By Melyssa Allen

Meredith College will welcome William McDonough, a leader in sustainable design, on Wednesday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The lecture by McDonough is part of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Presidential Lecture Series at Meredith College.

McDonough is founder and principal of two design firms, William McDonough & Partners, and Architecture and Community Design, an internationally recognized design firm practicing ecologically, socially and economically intelligent architecture and planning in the U.S. and abroad.

A world-renowned architect and designer, McDonough is the winner of three U.S. presidential awards: the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development (1996), the National Design Award (2004); and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2003).

Time magazine recognized him as a "Hero for the Planet" in 1999, stating that "his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that – in demonstrable and practical ways – is changing the design of the world."

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Presidential Lecture series is designed to foster students' abilities to develop the knowledge, skills, values and global awareness necessary to become tomorrow's leaders, and to lead responsible lives of citizenship, learning and service.

For 2005-06, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Presidential Lecture Series at Meredith College is following a theme of "Our World, Our Responsibility: Contributing to Positive Change Around the Globe."

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Speakers for the series' inaugural year are

• Documentary Filmmaker Rory Kennedy at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 30;
• Nicolas de Torrenté, U.S. executive director of the international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 16; and
• William McDonough, founding partner of an internationally recognized design firm practicing ecologically, socially and economically intelligent architecture, at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12.

Each lecture will be held in Jones Auditorium. Events in the series are free and open to the public.