Green Goddess, Interview with Zurich Esposito, Chicago Architect, Sept. / Oct. 2010
Helen Kessler talks about her sustained efforts toward sustainability
For Helen Kessler, FAIA, LEED AP, coming early to a big idea proved to be a wise career move. Embracing sustainability at a time when “green” was still synonymous with “alternative” or “offbeat,” she merely needed to wait a decade or two for the world to catch up with her. Today she is president of HJKessler Associates, a leading Chicago- based sustainability design and energy efficiency consulting firm. Helen’s contributions to the field of sustainable design are impressive, and she has provided consulting services on some very acclaimed recent projects. Ross Barney Architects’ Jewish Reconstructionist Synagogue in Evanston (the first house of worship to achieve a LEED Platinum rating from the USGBC) and the Exelon Headquarters interior buildout, designed by Interior Space International (the largest commercial interior project to go Platinum), are just two that have been shaped by Helen’s expertise. She also shares that expertise with the profession, most recently through her work as a member of the board of directors for the US Green Building Council, Illinois Chapter. Zurich Esposito caught up with Helen at the Mark T. Skinner West Elementary School, designed by SMNG-A Architects Ltd, at 1260 W. Adams. As the sustainability design team leader, Helen was responsible for obtaining the project’s LEED Silver rating.
Zurich Esposito: At what point in your education or career did you become interested in sustainability?
Helen Kessler: During my third year of architecture school in 1973 at the University of Arizona I had a tour of the environmental research laboratory, and that’s really when I became very interested in the interdisciplinary integrated approach to design and sustainability. Seeing how power, water and food were integrated in the design of this facility that made and used its own energy impressed me. It was a pivotal moment in my education and my career.
ZE: How did you become a sustainability consultant?
HK: A lot of things in my career happened because of things that happened in my career. I feel like I’ve had several careers. I had phases of my career in solar, in historic preservation, and—after getting my MBA at Wharton specializing in real estate—I had a career in hotel development with Hyatt for several years. When the hotel industry died, in the late 80s, I had to figure out what was next for me. I began working with a start-up company, doing consulting work on energy efficiency, in 1991. A lot of that work was in existing buildings. One of the first new buildings I worked on was the University of Chicago’s Gleacher Center, designed by Lohan Associates. We helped do an evaluation of the schematic design and had a lot of influence on the project. Later, I was one of the first local architects to work with LEED, as the consultant on the first two Chicago prototype public libraries to apply for LEED certification: one in Budlong Woods, designed by Joan Jackson; the other in West Englewood, designed by Campbell Tiu Campell. Finally, in 2003 I started my own firm.
ZE: Was it a challenge establishing your own consultancy?
HK: Things were pretty slow at the start. The big taking-off point came with the release of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth [in 2006], when the message reached the public.
ZE: Who hires you? Building owners or Architects?
HK: 80 percent of the time I get hired by the architect, but occasionally the owner will hire me. I work on just about any kind of commercial or institutional project. Schools, religious buildings, office buildings. I’m currently consulting on a runway project at O’Hare.
ZE: What’s your perspective on LEED and its relation to building performance?
HK: LEED is a great tool to determine if you’re meeting certain standards. I don’t feel LEED is a starting point. What’s really more important at first is to look at what you can do from an integrated approach, really explore how all the building systems work together as a total system to make the project as efficient as possible. The purpose of LEED was to transform the marketplace. It was never meant to determine or dictate project design. It has certainly moved us toward a higher level of sustainability in that it has helped to change the way architects, owners and manufacturers look at buildings, but it is not an end-all. There’s more to creating a green or sustainable project than LEED certification.
ZE: Do all of your clients pursue LEED certification for their projects, or are some looking for performance without the credential?
HK: All of my clients typically pursue LEED certification, with the exception of the runway project at O’Hare. For that project we are using the Department of Aviation’s Sustainable Airport Manual, a system based on LEED but designed for airports.
ZE: So what do you think about cities that require LEED certification for new buildings?
HK: Some municipalities mandate LEED certification, but LEED itself was never meant to be used as a building code. Codes need to be more specific. We can look at the smart things in the LEED system and integrate them into the building codes. The development of the International Green Construction Code (IGCC) is a very positive development. We need to have a baseline that becomes the law, and people can and will be encouraged to do better than that baseline. The biggest challenge to all of this is enforcement. Municipalities don’t have the resources to enforce these codes or the energy code in the field.
ZE: What would you consider to be the most important sustainability strategy in achieving higher-performing buildings?
HK: More important than the use of any particular material, method of building or rating system would be the implementation of an integrated design approach with all the members of the design team involved from the beginning, considering all the systems and the project in its entirety. This usually achieves a more successful, high-performance project and often produces a lower cost building.
ZE: What developments in building technology should we have our eye on?
HK: Integrated photovoltaic systems are of great interest to me at the moment. Once you get to a place where the glazing is also your solar system, when the photovoltaic system is embedded between glass you can see through, the implications on design are very exciting.
ZE: I suppose in the early days, your career path may have seemed like a fad to some. How do people react when you tell them you are a sustainability consultant?
HK: First of all, I prefer to call myself a green building consultant. I don’t believe anything we are doing is really sustainable, not completely, but we are on a continuum in that direction. We have our work cut out for us. I think people are starting to get that.
Helen Kessler sits amidst blazing stars and other native plantings on the Skinner campus.