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Kenneth J. Filarski FAIA, AICP, LEED AP BD+C, SITES AP, CFM, SAP+AEER, NCARB
Kenneth J. Filarski is the founder and principal of FILARSKI/ARCHITECTURE+PLANNING+RESEARCH, an integrated design and planning, ecology studio and research workshop. The studio has been recognized with national, regional, state, and local awards in architecture, planning, urban design, and sustainable building/ecological systems research from professional societies, government agencies, and citizen organizations.
Filarski is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, a Certified Planner, a LEED Accredited Professional, a SITES Accredited Professional, a Certified Flood Plain Manager, and a nationally Certified Disaster Assistance Trainer and a nationally Certified Disaster Responder. Filarski holds a Master’s Degree in Architecture and Environmental Design from Goddard College where he was a Graduate Teaching Fellow in their innovative and internationally renown Design and Construction Program. At Goddard the students designed and built the college’s sustainable facilities which were well ahead of their time. The work at Goddard is now being internationally recognized not only for the building designs, which the Vermont Historical Preservation Commission termed that body of work being “unique to the state and the country”, but also because of the design/build model of sustainably integrating our built footprint gently on the land. The work at Goddard has been called, “monumental” in concept and execution. Everyday, Ken and the firm are engaged in sustainable design, planning, policy, advocacy, and research.
Ken was a founding faculty member in the School of Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation at Roger Williams University teaching design studios, research, and technical courses. He also served as an Adjunct Faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design teaching a research and design studio on the social aspects of architecture and urban design. He has taught architecture and urban planning to students in grades 4 - 8.
Unique Professional Qualifications and Commitment
Filarski’s wide ranging breadth of interests and passionate explorations are reflected in his professional accomplishments, achieving high standing and recognition in a number of different, but highly complimentary disciplines.
• Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, The College of Fellows (FAIA), from 1987
• Teaching Fellow, Graduate Design and Construction Program, Goddard College, 1972-1974
• Master’s Degree in Architecture and Environmental Design, Goddard College, 1974
• Richard Upjohn Fellow, The American Institute of Architects, from 1985
• Registered Architect, State of Rhode Island, from 1976; Commonwealth of Massachusetts, from 1987
• Certified National Safety Assessment Program Officer and Trainer in Disaster Relief, State of California Office of Emergency Services; Rhode Island Architects and Engineers Emergency Response Task Force 7 (AEER+SAP) 2013
• National Council of Architectural Registration Boards Certificate holder (NCARB), from 1985
• Certified Planner, American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), from 1989
• Leadership in Energy and Design Accredited Professional, LEED-AP with specialty in Building Design and Construction
(LEED-AP BD+C), U.S. Green Building Council, from 2009
• SITES Accredited Professional (SITES AP), Sustainable SITES Initiative, U.S. Green Building Council, GBCI, from 2017
• Certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED-AP), from 2009
• Certified Flood Plain Manager (CFM) accredited by the Association of State Flood Plain Managers, recognized by FEMA, from 2001
• Certified Deep Energy Retrofit (DER) Professional, National Grid, from 2014
Ken is the youngest architect inducted into the prestigious American Institute of Architects College of Fellows, elected in 1987, and formally inducted in May, 1988. In addition to Fellowship in the AIA, which is the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an American Architect, his AICP, LEED AP BD+C, and SITES AP credentials place him in the rare company of only a very few professionals nationally. As an architect, planner, and LEED Accredited Professional, and one of the very first SITES Accredited Professionals, who is a Certified Flood Plain Manager experienced in coastal, estuarine, and riverine, and inland water body planning and design, and as a nationally certified disaster assistance responder and trainer, his professional standing and accomplishment across a number of interrelated disciplines is singular and unique.
Premiering in 2017, Ken will be the host for the globally broadcast, radio and television program, "Designing for Sustainability" aired on the ReNewable Now Network.
