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ABOUT LISA

Lisa Heschong was a Founding Principal of the Heschong Mahone Group (HMG), and a licensed architect for 30 years. At HMG, a building science and energy efficiency consulting firm based in Sacramento, California, Ms. Heschong led the research team that found a correlation between daylight in classrooms and improved student performance, and daylight and retail sales.

She is a Fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES). She has served as Chair of the IES Medals Committee and the IES Daylight Metrics Committee, where she helped establish a new set of climate-based daylight performance metrics, including sDA and ASE.

She is author of Thermal Delight in Architecture (MIT Press 1979) which after 4 decades of continuous publication is still widely read in architecture schools around the world. Her latest book Visual Delight in Architecture: Daylight, Vision and View (Routledge 2021), explores new findings on the physiological, cognitive, social and cultural importance of daylight and view in our everyday environments.

Ms. Heschong is also co-author of Residential Windows: A Guide to New Technologies and Energy Performance (Norton 2007); digital design guidelines The Skylighting Guidelines (SCE 1999)  and The Advanced Lighting Guidelines (NBI 2003), along with numerous technical papers analyzing the energy performance of buildings.

She also serves on the Board of Directors of Ecology Action, an environmental non-profit, the Advisory Board of the Richard Neutra’s Foundation “The Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design”, and is active in the International Dark-Sky Association.

She has a B.Sc. from UC Berkeley, and a Masters of Architecture from MIT, where she was awarded the AIA School Medal. In 2011 she received the Haecker Award for lifetime achievement from the Architectural Research Centers Consortium.

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EDUCATION & HONORS

James Haecker Award for Distinguished Leadership in Architectural Research, Architectural Research Centers Consortium, 2011 

Fellow, Illuminating Engineering Society

2015

Master of Architecture

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978

AIA Medal, AAUW Fellowship

B.Sc., Natural Resources,

University of California at Berkeley, 1973

Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

IESNA: Illuminating Engineering Society of North America,

Fellow & Chair of the

IES Daylight Metrics Committee

(Board of Directors, 2009-2011, Chair of Daylighting Metrics Committee, 2007-2013)

SBSE: Society of Building Science Educators, Member

CHPS:

Coalition for High Performance Schools,

Technical Committee Member (2001-2008)

Ecology Action, Inc

Board of Directors (2017-present) 

REGISTRATIONS & CERTIFICATIONS

Architect

State of California #C 019296 

1984-inactive

NCQLP

Lighting Certified

1999-2003

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