Environment, Sustainability, and Resilience: Insights for Emerging Architects

In the spirit of Earth Day, the AIANY Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) and AIANY Committee on the Environment (COTE) invites you to join the conversation on environment, sustainability, and resilience with industry leaders across both public policy and architectural practice. Panelists will share their perspectives on the environment, career paths specializing in sustainability, and their insights on resilience. Through this discussion, we'll explore how the AEC industry can help to build a more sustainable future.

Speakers:
Chingche Huang, Assoc.AIA, LEED AP, Senior Sustainability Designer, SOM
Remy Mermelstein, Assoc.AIA, LEED AP, Environmental Performance Specialist, KPF
Ankita Nalavade, Assoc.AIA, LEED AP, Principal Specialist on Standards of Practice Resilient & Sustainable Engineering, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Mallory Taub, AIA, LEED AP, Sustainability Director, Gensler; Co-Chair, AIANY Committee on the Environment (COTE)

Moderator:
Christina Brown, Assoc.AIA, LEED AP, Senior Environmental Performance Specialist at KPF

About the Speakers:
Chingche Huang is a senior sustainability designer at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He has worked on ambitious projects focused on environmental design, sustainable planning, and façade optimization. With a background in architecture and extensive experience in building design and sustainability, Huang effectively integrates sustainable practices into the overall design process for various buildings and master plans. His expertise in both sustainable and architectural design enhances each project, particularly through his emphasis on building energy performance. Huang is passionate about collaborating with architects, consultants, and clients on high-performance building projects and master plans. He utilizes advanced building simulation tools to tackle complex building physics challenges in intricate designs. With extensive experience in sustainable design, he is also knowledgeable about LEED, Fitwel, and Passive House standards and management.

Remy Mermelstein is the specialist on KPF’s Environmental Performance (KPFep) team, Mermelstein closely collaborates with design teams using an evidence-based design approach to integrate sustainable best practices into every stage of the design process. His work not only helps individual projects meet their environmental performance targets and certifications but supports KPF’s decarbonization goals of minimizing the impact of the firm’s global portfolio and achieving net-zero projects by 2030. Mermelstein has worked across numerous program types, scales, geographic regions, and stages in the design process to identify unique solutions suited to the particulars of a project’s climatic context, environmental performance goals, and brief. Mermelstein has been a key team member in the design of the Northbund Lot 91 supertall tower in Shanghai, which will be the tallest all-electric, triple-glazed tower in the world and is pursuing China's ambitious net-zero and 2060 carbon reduction goals in addition to LEED Platinum certification. As the sustainability lead for 570 Fifth Avenue, a Class-A office tower in New York City with an integrated retail component, he supports the project’s LEED Gold certification and ambitious embodied carbon reduction goals. Mermelstein earned his B.Arch degree from Cornell University, where he worked in the Environmental Systems Lab and completed an undergraduate thesis on how design can impact microclimate in Phoenix, Arizona. He has published multiple academic papers on thermal comfort research.

Ankita Nalavade is an urban sustainability and resilience expert with an architectural background. Nalavade’s experience working in major metropolitan cities such as New York City, with complex systems and infrastructure, has helped her develop a distinct understanding of how cities function as part of the built environment. This unique experience helps her to carve out solutions for the continued growth of cities in the face of climate change. Currently a Principal Specialist in Resilient & Sustainable Engineering at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Nalavade leads the development of sustainability and resilience standards for the Authority's capital projects, ensuring infrastructure design aligns with national best practices and emerging climate goals. She also serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute, where she teaches courses on sustainability indicators. Drawing on experience at government agencies, and in academia, Nalavade bridges policy, design, and engineering to integrate sustainable and resilient practices in urban projects.

Mallory Taub is a Director of Sustainability in Gensler’s Climate Action Studio in New York, where she collaborates across disciplines to turn climate goals into strategic action across multiple scales of impact. Taub’s industry leadership includes serving as a Co-chair for the AIANY Committee on the Environment (COTE), a member of the Urban Design Forum’s Associate Board, and a mentor in Brown University’s Mentoring Launchpad. She has contributed to publications featured by Fast Company, Metropolis, the Architect’s Newspaper, ULI, CoreNet Global, and the British Council for Offices.

Christina Brown is the Senior Specialist on KPF’s Environmental Performance (KPFep) team, Brown collaborates with internal design teams and consultants, using an evidence-based approach to integrate sustainable design thinking into projects of all types. Working across multiple programs, scales, geographic regions, and design stages, Brown helps craft solutions specifically tailored to each project. Her work on the Singtel Headquarters in Singapore supported the design of a net-zero, mixed-use development that will meet GreenMark Platinum and ILFI Zero Carbon requirements. Leading studies focused on thermal comfort, daylight, and operational and embodied carbon reductions, she worked closely with the client and consultants to help meet the project’s ambitious targets. Within the firm, Brown leads sustainability technical integration and education, and is the co-chair of KPF Public—a community group that supports pipeline efforts and internal education around diversity. Brown has also presented at conferences such as Greenbuild, ASHRAE and NOMA and published original thermal comfort research. As Co-chair of the AIANY Committee on the Environment Policy subcommittee, Brown advocates for the future of the built environment. She currently serves as an adjunct faculty member at Parsons New School and has taught previously at the New York City College of Technology, Carnegie Mellon and Columbia universities.