Change of heart: Torti Gallas and Partners helped invent sprawl. Now they're leading the charge against it

Residential Architect, Jan-Feb, 2004 by Meghan Drueding

Gallas, now executive vice president, has led an effort to expand the firm's sustainable design capabilities by bolstering its roster of LEED-certified architects and bringing in green-building experts to speak to the staff. As a result, Torti Gallas has several sustainable projects in the works, including Fort Irwin, energy-efficient military housing in the California desert, and Salishan, a new rainwater-conservation community in Tacoma, Wash. The firm is also forging ahead with innovative retail design ideas lot its many mixed-use projects. "We're trying to rethink some of retail's basic concepts," explains principal Maurice Walters, AIA. "We want to figure out how to bring mom-and-pop businesses back in by taking affordable housing ideas to retail."

The vogue for New Urbanism among developers may be an obvious trend now, but it wasn't in 1993. By remaking CHK the way they did, Torti and Gallas took a huge gamble. Most firms in their position would have waited for the economy to turn around, hoping that they'd get their clients back and be able to do the kind of work they'd always done. But John Torti's ideals escaped that box under his bed. And they're not going back.