the real estate industry, and really that the architectural industry, needs to ask itself is: “What is the pandemic teaching us about climate change? How can we better prepare for the next great disaster—even if it’s slow moving and as amorphous as climate change? How can we as AEC professionals work to provide a better life for the less fortunate, those most impacted by every major crisis—be it a pandemic or climate change induced disasters? Is it possible to scale back how much we build? Do we really need to build more, or are we building for building’s sake? Is it possible to reuse buildings in an innovative way? Can buildings uphold both human AND environmental health at the same time? Can we combine forces across industries (with tech for example) so that we can address these challenges together? All big questions, that need answers. And that’s what we all need to get to work on.

What is one piece of advice you have for women entering the field?

This industry needs you. It needs your skill, wisdom, empathy, open mindedness, hindsight and foresight. It needs your capacity to listen to every perspective and craft a plan that addresses multiple concerns. It needs your ability to uplift and empower others. Because to fight the effects of climate change through design, it will take all of this.

Julie Nelson

Christine Joy