Kenneth Haggard — biography sources (fetched 2026-07-19)

Fetched: 2026-07-19 Reliability: mixed — Wikipedia content retrieved via AI-summarized fetch rather than raw wikitext; built-works list and some dates should be spot-checked against the live article.

Identity

Kenneth L. Haggard, born 1935.

Education

BS in chemical engineering (Texas A&M, per firm bio); US Army service; then a career change — BA in architecture with honors, North Carolina State University; MS in Urban Design, University of Pennsylvania.

Academic career

Taught at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 1967-1988; summer 1970 taught in Bangladesh. 1972-1975: Principal Investigator on HUD-funded natural air-conditioning research — the era of the Atascadero, California Skytherm/roof-pond project. Founder and Director, Renewable Energy Institute at Cal Poly (sources conflict: 1984-1988 vs. 1984-1986).

Practice

Met Polly Cooper at Cal Poly in 1975; established their firm together in 1976, later known as the San Luis Sustainability Group (also “San Luis Obispo Sustainability Group”). Licensed architect in California and Florida. Firm bio claims 300+ buildings designed, ~200 built (unverified against a second source).

Notable built works (per Wikipedia; single-sourced)

Prototype Roof Pond House (1972-1975, the Skytherm-era project); Congregation Beth David Synagogue; SLO Botanic Garden Education Center; Wolken Education Center, Hidden Villa (Los Altos); Noland House, Anchor Ranch, Lone Pine CA (reportedly California’s first permitted straw-bale building); Tierra Nueva CoHousing, Oceano CA.

Publications

Passive Solar Handbook for California (1978 or 1980 — sources conflict); Passive Solar Architecture Pocket Reference (with David Bainbridge and Rachel Aljilani); chapters in The Passive Solar Energy Book; sourcebook for the California Strawbuilders Association; “Leading by design,” Solar Today, 2004 (with Polly Cooper); “Nocturnal cooling and solar heating with water ponds and movable insulation,” ASHRAE Transactions 82 (1976) — co-authored with Phil Niles and Harold Hay, directly confirming the Hay collaboration already in this KB.

Awards

ASES Passive Solar Pioneer Award, 1996 (with Polly Cooper); AIA/UIA International Competition on Sustainable Communities, 1st place, 1993; Best Paper Award, World Solar Congress, 1989; Honor Award, California Energy Efficient Office Building Competition, 1976.

Other

1993: office and home destroyed by wildfire, rebuilt with sustainable materials.

Flags / corrections to prior KB content

“Passive Solar Institute” co-founding — NOT mentioned anywhere in this research, including Wikipedia. A prior version of this KB’s Haggard article stated this; it should be treated as unconfirmed pending a primary source.
AIA Fellowship (FAIA) — not confirmed in any source checked; do not state as fact.
Current status — no obituary found as of July 2026; Wikipedia article shows no indication of death, but this only means no death record surfaced, not confirmed alive.
Publication year (1978 vs 1980) and Renewable Energy Institute end-year (1986 vs 1988) conflict across sources.

Supporting URLs

Source: web research compiled 2026-07-19 for wiki article expansion.