Meet Tessa Smith, a trailblazer in the Passive House movement. Her story, a testament to the power of sustainable architecture, illuminates the path for future 'Sheroes'. Discover how she's reshaping the industry, one energy-efficient building at a time.
Tessa Smith, co-founder of the Artisans Group and Pacific Northwest Passive House trailblazer, discusses her experiences building and leading a Passive House architecture firm.
Tessa explains how her company began as a small design-build firm, then evolved into a national Passive House firm with 10 employees, a diverse team, and a diverse portfolio
- She started with a 1,400-square-foot Passive House (North House) in Olympia, Washington, and has worked her way up to a PHIUS-certified home on Shaw Island in the San Juan Islands, which is now her 10th Passive House.
Partnerships
Leveraged their presence in the residential marketplace to get hired by Lacey, a city next to Olympia, with free ADU designs for citizens
- They were able to slip in Passive House detailing into all the detailing of those sets, where they just check a box and you can have a Passive ADU in your backyard for free
The key to success in your company may be women promoting women
Just as Passive House became a potent vehicle of change for the work that they do, shaping everything in their business, so should leadership in the company be a vehicle for change
Celebrating 20 years of business
Randy, Roussa Cassel, and their partners celebrate their 20th anniversary as a company, and Randy’s addition as a one-third owner and principal.
How do they do larger and more Passive House projects?
They are focused on how to be strategic in 2020 and scaling into industries that they don’t have a lot of experience in
- Hotel work is going crazy, they’re working on four restaurants, a coffee house, boutique hotels, etc.
