Shortlist announced for BD’s Female Architectural Leader award

Eight women have been shortlisted for BD’s inaugural Female Architectural Leader of the Year award.

They include Sue Emms, chair of BDP’s northern region, and Sadie Morgan, co-founder of Stirling Prize-winning dRMM and chair of the National Infrastructure Commission and HS2 design panels.

Other finalists include Shireen Hamdan, who became the first female member of Populous’s global board of directors last year, and Rita Ochoa, a senior associate and leading sports specialist at AFL Architects.

Tara Gbolade last year founded her own practice as well as creating the MyPart3 app and establishing the Paradigm professional network for all architects who champion BAME representation in the built environment.

The nomination for Madeleine Kessler of Haptic Architects, who sits on the National Infrastructure Commission’s Young Professionals Panel, highlighted her volunteering for the Stephen Lawrence Trust as well as her work to establish a resource-sharing system for small practices.

Valeria Segovia Tigueros, who became a principal at Gensler last year and sits on the Hackney design review panel, is recognised for her teaching and advocacy of equality and diversity.

Joan McCoy, a founding director of Belfast-based White Ink Architects, was elected president of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects last year where she is encouraging younger architects to get involved through the Early Career Architects Forum.

The Female Architectural Leader award is a new category in BD’s long-running Architect of the Year Awards (AYAs).

Thomas Lane, chairman of the judges, said: “It’s great we had such a positive response to our new category. There are some great names on the shortlist and picking a winner is going to be a tough job.”

>> Also read: BD’s 2019 Architect of the Year Awards shortlists announced