2025 Year in Review: Yumi Moriwaki, Ronnette Riley Architect

What accomplishment, milestone, project or transaction stood out for you or your firm in 2025? One of our firm’s first ground-up design projects, a five-story firehouse in Elmhurst Queens finally broke ground on its former site and is now framed up to the 4^th floor and is progressing steadily towards completion by next year. Both the firehouse and the successful restoration and reinstallation of a public art mural by Richmond Barthe at Kingsborough Houses, as well as our firm’s work on a new design-build project at Amtrak’s Sunnyside Yards are the fruits of successful collaboration at different urban scales and I look forward to the projects coming alive in their communities.

What emerging trends or shifts will shape opportunities for you, your firm, or market sector in 2026? Evolving energy codes and decarbonization efforts means more buildings are turning towards full electrification which in turn makes how we approach and design the building envelope and the building infrastructure and grid supporting a more energy efficient city more critical. As a firm working with clients with large portfolios of especially existing buildings, we expect continued growth on projects improving the appearance and performance of the building envelope, building electrification and accessible housing.