Gregory Kessler
Professor, Emeritus
Architecture
gregory.kessler@wsu.edu
509-335-1229
Carpenter Hall 114
PO Box 642220
Gregory Kessler, FAIA, is a graduate from the University of Southern California and has been a Professor of Architecture at Washington State University since 1987. Professor Kessler has a thirty-year record of teaching and leadership, which has influenced a generation of architects and emerging professionals. With both a global and local perspective, his work through teaching, leadership, collaboration, education, research, writing, lecturing and architectural administration has resulted in a career devoted to design and architectural education. His teaching portfolio includes teaching well over fifty studios at both the graduate and undergraduate level and over twenty five lecture | seminar courses. So far in his career, he has brought architectural education to well over 1,500 students. He is the recipient of teaching awards and many invited national and international presentations and lectures. He served as the director of the School of Architecture and Construction Management from 2001 – 2011, was appointed as the inaugural director of the new School of Design and Construction from 2011 – 2013, and served as interim director from 2017-2018. The focus of his tenure as director was to develop unique programs regarding the integration of disciplines. Programs such as the Integrated Education Series, the senior Integrated Design Studio (IdEX) and the WSU Institute for Sustainable Design (ISD), which was developed with a colleague in engineering, were a few of his accomplishments.
Currently Kessler is leading the WSU architecture comprehensive studio, which is a collaboration with senior construction management students. In this studio architecture and construction management students form teams to generate designs as well as specific construction procedures in a design build simulation. Kessler served on the AIA National Board of Directors from 2011 – 2013 as one of two Regional Directors from the Northwest and Pacific Region. Prior to being elected as Regional Director, Kessler initiated the Northwest and Pacific Region Leadership Institute. The Institute now in its seventh year integrates students from the seven region schools of architecture with faculty and practicing architects for a 1.5-day yearly symposium on leadership. Student teams learn leadership strategies and develop proposals for leadership projects that are implemented once they return to their campuses. Kessler also initiated the AIA Advocacy Fellows program where recent architecture graduates spend eight weeks at the AIA national offices in Washington DC working with AIA staff on issues of government advocacy related to architecture. For 2015 Kessler is serving as co – chair for the inaugural AIA | ACSA national educational symposium which will be held in conjunction with the 2015 AIA convention. The symposium is directed towards the integration of education and practice with specific emphasis on how academic research can advance the profession.
Professor Kessler has an extensive record of scholarship including papers invited presentations and panels regarding the intersection of architecture and other disciplines and issues of leadership in education. He has also served as design awards juror for regional, national and international design awards programs. Kessler was elevated to fellowship within the AIA in 2013 for his contributions to architecture education. He was also recognized as a Richard Upjohn Fellow in 2013. Professor Kessler is also an active in creating art. His work focuses on abstracted, segmented and unique perspectives of the natural and built environment. The works are based upon his national and international travel and was the subject of a gallery exhibition in Seattle WA in February 2015.
Education
Master of Architecture, University of Southern California (Recipient of Welton Beckett Fellowship: Graduate Thesis focus: Urban Design).
Bachelor of Architecture, University of Idaho (Cum Laude).