Bio:

The Great designer, Annya splits her time between New York City & San Juan. Her work focuses on impacting the public realm and she finds most rewarding to be involved in large scale projects that include urban design, landscape & infrastructure. She leads complex projects with ease and is determined on achieving consensus while maintaining a clear design voice for the project. She also directs two city sponsored projects, Orchard Beach Pavilion restoration and a new Animal Care Facility both located in the Bronx.

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How did you first learn about architecture and when did you decide that built environment profession was an area of interest for you?

My dad was incredible at drawing, though he was a dentist. I wanted to be able to draw like him, so I did a summer program on architecture when I was 15 at the University of Puerto Rico. After that, I haven’t stop thinking and doing architecture.

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What do you do?

As a Director at Marvel Architects, an MBE firm with offices in NYC & San Juan. I direct large-scale projects & design public buildings. I manage the staff and spend a portion of time mentoring and motivating them to expand their professional reach.

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What excites you in the work you do?

The exciting part is that there is opportunity for design everywhere you look. The skillsets acquired during your career enable you to communicate to others and help them understand what they want or need.

 

Who or what inspires you professionally?

Whoever steps up to speak out about inequity. There is a desire for a just world and we need to get people acting upon it. The first step is to speak up. Anyone walking the walk makes me very proud and pushes me to keep doing what I do.

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What is your proudest professional accomplishment or achievement?

Too early to tell but I would say that being from Puer- to Rico and to able to grow our San Juan office into leading projects nationally gives me deep satisfaction. The level of talent in the island needs to be broadcast- ed to the world.

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Featured Project Name: 

Rockaway Village

 

Featured Project Location: 

Queens, NY

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Featured Project Completion Date: 

Fall 2024

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Role in Featured Project: 

Project Director

 

Featured Project Description:

Rockaway Village is a mixed-use affordable housing development of approx. 1,700 residential units. The concept is to tie to the context with a new pedestrian friendly road network and provide a public open space connected to retail space. At the same time, the project aspires to provide a sense of belonging to the residents by limiting circulation cores to a set number of apartments and intertwining daily circulation with building amenities & open spaces to strengthen the bond of the community.

 

Photography Credit:

Marvel Architects

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