Dirk Kestner

Dirk Kestner, PE, SE, LEED AP BD+C, ENV SP

Senior Principal

As Director of Sustainable Design, Dirk Kestner provides overall guidance and resourcing to the entire firm, ensuring that all designs incorporate industry-leading expertise in sustainable strategies. His project work, teaching, and coaching throughout the firm and broad-reaching influence in the industry help maintain Walter P Moore’s status as a national leader in sustainable approaches and outcomes. 

Trained and experienced as a structural engineer, Dirk applies his immense passion for environmental accountability in design to elevate the knowledge and expertise of all those around him, creating better results for clients and projects. Dirk guides each team through a client inquiry process that produces bespoke sustainability goals for each project and then leads the team to achieve those goals. 

He was the founding chair of the Sustainability Committee of the ASCE’s Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and is widely acknowledged as a national thought leader in the advancement of sustainable structural solutions. Dirk publishes and lectures frequently on topics that range from durability and deconstructability to salvaged structural steel and life cycle analysis. As a member of the LEED Materials and Resources Technical Advisory Group of the US Green Building Council, he helps guide the important technical criteria of the LEED rating system. 

Dirk is a professional engineer in Texas and Georgia and is a LEED Accredited Professional/Building Design + Construction. He holds a Master of Science in Structural Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin and graduated Cum Laude from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering.

See Dirk's discussion on Embracing LEED v4 and Broadening Scope of Sustainability Rating Systems.

Moore on Sustainability

Why did you choose Walter P Moore?
…to work on complex projects with collaborative, creative coworkers; commitment to education, learning; to lead sustainability initiatives, help shape stewardship commitment.
What gives you the most satisfaction in your work?
Seeing the final product.
What’s the best advice you’ve received—so far?
Always leave things better than you found them.

Connect

Phone Number: 
512-330-1283

PUBLICATIONS

"A Roof Over Our Heads," PanStadia & Arena Management, 3rd Quarter 2022

"Austin's New Verde Stadium," PanStadia & Arena Management, 2nd quarter 2021

"How to Reduce Embodied Carbon in Facilities," Building Operating Management magazine, May 2021

"Capitol Tower: Lessons from early implementation of Whole Building Lifecycle Assessment in the LEED framework. Proceedings of the 19th Congress of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineers", Kestner and Shea, Stockholm, Sweden, 2016

"Sustainability Guidelines for the Structural Engineer", co-edited with Jennifer Goupil and Emily Lorenz, October 2010

"Achieving Sustainability through Durability, Adaptability, and Deconstructability,” STRUCTURE magazine, March 2010

Sustainability: Thinking Beyond the Checklist,” STRUCTURE magazine, September 2009

AWARDS