Jessica Goswick

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

Jessica Goswick, AIA, USGBC, is an architect at FORA who also leads the firm’s sustainability efforts. As Building Performance Lead, she leads workshops to improve firm workflows, educates team members on new industry trends, and works with individual projects to help meet sustainability goals. She is constantly curious, asking questions and analyzing solutions to improve a project’s impact on its surroundings. Through research-based design, she believes that architecture has the opportunity to craft more sustainable and equitable communities for all.

Jessica received a B.Arch. from Cal Poly, SLO with minors in Sustainable Environments and Spanish. She brings a collaborative approach to the design process from her professional experience working on multidisciplinary teams. After sampling a variety of project types ranging from master plans and civic architecture to office towers and custom homes, Jessica gravitated towards community-based projects and affordable housing, which led her to FORA.

She is an absolute rock star - joining the team full-time while both moving AND studying (successfully) for one of her licensure exams. As passionate as she is about architecture, Jessica makes time to connect with nature and food. Some of her hobbies include yoga, hiking (she is on a mission to visit every national park), backpacking, cooking, and baking (we’ve heard she makes a mean key lime pie).

“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