What use is a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?
—Henry David Thoreau

The great environmentalist David Brower, whose lifework was the quest for a tolerable planet, loved Thoreau's line and often quoted it to his audiences. But the question can be turned around: How do you achieve a tolerable planet without a house dedicated to that Herculean effort?

The David Brower Center will be a home for the environmental movement of the twenty-first century. The building will feature the greenest of green architecture. Where Thoreau built his cabin at Walden for $28.12 worth of salvaged materials—the Brower Center will improve on that start: non-toxic materials; natural daylighting and ventilation; high-performance building envelope; solar panels. The Center, in its four floors and over 50,000 square feet, will house the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Theater, the Kendeda Gallery, a restaurant, meeting rooms, collaborative common space, and office space for nonprofits and progressive for-profits. Under one photovoltaic roof in the heart of Berkeley, activists, business people, students, and visitors from around the world will meet, eat, exchange ideas, and work toward a just and ecologically sustainable society.