Filarski served on the prestigious National Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects and played a major role in shaping the AIA’s relationship to its 300+ chapter components, to the general public, and the education community. Prior to his role on the AIA Board, he chaired three national committees for the AIA: the Component Resources Committee, the Public Education Committee, and the Environmental Education Committee. The Environmental Education Committee with Filarski as the Chair, created, designed, published, the award winning “Learning By Design” program, heralded in Architectural Record magazine by the editor Walter Wagner FAIA as the best program for environmental education, and recognized by Metropolitan magazine and ranked in their Design 100. His leadership in public engagement and effective community participation has been recognized with honors received from the White House, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Conservation Education Association, and Architectural Record Magazine. Over the years his enthusiastic and effective design and planning charrettes and workshops have successfully engaged over 35,000 people.
Filarski is Vice Chair, and member of the Board of Directors of the Ratepayers Advisory Board of the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission established by the RI General Laws. Also he currently serves as Chair of the Cranston Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Providence/Cranston Workforce Development Board, serves on that body’s Executive Committee, and is Chair of the Veterans Committee of the P/C WIB.
His work in resiliency and disaster response received a National Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects in Washington, D.C. Ken received a National Best Practice Award in LEED for Neighborhood Development for his work as Chair of the Cranston Green Building Commission, honored by the U.S. Green Building Council and the Land Use Law Center, Pace Law School.
Ken was recently honored with the President’s Volunteer Service Award by President Barack Obama for his work with the U.S. Green Building Council in transformation of USGBC’s national and community networks and programs supporting sustainability and resiliency.
Sustainability and Resiliency
Formerly Filarski was a senior coastal zone planner and architect with the RI Division of Coastal Resources and the RI Coastal Resources Management Council. There he developed a system of coastal reaches, identifying discrete segments and sectors of coastline and waters according to their unique geographic, geologic, land/waterscape characteristics and uses. He developed a system of quantitative/qualitative analysis of aesthetic resources of the coastal zone, and developed the first master plan for the Port of Galilee, a major East coast fishing port. His work also involved the gamut from policy development for off-shore fishing to the analysis of specific property development. Prior to that work Filarski was a senior planner with the RI Department of Community Affairs providing comprehensive planning and development services to eight Rhode Island cities and towns. He recently served on the RI Flood Audit Task Force, producing the Task Force’s Feasibility Report.
Filarski is the only architect in private practice serving on the National American Society of Civil Engineers/Structural Engineering Institute, ASCE/SEI 24-14 Committee developing the nationally recognized "Flood Resistant Design and Construction", the building code and standard for structures in flood hazard areas and the coastal zones. He will continue in that role for the 2020 revision to 24-14. Filarski is also a member and Secretary of the Board for the RI Architects and Engineers Emergency Response Task Force 7, a responding unit of the RI Emergency Management Agency. In that capacity he was was deployed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy evaluating buildings for structural integrity and life safety parameters. RIAEER TF-7 was honored with a National Award from the American Institute of Architects in Washington, D.C. for their disaster response work. Filarski is a National Safety Assessment Program Officer and nationally Qualified Trainer in Disaster Relief by California Office of Emergency Services as a disaster responder for earthquake, fire, flood, hurricane, cyclone, tornado, and hazardous material disasters.
With his current work in the On The Edge project he is collaborating with oceanographers, coastal scientists, geologists, landscape architects, people from the humanities, and visual artists to observe and document the impact that coastal, estuarine, or riverine water rise through storm surge, rain, or sea level change can impact a small, blue collar, summer colony on the Rhode Island coast line. A part of the overall premise for the project is that if the human, economic, and ecosystem issues can not be addressed and become manageable at the smaller scale for sustainability - our achieving positive results at a larger, more complex urban scale is diminished. Essentially, if we can’t solve the problem at the smaller micro scale, how can we solve it at the larger macro scale where the dynamics of our ecology is far more complex? The project is a look at sustainable, cost effective models for potential solutions to our complex coastal dynamics and resiliency.
He has presented his innovative research and work on sustainable systems, sustainable hazard mitigation, and coastal planning and design at international, national, regional, and state professional conferences and conventions for professional and governmental organizations and societies.
Quietly, Filarski is developing applications of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) to regional and local comprehensive planning including zoning ordinances and subdivision regulations, and project planning. LEED-ND was effectively used in his award winning neighborhood revitalization plans for Olneyville, "Only in Olneyville", and Smith Hill, "SmithHillNOW". Filarski coordinated the two plans to leverage and magnify the potential and the power of the Woonasquatucket River Corridor linking the two neighborhoods. Filarski has demonstrated how LEED-ND is a highly effective tool for sustainable hazard mitigation and planning, presenting his work at the national conference of the Association of State Flood Plain Managers, at regional and state Emergency Management Agencies, and at regional and state conferences of flood plain management professionals. Following Superstorm Sandy he assisted communities RI in writing resiliency plans and securing grant funding for technical assistance using LEED-ND.
"LEED for Neighborhood Development is potentially the most transformative and powerful tool we have for influencing and
establishing holistic and sustainable communities. But we have to use it. LEED-ND's inherent power and its beauty begins by
integrating its holistic framework into our comprehensive plans, zoning ordinances, and subdivision regulations so we can
create and guide the sustainable future for the places we call home, neighborhood, community...and earth.
Quote of Kenneth J. Filarski In the U.S. Green Building Council “Local Government & LEED for Neighborhood Development” publication
Sustainability, Planning, Design, and Community
Filarski is very active in many facets of the Rhode Island and New England community, and has been since the 1970’s. He was a key member and leader in many civic and professional groups moving community development forward for the revitalization and renaissance of the urban core and neighborhoods of Providence, RI. Filarski is Chair of the Upper Northeast Regional Committee of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is also Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council Rhode Island, two influential and idea setting organizations of the U.S. Green Building Council. He was Chair of the Upper Northeast LEED for Neighborhood Development Regionalization Task Force for the USGBC, a member of the LEED 2012 Regionalization Task Force, and a founding Board Member of the U.S. Green Building Council Rhode Island. He also served on the USGBC National Chapter Steering Committee actively shaping the strategies and practices that will transform the national organization for the next twenty years in their comprehensive Network Evolution. In that process he was highly active in the three main working groups and their nine task forces: Structure, Mission+Engagement, and Business+ Operations. Ken has proposed evolving the LEED program from that of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design to a companion one of Leadership in ECOLOGY and Environmental Design.
The work of Filarski and the Upper Northeast Regional Committee is proving critical in evolving the seven state Chapters of the Upper Northeast Region of the U.S. Green Building Council - the six New England States and upstate New York, north of Westchester County - to be DOING THE EXTRAORDINARY, creating, nurturing, and developing the Big Ideas that are bubbling up, surfacing, and invigorating our thought and action in the region. The resulting focus of the Region’s collective body of knowledge will address regional issues which are geo-spatial, cutting across traditional geo-political boundaries, and applied to the local contexts in our communities. The region’s collaboration is focused on: Sustainability, Resiliency and Climate Change, Green Infrastructure, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, Healthy Buildings, Healthy Communities, and Human Wellness.
He is serving on the Leadership Team of the RI Zero Energy Buildings (ZEB) Task Force developing programs for achieving ZEB throughout RI by 2035, sponsored by National Grid and the RI Office of Energy Resources. He is a member of the Zero Net Energy Buildings Leadership Group of the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnership. Filarski is cofounder of The Bamboo Project and founder of INCommunity, two non profit initiatives integrating education, the environment, and the economy in Rhode Island. The Bamboo Project incorporates research on the plant as a sustainable material for building systems and sustainable hazard mitigation. Bamboo is being used in the classroom embracing S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) education principles, will stabilize a fragile riverine environment, and provide economic development opportunities with jobs and as a source of business entrepreneurship.
Ken is currently involved as a member of the Leadership Team with the Rhode Island Green Infrastructure Coalition, Energize RI which is developing State legislation for fair pricing of fossil fuels based on carbon impacts, and the RI Alliance for Healthy Homes. He serves as Chair of the Cranston Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Providence/Cranston Workforce Investment Board (P/C WIB) where he chairs the Veterans Committee. In his roles with USGBC RI Green Veterans Program and the P/C WIB he is forging a collaborative effort of sustainability, workforce development, and community betterment. He is Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the Rate Payers Advisory Board for the RI Public Utilities Commission (PUC) whose mission is advise the PUC on the effects of utility rates on low income households and small businesses.
