We Keep Tearing Out Perfectly Good Buildings — And Calling It Progress — Episode 158 with Lona Rerick and Jesce Walz
In this episode of Better Buildings for Humans, host Joe Menchefski sits down with Lona Rerick and Jesce Walz of Perkins&Will for a fascinating conversation about regenerative design, circularity, and what it would mean to stop treating buildings and their materials as disposable. Both guests took different paths into sustainability and materials research, but their work now shares a common question: how can architects make better use of what already exists instead of continually starting over with something new?
The conversation explores circular design and the shift away from the traditional take-make-waste model that has shaped construction for decades. Joe, Lona, and Jesce discuss why perfectly usable materials are routinely removed during renovations, how interior fit-outs can create surprisingly significant environmental impacts, and why reuse requires more than simply good intentions. They also dig into the cultural and economic systems that have made new materials the default—and what it might take to change that mindset.
They also explore the ideas behind Perkins&Will’s Circular Design Primer for Interiors, including designing for longevity, finding creative new uses for existing materials, and thinking about what happens to every component of a building at the end of its current life. Along the way, the conversation touches on secondary material markets, deconstruction, refurbishment, bio-based materials, designing for disassembly, and the growing opportunities for architects, contractors, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs to participate in a more circular building economy.
Ultimately, the episode challenges us to think differently about what we already have. Rather than viewing existing buildings and materials as obstacles to the next design, circular thinking asks us to see them as resources filled with possibility. It’s a conversation about waste, value, creativity, and the role designers can play in creating buildings that consider not only the people inside them today, but the systems and communities affected long after the project is complete.
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More About Lona Rerick and Jesce Walz
Lona Rerick
Lona Rerick is an Architect and Firmwide Director of Regenerative Design Materials at Perkins&Will. She leads Perkins&Will’s efforts to define, select, and specify holistically responsible materials to positively support the impact areas of the Materials Pledge: Human Health, Climate Health, Ecosystem Health, and Social Health + Equity in a Circular Economy. Lona guides clients, design teams, and contractors through the intricacies of material supply chains, product research, and specifications writing.
She also advocates and collaborates for greater market transformation and better building materials for all. Currently, Lona serves on the mindful MATERIALS Board; the Living Future Material Health TAG; and as a founding co-Leader of the Portland Materials Transparency Collaborative. Lona led the creation of the Materials Pledge in 2018 as Chair of the AIA Materials Knowledge Working Group; and led the creation of the Pledge metrics and annual reporting system as founding chair of the AIA Materials Pledge Working Group in 2023.
Jesce Walz
Jesce Walz is a Senior Research Lead at Perkins&Will, where her work centers on material innovation with a focus on regenerative design, circular economy, and bio-based materials. With a multidisciplinary background in architecture and landscape architecture, she actively collaborates with groups like the International Living Future Institute, the Bio-Based Materials Collective, sustainable wood sourcing initiatives, and the Carbon Leadership Forum.
As a principal investigator within Perkins&Will's Research and Development Group, Jesce contributes to an array of strategic initiatives, tools, and processes to advance ecologically responsible design. She led the firm's comprehensive embodied carbon benchmarking effort and authored the firm's Circular Design Primer for Interiors. She also co-authored Getting to Craft in Mass Timber, two papers on benchmarking and predicting embodied carbon, and a series of publications on innovative bio-based materials.
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