As an emerging skyline takes shape in Korea, it is hard to imagine that engineers here in New York are behind much of it. And at the forefront of the structural engineering team is Hi Sun Choi, P.E., vice president at Thornton Tomasetti, a project manager and key player in the world of structural engineering, real estate and design.

With more than 15 years' experience in the structural analysis, design and review of a variety of buildings, including commercial and residential, Choi maintains an extremely active schedule—both at work and at home with husband and two children, Nicholas, 11 and Brian, 6.

Choi is currently managing an array of projects in New York, Korea and other parts of Asia that will aim to revitalize and rebuild long underutilized areas. Her current projects include NSC Lot E5 in New Songdo City, Korea, consisting of two 40-story residential towers with five stories of retail space and five stories of commercial offices. Nearby, she is working on the 151-story Incheon Tower, which, at 1,902 feet, will be the tallest building in southeast Asia. The project includes 30 floors of offices, 10 floors of hotel space, 100 floors of condominium space and a five-story retail podium with two basement levels.

Additional current projects include Metapolis Project, Hwasung, Korea, two 66-story residential towers; NSC Lot D15 in New Songdo City, Korea consisting of two 40-story residential towers and six mid-rise residential towers. She is also heading up NSC Lot D20 and D21.1 in New Songdo City, set to become two 40- or 45-story residential towers, four mid-rise residential towers, and several low-rise commercial buildings. She is heading up the Haeundai U-Dong "We're the Zenith" tower in Busan, Korea, an 80-story and 70-story set of residential towers with a retail podium and six basement levels. This is set to become the tallest residential tower in Asia.

Choi's experience includes involvement in all phases of a design project, including analysis and design of steel and concrete structures, development of construction documents including specifications, coordination with the client and other trades and review of contractors' shop drawings. She is an industry expert in the design of pre-stressed, post-tensioned concrete slabs; the design of steel moment frames, including static and dynamic seismic analysis; the design of shear wall wind systems; and harmonic vibration analysis.
Along with supervision of the work of engineers and draft persons for entire projects, Choi also provides structural investigations of existing and proposed structures in an industry where fundamental structural understanding is key.

Choi received her B.S. degree in civil engineering from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. She completed her M.S.C.E. degree in 1993 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. As she sculpts the skyline in New York, Korea and beyond, Hi Sun Choi has gained a reputation as one of the city's most important and well-recognized contributors to the real estate and construction community. Tags: