Richard S. Levine

Richard S. Levine, the principal architect and Co-Director at the Center for Sustainable Cities Design Studio, is an award-winning environmental architect, a solar energy and sustainability pioneer, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Kentucky.

He was an early solar architecture proponent, starting with his innovative Raven Run Solar Home of 1975. His sustainable city research has been the foundation of urban development projects in China, the Middle East, Austria, Italy, and the United States. In 2010, Levine was named “Passive Solar Pioneer” by the American Solar Energy Society to honor his lifetime achievements in solar design.

Levine and colleague Ernest J. Yanarella founded the Center for Sustainable Cities (CSC) at the University of Kentucky. Their book, titled The City as Fulcrum for Global Sustainability, was published in 2011. Partnering with Dr. Heidi Dumreicher, Director of Oikodrom at the Vienna Institute for Urban Sustainability, the CSC identified the city-region as the master scale at which homeostatic balance could be achieved among social, environmental, economic, urban, and governance issues. The CSC Design Studio has completed seven Net Zero Houses, four of which were done for low-income families and are Phius+ certified.