kubala

Tom Kubala to Present at 2009 Sustainability Fair

Tom Kubala of The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc. has agreed to be a major presenter at the 2009 Sustainability Fair.The architecture firm is currently well known for its design of the acclaimed Aldo Leopold Legacy Center, in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

Completed in the spring of 2007, the facility earned the highest, “platinum”, LEED certification by the US Green Building Council.Making use of geothermal technology, natural lighting and ventilation, and Wisconsin’s second largest solar array, the Legacy Center’s design allows the building to generate more than 100% of its energy needs.But the project was more than putting together the technology and arranging the space to make a green building.

Kubala will explain in his presentation at the Community Auditorium on April 18^th, how the architecture firm intended to put into practice a larger definition of sustainable design, incorporating the idea that human activity, natural cycles, and our built environment are intertwined in a relationship of life and energy.The architects steeped their methods and choice of materials in the holistic philosophy of ecological systems that Leopold himself espoused.

Tom Kubala and partner Allen Washatko began their architectural practice in 1980 in Cedarburg Wisconsin.Over their professional careers the two have persisted in striving toward a goal to make “living” architecture, and “buildings that smile”.This process requires them to take a philosophical approach to their design work.Kubala states, “Sustainability has been a natural by-product of a life-seeking architectural practice”.

Kubala earned both his Bachelor and Master of Architecture degrees from the University of Illinois, has been married to wife, Patty for 36 years, lives in a house that he and his son, Alex designed and built together, is an accomplished watercolorist, and walks to work.