Women Shaping the Urban Habitat

StartFragmentThe Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat NY Chapter (CTBUH) and the AIANY Women in Architecture Committee (WIA) invited our SawTeen See to be a speaker for ASPECT/RATIOS: Women Shaping the Urban Habitat. EndFragment

The ASPECT/RATIOS series is a fresh initiative by CTBUH to showcase projects and individuals of varied perspectives and identities. With a broader goal of shattering perceptions and strengthening relationships amongst individuals, CTBUH plans to highlight the diversity and influence of an industry often perceived as lacking egalitarian representation of the individual.

For this event, Women Shaping the Urban Habitat, CTBUH New York Chapter has teamed up with the AIANY Women in Architecture (WIA) Committee to invite three extraordinary leaders who have left their fingerprint on the region. The influential viewpoints of the presenting developer, architect, and engineer, will serve to redefine our perception of how the urban habitat is designed by showcasing projects which transcend a singular notion of identity.EndFragment

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The speakers were:

Corie Sharples, AIA, Founder/Principal, SHOP Architects Susi Yu, AIA, Executive Vice President of Residential Development, Forest City Ratner Companies SawTeen See, PE, CE, Managing Partner, Leslie E. Robertson Associates, Dist. M. ASCE

Moderator: Jill Lerner, FAIA, Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Susi Yu, AIA, is the Executive Vice President of Residential Development for Forest City Ratner Companies. She returned to Forest City in February 2015after a 20-month tenure with the Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC) as Senior Vice President of Development. She is currently overseeing the build-out of Pacific Park Brooklyn, the 22-acre project in Downtown Brooklyn that will ultimately be comprised of 6,430 residential units, 247,000 SF of retail space, 336,000 SF of office space, and 8 acres of publicly accessible open space. Prior to working at HHC, Yu spent over 12 years at Forest City Ratner Companies leading the development of large scale, mixed-use urban projects.

Coren Sharples, AIA, is a founding partner of SHoP Architects. She holds a Bachelor of Science in business and management from the University of Maryland, and a master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University. Sharples is integral to the creation of comprehensive solutions that consider design at every scale, as exemplified in her work on the Barclays Center, Fashion Institute of Technology, and the Botswana Innovation Hub, among many other projects. Her attention to detail comes from a deep understanding and passion for craft; coupled with SHoP’s expertise in digital fabrication and construction technology, the result is smart, efficient, and beautiful work Sawteen See, PE, CE, Managing Partner of Leslie E. Robertson Associates, works on projects in the role of Project Director and Partner-in-Charge. She guides the efforts in the analysis and development of structural design and in the coordination with structural engineering services with the owner, architect, services engineer, and contractor. As Managing Partner, she is responsible for daily business operations and for management of the practice. Some of See's projects include the new Temple University Library with Snohetta/Stantec (out for bids now), the 630m Merdeka PNB118 under construction in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with Fender Katsalidis, and the recently topped out 555m tall Lotte World Tower in Seoul, Korea with KPF.

Jill Lerner, FAIA, a Principal at KPF with more than 35 years of design and management experience, has worked on influential projects around the globe, leading the design of numerous award-winning institutional, academic and research projects. Recent projects include CUNY’s Advanced Science Research Center, The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, NYU Shanghai, and The Peking University School of Transnational Law. Lerner was 2013 AIANY President, where she focused on the theme, “Global City / Global Practice,” featuring a major exhibition entitled Practical Utopias: Global Urbanism in Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. During her presidency AIANY published A Platform for the Future of the City and the Post-Sandy Initiative.

The CTBUH Young Professionals Committee was created to be an incubator for the next generation of CTBUH leaders. It connects young members with established leaders in CTBUH to provide mentorship and collaboration opportunities. Through articles, presentations, panel discussions, and white papers, the committee brings the ideas, concerns, and research of young practitioners and academics to the greater profession.

Read a recap of the seminar at CTBUH.

View a full video of the event HERE.