As co-director of our Sustainable Design Initiative (SDI), Tony Layne ensures that sustainable ideas are an integral part of our projects and practices. Tony also chairs our Minneapolis office's Design Lab program and is a founding member of the Innovation Incubator Initiative, a program designed to encourage the exploration of new ideas in design and architecture. His design leadership, sustainable expertise and passion for our collective future make him an influential advocate at the intersection of sustainability and design in our practice and the profession. He has been project designer on a variety of projects with a focus on sustainable, high-performance buildings including many LEED certified and registered projects. In addition, he received the AIA Minnesota Young Architect Award and was named one of Building Design + Construction's 40 Under 40 Superstars for 2011.

Along with coordinating our offices’ sustainability efforts, he has also taught graduate and undergraduate design courses at the University of Minnesota and Oklahoma State University. Tony frequently presents on sustainable design and research at conferences around the country including the Architectural Research Centers Consortium International Conference.

Tony graduated first in his class with a Bachelor of Architecture from Oklahoma State University in 2000 and went on to earn a Master of Architecture and a Master of Science in Sustainable Design, both from the University of Minnesota. Tony’s Master’s degree research focused on the role of connectedness theory in sustainable architecture.