Manhattan, NY Women’s advocacy organization Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) has released leadership posts for 2024 including the election of its new chair of its board of trustees, Angelica Baccon AIA, a principal of SHoP Architects. Previously the board’s chair-elect — and whose firm led the design of BWAF’s new headquarters and multipurpose space, called The Bev — Baccon is lauded for her work supporting the organization’s mission to lead a “cultural revolution in the building industry that “acknowledges, cultivates, and values women’s contributions and achievements — past, present, and future.”
Baccon has cultivated a specialty in leading mixed-use and workplace design projects, often at the intersection of enterprise and technology. Some of her works include the new Uber headquarters in San Francisco as well as other projects for global leaders in Silicon Valley. She holds a Bachelor in Architecture from ITESM in Monterrey, Mexico, and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University, where she has also served as a professor.
Baccon’s work on New York City’s South Street Seaport established her expertise in design and delivery challenges with multi-layered stakeholder groups, leveraging programs to promote vitality, equity and community in the private sector and public realm.
“I am honored and energized to take on this leadership post for the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, which strives to build a global movement that celebrates women’s impact on the built environment through research, documentation, public education, and transformation of industry practices,” said Baccon, whose post starts this month, following on the work of the board’s past chair, Michele O’Connor of Langan. “It has been equally rewarding to take part in the effort to create our new headquarters and community touchstone, The Bev, which stands as a symbol of the transformative potential inherent in collaboration.”
The group’s outgoing executive director, Cynthia Phifer Kracauer AIA, said, “We are delighted to Angelica’s strong commitment to advocating for gender equity in leadership and recognition in architecture, design, landscape, engineering, technology, real estate and construction, which have made her an ideal candidate for chairing our diverse board full of women representing many of those disciplines. Our staff and board members applaud her work and look forward to her leading our foundation forward in 2024.”
In addition to announcing Baccon’s new position as board chair, BWAF has announced the addition of six new board members: Sara Kendall of Turner Construction; Diana Zakem with Brookfield Properties Development; Sandra Joslyn of Gensler; Tami Hausman of communications agency Hausman; Victoria Ponce de Leon, P.E., with Silman, a TYLin Company; and Kate Wittels of HR&A Advisors.
BWAF leaders add that its new Manhattan headquarters, which hosts programs, exhibits, events and education, was designed by SHoP’s interdisciplinary team led by Baccon. The new and expanded home base, called The Bev, will support BWAF’s work in researching and documenting women’s contributions and achievements in the built realm, educating the public, and transforming industry practices. Baccon adds that The Bev will present exhibitions, public and invitation-only programs, and serve as a production hub for the acclaimed New Angle: Voice series on pioneering women in architecture and related fields.
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