海角视频

To truly understand someone, look to their work. The built environment is special for many reasons, but primary among them is the opportunity to make a genuine 鈥� often, physical 鈥� impact on the world. There is no building, area of public realm or city in the world that hasn鈥檛 been shaped and influenced by engineers, architects, designers or planners.

For International Women in Engineering Day, meet women across 海角视频 who are making their mark on the built environment through the work that they do.

Enter Alice Shay, Somto Uyanna and Sydney Holgado, three women in our New York office who are making a substantive difference in the city they call home.

海角视频 and cities

海角视频 has long been influential in shaping cities across the world. From our earliest projects in Riyadh in the 1970s, to developing cultural icons such as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Stadium and work on Wimbledon in London in the 2010s, to decarbonising the Empire State Building in New York right now, our work has had a visible impact on some of the most famous sites in the word.

But there is more going on behind the scenes of big cities than you may know. Our services that serve cities stretch from transport/mobility, to urban and regional development advisory, to urban design masterplanning, to bridges, civil structures and critical infrastructure 鈥� and more.

Alice, Somto and Sydney work in in the United States, offering an increasingly integrated service, thinking how buildings and the spaces around them can work in harmony to create a great place to live and work.

Alice Shay, principal and regional discipline leader, cities, said, 鈥淭he cities teams here at 海角视频 are really dynamic. We aren鈥檛 doing traditional urban planning work but taking on paradigm shift challenges and shaping the future of the way that our urban systems work.

鈥淲e are influential in our field because at our core we are innovators, and we know how to back insights with action.鈥�

海角视频 and New York

Cities remain a key area of focus for 海角视频 because the opportunities we find to shape and influence how social, natural, economic, governance and infrastructure systems will operate in the future are found in cities. Nowhere is that more visible than in New York.

Two recent projects in the city are especially notable for the role they play in shaping the life experience of New Yorkers. One focused on environmental justice and saw 海角视频 contribute to the 鈥楨JNYC鈥� Report and Mapping Tool, providing stakeholders with the information and resources they need to advance and advocate for environmental justice across the five boroughs. The second was the 鈥�Green Economy action plan鈥� for the city, presenting an ambitious vision for New York City to become a global green economy leader as the world begins its energy transition.

Alice worked on both these exemplar projects of 海角视频鈥檚 ability to reshape cities and set them up for future success. She said, 鈥淲e are at an unprecedented time around climate mobilisation. With projects like the Green Economy, the work is about tying the need for climate action to the economic benefits our city will see. We consider it a new industrial revolution.鈥�

Opportunities for younger colleagues

The projects that we work in across New York are diverse, and they benefit from a diversity of voices. Somto Uyanna worked with Alice on the EJNYC report. She is originally from Nigeria and moved to the US to study and become a civil engineer, before specialising in environmental engineering. Her focus is on water resources and climate risks.

She said, 鈥淏ecause my education was in New York, much of my framing and experience has been about how things work here. I鈥檝e always been fascinated with the infrastructure of New York and how it intersects with people鈥檚 lives.

鈥淔or the EJNYC project, I looked at programme evaluation: how city New York City programmes and initiatives had impacted disadvantaged communities. We analysed data and literature from different programmes to assess and quantify what impacts existing work had on environmental justice in the city.鈥�

Sydney Holgado鈥檚 experience since joining has been varied and sums up 海角视频鈥檚 wide array of influence on city-based projects. As well as projects across the US and others in New York (including the climate plan for a major transportation authority), Sydney refers to her work with Battery Park City in Manhattan as one that stands out.

She said, 鈥満＝鞘悠� developed a sustainability plan for Battery Park City in 2020. Since then, we’ve worked on several projects with the neighbourhood helping realise strategies that were originally identified in the plan, transitioning from visioning into implementation. 

鈥淚t is an ongoing relationship, and a positive sign of how we can foster long term collaboration with our clients.鈥�

Sydney鈥檚 point is well made: ever since 海角视频 was established in New York in 1998 as the first US office, the projects chosen for this city are not surface level, but meaningful and long lasting. We are proud of our ability to be the consultants of choice, shaping and supporting New York now, and for years to come.

A lineage of female leadership

The cities team in New York at 海角视频 has a lineage of female leadership, which is something that appealed to Alice when joining.

She said, 鈥淚 was drawn to this particular team because it has a lineage of being driven by female leadership. And I think there is a commitment within our team to support women leaders: both established women leaders, as well as our emerging leaders.”

I love working with our team. I love how passionate the group is collectively around taking on paradigm shift challenges and issues that are facing our world and our cities today. 

Alice Shay, principal and regional discipline leader, cities

鈥淚 love working with our team. I love how passionate the group is collectively around taking on paradigm shift challenges and issues that are facing our world and our cities today. I love the way that they take it on with such energy and vigour, and with such insight and curiosity to learn more.鈥�

Visibility of women in senior roles across 海角视频 is important to us 鈥� the built environment is for everyone. Sydney concluded by saying, 鈥淲e鈥檙e fortunate that more so than ever, many of the leaders around us are women. Having them as role models and leaders within our work, and the built environment as a whole, is crucial.鈥