Helen J. Kessler
FAIA, LEED Fellow, WELL AP, the firm’s Principal, is passionate about connecting the dots in complex systems such that stakeholders can discover solutions that work for all. She has over 40 years experience in systems thinking, sustainable design and development, energy efficiency and renewable energy, and is an internationally recognized green building design consultant, facilitator, and educator.
In recent years, she has focused intently on living systems thinking and regenerative development and design. Her evolution as a systems thinker is enhanced through studying with both Regenesis, www.regenesisgroup.com, and Carol Sanford's SEED communities/Change Agent Development, https://seed-communities.com/change-agents/.
As a systems thinker, a pioneer in passive solar heating and cooling, and one of the first architects in Chicago to work with LEED, Helen facilitates eco-charrettes using integrative and regenerative design processes.
History – Pioneering Work
Helen’s work goes back to the late 1970s/early 1980s when she worked with the University of Arizona Environmental Research Laboratory doing research on passive solar cooling and heating and designing solar homes. During this period, she also wrote a column on solar energy and energy efficiency for The Arizona Daily Star.
As chair of the energy code committee for the Chicago Department of Buildings, she led development of Chicago’s first energy code. As a member of the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Guideline 0 committee, she helped develop ASHRAE’s official commissioning guideline. In 2002, she helped create Chicago’s first U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) chapter, now called Illinois Green Alliance.
Helen has worked on over 100 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) projects. As a LEED leader since the green building rating system’s inception. she has worked on 12 LEED Platinum projects, a WELL Platinum project, and dozens of LEED Gold projects. Project types have included K-12 and higher education, office, hotel, healthcare, museum, house of worship, industrial, aviation, residential, and government.
Artist
Helen is a watercolor artist and her work has been featured in a number of exhibits at the Palette and Chisel in Chicago, the Bridgeport Art Center, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, and other venues.
Teaching, Public Speaking, Writing Papers
Helen has been an Adjunct Faculty member at Northwestern University since 2005. She has taught two courses in the Master of Project Management Program: Sustainability in Construction and Systems Thinking for Sustainable Design. She currently teaches Systems Thinking in the Executive Management Design and Construction program.
She has written hundreds of articles on green building, energy efficiency and solar energy and has given or moderated hundreds of presentations on these subjects.
Doug Farr, FAIA, Farr Associates ~
“Thank you for organizing a first-class charrette. [It] achieved all of its primary goals: education, brain- storming and promoting architects as creative problem solvers in the environmental/sustainable arena.”
Recognition, Honors, and Education
Helen is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (2006) and a member of the inaugural class of LEED Fellows (2011). She has received numerous awards, including the Illinois Real Estate Journal Impact Award (2008), Alumnus of the Year from the University of Arizona Honors College (2009), the Intent to Matter Natural Leader Award from the USGBC Illinois Chapter (2010), the Green Mind Award from the USGBC Illinois Chapter (2011), the 2012 USGBC Illinois Chapter Leader Award and the R. Buckminster Fuller Award for Social Good from AIA Illinois (2016). She was named by Crains Chicago Business as a Notable Woman in Design and Construction and a Notable Leader in Sustainability. Helen is a licensed architect and has a Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch.) from the University of Arizona and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Thank you to the following architects and other firms who have hired HJKessler Associates over the years. Our apologies if you were inadvertently left off the list:
Volunteering
Helen is a member of the Board of the Chicago Women in Architecture Foundation (past Treasurer, current Secretary) and the AIA Chicago Foundation Board of Trustees. She is also an Advisory Board member of the Chicago Maritime Museum. She is a former Board member of the USGBC Illinois Chapter (now Illinois Green Alliance) and was a voting member of the national LEED for Commercial Interiors Core Committee. She was also a CREW Chicago Board member and was co-chair of the AIA Chicago Committee on the Environment. In what seems like a past life, she was a Commissioner of both the Arizona Solar Energy Commission and the Tucson-Pima County Metropolitan Energy Commission.
Deb Kuo, Director of Real Estate for Exelon ~
'...Helen did fabulous work when LEED-CI was hot off the USGBC press and there were few projects from which to draw for past experiences..."
