Yale Blue Green: The Built Environment Series featuring Tess McNamara ’18 MArch/MEM & Bruce Redman Becker ’85 MArch/MBA

Tess McNamara ’18 MArch/MEM is a senior consultant with Arup in New York with the Climate and Sustainability Team, specializing in decarbonization and reuse of existing buildings. Her research and writing have been featured by the New York Times, New Yorker, and Architectural Digest. Tess currently sits on the faculty at the Yale School of Architecture where she teaches a course titled “Bad Buildings: Decarbonization through Reuse, Retrofit, and Proposition.”

Bruce Redman Becker ’85 MArch/MBA is president of Becker + Becker, an integrated sustainable architecture and development firm. His work includes rehabilitating the former Bank of America tower in Hartford, CT; re-use of the Wauregan Hotel in Norwich, CT; and redevelopment of the Octagon tower on Roosevelt Island. Most recently, he transformed the Pirelli building in New Haven into a boutique hotel that uses no fossil fuels and is the first Passive House certified hotel in the US. Bruce was appointed by President Biden as Commissioner of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and he serves on the board of the Passive House Network.