Marty Mechtenberg

i engage in economic support, entrepreneurship, community engagement, housing development, ecologically-minded design and research for the built environment, with the goal of creating flourishing, sustainable, and resilient communities. communities where equity, economics, and the environment meet, not in a battle for priority, but in a mutually reinforcing virtuous cycle.

● i serve as a boundary-spanning connector in and between various groups of entrepreneurial stakeholders and local entrepreneurs;
● i develop and managing relationship across the five counties of the south bend – elkhart
region as an active partner in developing the local entrepreneurial ecosystem;
● i build awareness and support for the work among local and regional partners and
stakeholders;
● i plan, with input from the susbe board and marketing team, local events, and gatherings;
● i share lessons learned from the local work with the broader entrepreneurial community;
● i promote vibrant, connected, and inclusive entrepreneurial communities;

my work brings integrative economic, design, management, and sustainability services to entrepreneurs, small businesses, architects, landscape architects, facility owners, urban planners, developers and contractors, emphasizing the economic and environmental value of sustainable design.

i also:
1. provide independent design work and consulting services for building projects, both residential and small-scale commercial/institutional. includes programming, schematic design, modeling, design, construction documents, and construction management.
2. review and analysis of projects seeking environmental certification. i've evaluated over 700 national and international projects to date.
3. my teaching interests focus on entrepreneurship, small-scale development, design and scaled urban interactions. i help students understand the human and environmental relationships that grow out of our interaction with the built environment and our communities.

specialties include: small-scale development, community engagement, architecture, local and regional planning, sustainable communities, higher education, green building and sustainability proposals, green building research, leed certification, design and construction in the developing world, building energy systems, urban energy systems, resiliency, outside-the box-brainstorming, facilitating projects among multiple stakeholders, research, teaching & writing.