He served as Chair of the City of Cranston Green Building Commission. Filarski’s work as Chair of the Cranston Green Building Commission was recently recognized as a National Best Practice for its innovative work by the U.S. Green Building Council and the Land Use Law Center of Pace Law School. He is continuing his research on the correlation between cognitive development and design; prototype learning environments; prototype housing systems; community applications of LEED for Neighborhood Development as a transformative tool for sustainability; and the Sustainable Community Bonding program, a financing mechanism for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. He actively demonstrates that LEED for Neighborhood Development is a highly effective tool and strategic guide for sustainable hazard mitigation. These efforts are becoming all the more critical with sea level rise and climate change dynamics coming to the forefront.
His sustainable design and planning work enhancing the ecology of coastal communities has been presented at many conferences, including the national conference of the Association of State Flood Plain Managers, Build Boston, ABX, the Land and Water Conservation Summit, the Grow Smart RI Power of Place Conference, the New England Regional Conference of the American Institute of Architects, and the Southern New England American Planning Association Annual Conference, and the International GRO (Growth, Resiliency, Opportunity) Conference.
Since 2010 Filarski was named five times, and is the only practicing architect participating in the prestigious Rhode Island Energy and Environmental Leaders Day in Washington, D.C. created by U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. His proposal for “A Net Zero School/School as Hero~School As Community/Community As School” was a major workshop presentation at Build Boston/ABX, the acclaimed international design conference. He is continuing that work to develop dynamic schools by optimizing the building envelope for positive energy dynamics, and optimizing the building volume and spaces for positive learning dynamics.
He is currently working on Positive Energy buildings and holistic, integrated and sustainable community plans, wherein the projects produce more energy than they consume. That approach is evident in his vision for the development of the Elmwood/Wellington Corridor as a 231 acre sustainable and resilient, mixed use, urban, transit oriented development in Cranston, RI along the Pawtuxet RIver, location of the the historic 500 year, Spring Floods of 2010, incorporating commuter rail service into a LEED for Neighborhood Development Platinum Project.
A current project is a positive energy, earth sheltered, vegetated roof locker room facility for athletic teams and performing arts groups which will be located in an existing earth berm at the southern end of The Cranston Stadium. Filarski not only developed the concept and the design, but he also raised funding for the project through the grants he wrote. Other projects include developing the program and funding for alternate fuel vehicles for municipal school bus fleet and elderly service van fleets. He is implementing a 50kW photovoltaic panels array installation and educational programs for public school buildings. Other municipal focused work includes the conversion of the maintenance of city street lights to municipal responsibility and replacement of existing street lights to energy efficient, safety enhancing LED streetlights, saving $1.9 million annually to the City of Cranston, RI.
Filarski continues his investigations in polyhedral transformation, loose and close packing polyhedral systems, and saddle polyhedra as being pertinent to his HOMe Housing System designs and other building systems he first developed as an architecture student at The Catholic University of America. The HOMe Housing System is a national award winner from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Building Value Into Housing Program for sustainable and affordable home design. The project has been expanded to a Baby Bear, Mama Bear, from the original Papa Bear sizes and designs. His award winning designs for 21 affordable homes in the early 1990‘s established those solutions as keys to architecture and new urbanism projects, and was an early example of sustainable thinking. The designs achieved U.S Department of Energy Four Star Energy Ratings and were forerunners of LEED-ND. His award winning work for the Foster Town Hall, the Pawtucket Senior Center in National Register Historic Districts, and the International Scholar~Athlete Hall of Fame were recognized as sensitive designs of buildings and additions within historic patterns and contexts incorporating sustainability with building and site design.
