Justin Den Herder is a Professional Engineer with 16 years of project-based, collaborative experience and knowledge. He has actively contributed on nearly 500 projects since joining Silman in 2007. His professional experience ranges from concept design through construction administration on new construction, renovation, and historic preservation projects.

Justin is the former Editor in Chief of SEAoNY Cross Sections magazine and has been published in Modern Steel Construction and the book DIALOGUES – A Shelter for Architecture published by the GIANY. In 2015 he traveled to Nepal for one month to assess earthquake damaged structures. He is passionate about art—poetry in particular—and in creating engaging, sustainable, and equitable architecture.

As a principal at Silman, Justin leads the firm’s efforts on Design Innovation, combining traditional engineering fundamentals with current computationally based tools and workflows with the goal of improving the ability to collaborate.

Justin is the recipient of the Fitch Foundation’s 2023 Robert Silman Award for his proposal 2x which seeks to repurpose wood framing from single family residences slated for demolition and repurpose them in the design of new structures using inventory-driven design and robotic fabrication.

Justin's CV is available here. 

Nicole is an architect committed to promoting equity in the built environment and public realm. As a Principal of Shakespeare Gordon Vlado Architects, she led the firm’s work in affordable housing, resulting in the design of homes for over 3,500 families, seniors, and formerly unhoused New Yorkers. She has also dedicated her career to improving the practice of architecture through active roles with the AIANY’s Housing Committee, nycoba NOMA Professional Development Committee, and as a professional mentor for ARCscholars, an architectural and urban design program for teen and young adult NYCHA residents. Nicole is currently working to facilitate public-private partnerships to improve NYCHA’s open spaces as a Policy and Planning Fellow at the Design Trust for Public Space, and to help solve the NYC housing crisis as an Urban Design Forum Big Swings fellowship.

Nicole's CV is available here.

Yoona Hur is a Seoul-born, New York-based artist, architect, and educator. Her practice explores cultural identity, spirituality, and materiality through ceramics and painting. Drawing from Korean traditional arts, nature, meditation, and eastern philosophies of timelessness and impermanence, her work evokes the contemplative spaces between presence and change.

Her projects have been exhibited and acquired internationally, including in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Her works have been featured in leading publications, including Rizzoli, Wall Street Journal Magazine, The Architect’s Newspaper, Architectural Digest Italia, Elle Decoration France, The New York Times: T Magazine, Cereal, Dezeen, Maison Korea, Milk Decoration, Design Anthology, Surface, and Cultured Magazine.

As an architect, she worked at Matthew Baird Architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Agrest and Gandelsonas Architects in New York City. Her works include several institutional and cultural projects at various scales, phases and locations: Museum of Image and Sound (Brazil), Columbia University Medical Tower, South Amboy Community Center, Louis Armstrong Museum Visitor Center, Glendale Library Renovation, Spring Island Art Center and Woodmere Art Museum (U.S.A).

Hur holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2006) and a Bachelor of Architecture from The Cooper Union, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture (2010). She has been a guest lecturer and critic at The Cooper Union, SCAD and The School of Art Institute of Chicago.

Hur's CV is available here. 
 

Elizabeth O’Donnell served as Associate Dean for the School of Architecture for eleven years. A member of the faculty since 1984, Professor O’Donnell has taught ARCH 132 Structures II (as part of the structures sequence with Professor Emeritus Ysrael Seinuk), the project based course ARCH 185 Crossings, ARCH 131 Design III as part of the studio team, and currently teaches ARCH 122 Structures I.  She has recently presented at the 2012 Imagining America National Conference in New York, the 2012 World Energy Forum in Dubai, the 2012 Deans’ Roundtable at the Center for Architecture New York, was a panelist on the Town and Gown symposium “Next Steps for the City’s Design-Related Academic Institutions”, served as liaison for the New Museum’s Ideas City festivals in 2011 and 2013, and she was rapporteur for the 2010 Dubai Forum. 

She produces and co-edits the school’s annual newsletter and was a member of the president’s Revenue Generating Task force in 2011. She frequently serves on design reviews, most recently at the School of Architecture at City College, Barnard College and Pratt Institute. In practice she has completed numerous projects in New York City including offices for non-profit foundations, schools, loft residences, and building additions, with an emphasis on the adaptive reuse of existing buildings and sites. She has served as consultant to artists including Yoko Ono and Tadashi Kawamata for site-specific projects. Her work has been published by Bauwelt, Interior Design Magazine, Conran’s Design Book, Occulus, the New York Times and the Architectural League. Recognition includes an award for Design Excellence from the NYC Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and an award for Design Distinction from International Design magazine.

O'Donnell is on the advisory board of the design and construction web venture “Sweeten”, and is a member of the Zoning Commission for the Town of Taghkanic, New York that is rewriting its Zoning Code to foster a rural economy and protect natural resources.

She graduated from The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union after studying at the University of Minnesota and Antioch College and will complete a Master of Education at the City University of New York in 2014.

View Elizabeth O'Donnell's CV here.