Jessica’s career has delved into every phase of design and construction, and led to her current role as Technical Director at DMAC where she leads construction documentation, administration, and specification writing across all project types, sizes, and programs. Her enthusiasm for design detailing is only rivaled by her investment in code knowledge and constructability. Jessica is passionate about building performance and building science. She is the past Chair of the Leadership Group for the National AIA Building Performance Knowledge Community. In addition, she serves on the National AIA Codes and Standards Committee, as Chair of the Chicago Chapter of the Building Enclosure Council, and as Chair of the Education Committee for the Building Enclosure Technology and Environmental Council. She lives in a 100-year-old house in Evanston, IL with her husband, three kids, and two dogs.
Courses
Back to the Future: Combining Historic Strategies with Modern Technology for Maximized Passive Survivability
Tuesday, July 14, 2026 | 2-3pm ET
In this joint partnership between the Building Performance Knowledge Community (BPKC) and the Resilience and Disaster Response Community (RADR), panelists will review historic cooling, heating, and resilience strategies and discuss how they can be used to amplify and expand the effectiveness of emerging technology for passive survivability and energy efficiency. By designing for aesthetics first, and then using modern HVAC and other solutions to overcome any inefficiencies second, we are doing ourselves, our clients, and our communities a grave disservice.
In the 1999 essay by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien called ‘On Slowness,’ there is a quote from Milan Kundara: “There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting.”
The speed with which we develop new technologies to enhance our building performance increases our forgetting of the basic principles that helped people survive for hundreds of years without air conditioning and ducted heat. Building science and technology continue to evolve and advance in both possibilities for improved outcomes and complexity. The more we learn about vented rainscreens, smart vapor barriers, all in one water resistive barriers and insulation products, the more intricate our detailing becomes. High performance envelopes are exciting and full of promise even with the challenges of coordination and installation execution. Join us for a 60 minute discussion of getting back to basics as a way to further progress in building resilience and passive survivability.