The Leon A. Mathieu Senior Center in Pawtucket, RI, the Quonset Air Museum I in North Kingstown, RI and the Masonic Temple in Providence, RI are award winning projects demonstrating Filarski’s creative use of sustainable design applied to adaptive re-use of existing historic buildings. His award winning comprehensive community plan for Glocester, RI was ahead of its time, embracing ecology and smart growth principles to integrate nine separate state mandated planning elements under a Preferred Future and integrating each of the prescribed state mandated elements through three guiding themes of Rural Character, Appropriate Economy, and Good Government. In the On The Edge project for a Rhode Island summer colony - Roy Carpenter’s Beach - he is demonstrating how common sense, insight, ecological sensitivity result in a design and a plan which at first blush would appear radical, is a methodical, practical, and cost effective solution to coastal planning and design.
"Design of Logic/Logic of Design ~ The Beautiful Interrelationship of Cognitive Development, Design, and Ecology"
…the Experience of a Unique Education and Unique Mentors
FILARSKI earned a Master’s Degree in Architecture and Environmental Design & Planning from Goddard College in Vermont and was a Teaching Fellow in the first-of-its-kind, Design & Construction Program, now widely replicated, leading student teams in designing and actually constructing the school’s sustainable buildings. At Goddard he worked with David Sellers, the internationally renown architect and inventor named as one of the 100 best architects in the world. The collaborative work at Goddard opened new thinking for design/build architecture and sustainable design and energy. The work at Goddard is now being internationally recognized not only for the building designs, which the Vermont Historical Preservation Commission termed that body of work being “unique to the state and the country”, but also because of the design/build model of sustainably integrating our built footprint gently on the land. The work at Goddard has been called, “monumental” in concept and execution.
His 1974 Master’s Degree Thesis in Architecture and Environmental Design from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, entitled “Design of Logic/Logic of Design ~ The Beautiful Interrelationship of Cognitive Development, Design, and Ecology” developed the parameters of the qualitative and quantitative measures of design through environmental research using the parallels of the way the human mind develops thinking abilities and the understanding of the space and the euclidean world around the human being. Inspiration for this direction in thinking emanated from insights Ken gained through his reading and research of the work of the renown Jean Piaget. His masters degree review committee heralded his work as a seminal work integrating ecology, cognitive development, the planning and design process. T he thesis in written and visual form provides examples of this integration leading to the formation of organization frameworks for design thinking, responsive environments, polyhedral assembly and transformation, and the resulting application of those elements to energy dynamics, sustainability, housing design, learning environments, and creativity in prefabrication and modular construction. His thesis demonstrated the close links, parallels and congruency of the design process with cognitive development in children. He continues that research and the application of that research to this day.
His Thesis and the collaborative work at Goddard opened new thinking for design/build architecture and sustainable design/planning/energy. That research continues with new works in progress demonstrating that design can be quantified so that it can respond through the building, urban envelope, and interior space to the dynamics of human conditions and needs, the dynamics of the energy, and the dynamics of the environmental forces around the building, the context of place, and the Working Landscape. All space and all thinking is an environment for learning.
Filarski is privileged to have worked with the two of the world’s great thinkers, Buckminster Fuller at Southern Illinois University, researching and developing integrated design strategies and complex analysis of macro and micro data and trends in Energy, Shelter, Food, Transportation, and Water as part of Bucky Fuller’s ongoing World Game for what he called our house - Spaceship Earth. He also worked with Paolo Soleri, assisting Paolo with the development and installation of Soleri’s first major retrospective exhibit of his work at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
EXCELLENCE & INNOVATION IN DESIGN & PLANNING © FILARSKIARCHITECTURE+PLANNING+RESEARCH
ecology • social responsibility • sustainable environments • appropriate technology and economics
First name:
Kenneth J.
Last name:
Filarski
Gender:
Male
Date of Birth:
Monday, June 28, 1948
History
- Member for
- 7 years 1 month
Job Title:
Principal and Founder
Organization:
FILARSKI/ARCHITECTURE+PLANNING+RESEARCH
Phone Number:
+1 401 331 8800
Mailing Address:
PO Box 3210
Providence, RI 02909
United StatesBilling Address:
PO Box 3210
Providence, RI 02909
United StatesCredentials:
SITES AP
State name:
Rhode Island
Country name:
United States
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Country name text:
United States
State name text:
Rhode Island