LISA HESCHONG

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. In 2023, she was awarded both the Edison Report's "Lifetime Achievement Award" and the "IES Medal," the highest honor bestowed by the Illuminating Engineering Society.