Jessica Goswick

Architect / Associate / Building Performance Lead (she/her)

Jessica, AIA, CPHD, is an architect and building scientist, focused on making high-performing, beautiful places accessible to everyone. As Building Performance Lead, she leads the firm's sustainability efforts by developing standards and resources, training the team, and guiding projects to integrate energy, water, comfort, and carbon considerations throughout the design process. With expertise in passive strategies, research-driven design, healthy materials, and carbon reduction, she cultivates a design ethos that leads to efficient, healthy, resilient communities.

Jessica’s collaborative approach is shaped by years of working on multidisciplinary teams. After exploring a range of project types from master plans and civic projects to office towers and custom homes, she gravitated toward community-driven work and affordable housing, where technical rigor and human-centered design meet. Lately, she’s deepening her work in applied research: translating complex data and technical jargon into clear, actionable strategies that are embedded in the design process from day one.

Outside of FORA, Jessica teaches building technology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and volunteers with local housing and planning advocacy groups.

LinkedIn

“If we can focus the design mind on creating positive, reinforcing relationships in architecture and through architecture, I believe we can do much more than create individual buildings. We can reduce the stress and the polarization in our urban habitats. We can create relationships. We can help steady this planet we all share.“

- Jeanne Gang

/ FAVORITE PROJECT

“I am excited about Leigh Ave because it demonstrates how listening to residents and the community can lead to new discoveries and holistic, beautiful design.”

  • What makes you excited to come to work?

    I'm excited about the opportunity to work through problems with others. Every project is it's own puzzle, and I am always learning.

  • What's your happy place?

    I love watching the sunset on the beach - the colors, the people watching, the sound of the waves, it's paradise.

  • If you could go anywhere (real or fictional, at no cost), where would you go?

    New Zealand! Or Australia!

  • What's the best meal you've ever had?

    This is the hardest question I've ever had to answer. I think the best meal I ever had was an omakase style menu at Izakaya Minato in Portland, Maine. I was with my parents on a NE road trip, and we had no idea what we were getting, every course was a surprise and every course was delicious.

  • Coffee or tea?

    Coffee all day everyday

  • What's something that made you smile recently?

    There's a hummingbird that frequents the flowers outside my window, we're friends now.

  • What are some things your bucket list?

    I want to visit every national park and bake a perfect macaron...both are currently works in progress