ABSTRACT
Harold Hay and Denis Hayes, born 35 years apart on opposite sides of Washington’s Cascade Mountains, devoted their lives to social and environmental justice. Hay the inventor, social activist, tireless solar advocate and skeptic of establishment orthodoxy, and Hayes the successful organizer and crusading policy advocate who helped launch the modern environmental movement and is still keeping the flame of Earth Day burning bright after nearly 50 years. One working largely from outside the solar movement, the other from the inside, they shared an understanding of the outsize role modern buildings play in the climate crises. They also understood the importance of demonstrating the promise of a solar future with successful examples that would get people to think differently about buildings and about our relationship with energy.
Hay’s elegant Skytherm concept has inspired generations of designers to think differently about technology, climate and design, but its promise to move the dial is still somewhere in the future. But five years after its completion, evidence is building that Hayes’ Bullitt Center has changed the context and is breaking trail for the next generation of high-performance buildings powered by the sun.
