Robert Burns has recently retired from his position as a Principal with Commonwealth Architects in Richmond, Virginia after a distinguished forty-year career. Serving as the firm’s Director of Historic Architecture, his primary area of expertise is in the preservation and adaptive reuse of existing buildings.
Currently serving as 2025 Chair for the AIA’s Historic Resources Committee Advisory Group, Robert has participated on several panels and written numerous articles on the topic of sustainable design for historic preservation, including a chapter on that subject for the CSI’s Sustainable Design and Construction Practice Guide.
Robert holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, cum laude, from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Architecture degree from Clemson University.
Courses
Going for Zero: Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future
Thursday, October 23, 2025 | 2-3pm ET
Climate change is no longer an abstract threat. Day after day, an already disrupted climate is impacting the lives of millions, and the time available to curtail climate change is alarmingly limited. Decarbonizing how buildings are designed, constructed, and operated is a sea change that is already altering professional principles and practices.
In Going for Zero: Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future, seasoned architect and former AIA president Carl Elefante addresses how buildings and cities can and must help resolve the looming climate emergency. Elefante offers a decidedly alternative viewpoint, one informed by his architecture career rescuing buildings from senseless demolition and learning from the practices and wisdom embedded in built heritage.
Going for Zero is an urgent call to action and path forward. Elefante’s message is ultimately one of hope—but we must act now.