Two Recently Licensed Architects Honored with Women in Architecture Recognition Award

On January 27, the AIANY Women in Architecture Committee conferred the Women in Architecture (WIA) Recognition Award on two woman architects at a reception at the Fisher & Paykel Experience Center.

The WIA Recognition Award honors recently licensed women architects in New York City who demonstrate strong leadership skills and a commitment to the growth and advancement of our profession. This year, the committee selected two recipients:

• Anne Xiangyu Chen, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, Architect, Gensler
• Arielle Siegel Lapp, AIA, NCARB, Architect, Gensler

Chen and Siegel will receive $1,000 stipends towards travel and miscellaneous expenses at the AIA Conference on Architecture, which will be held in Chicago, June 23-25, 2022.

About the Recipients

Anne Xiangyu Chen, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, is an Architect at Gensler with a diversity of leadership and volunteer experience. As a certified tree advocate, she volunteered at Casey Trees in 2018 and 2019, proposed planting sites with community groups, and delivered testimony at hearings to help influence how DC prioritizes its trees. In April 2020, as the architecture profession, and the world at large, were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen published newsletters for the Asian American Designers Union, a much-needed support network for peers at a time of great uncertainty. Before the pandemic, Chen also volunteered with the Washington Architectural Foundation‘s  Architecture in the School program, where she introduced students to the profession.

Arielle Siegel Lapp, AIA, NCARB, is an Architect at Gensler and the Media and Communications Liaison for the AIANY Women in Architecture Committee. In 2021 she organized two well-attended events for the committee, “Building Science Fight Club: Christine Williamson Leading the Charge” and “Building an Unforgettable Personal Brand in 2021” with Joann Lui. She also presented two data-driven analyses to the committee: a report on architecture demographics and a survey for the committee that collected feedback on past programs and gained insight on future preferences. Prior to Gensler, Siegel worked at Urbahn Architects, where she participated in several community service programs, including the 2019 and 2020 AIANY Days of Service. At Urbahn, she also founded a peer-to-peer and senior-junior mentorship program. Siegel also volunteers at Howard University, ACE, and provides mentorship for her alma maters.