United Nations Headquarters
Conference Room 4
Every great city has great portals. Often spectacular in scale and scope, these portals are the entry points in cities that create the first impression. They convey the importance and the magnificence of the city; they define the collective ambitions of the populous; they are important cultural artifacts; they define the character of a city and they tend to last many generations.
The event organized by the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization in association with UN-Habitat and AIA New York will bring together key stakeholders from the UN system and other international organizations, the private sector and civil society to engage in a dialogue that emphasizes the integrated and cross‐sectoral nature of gateway portals as sustainable infrastructure with multiple roles in supporting the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The meeting will look at gateway portals linked by traditional and new forms of mobility as an organizing concept in support of the New Urban Agenda adopted by UN member states during the Habitat III conference III in Quito in 2016.
Registration closes May 16. Photo ID is required for entry to the UN.
9.00 AM REGISTRATION
10.00 AM OPENING SESSION
H.E. Mr. Peter Thomson, President, United Nations General Assembly
H.E. Mr. Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava, President, ECOSOC
H.E. Ms. Amina Mohammed, TBC
Keynotes
Dr. Joan Clos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
“The New Urban Agenda: a new approach to planning and shaping infrastructure”
Dr. Santiago Calatrava, Founder, Santiago Calatrava Architects & Engineers
“Gateway portals to cities around the world”
11:15 AM SESSION 1: CASE STUDIES – Gateway Portals to the City
Chair: H.E. ………Perm Representative of Norway (TBC)…..…. to the UN
Moderator: Professor Urs P. Gauchat, CSU; Dean Emeritus, NJIT College of Architecture and Design
Panelists
• Ms. Christina Tung, Grimshaw Global
• Mr. Michael P. M. Spies, Tishman Speyer
• Mr. David Dixon, FAIA, Senior Principal, Urban Design Group Leader, Stantec
• Professor William Menking, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architect’s Newspaper; Professor, Graduate Center for City and Regional Planning, Pratt Institute
Audience Q&A
12:30 PM SESSION 2: The Role of Design Professionals
Chair: H.E. Ambassador, María Emma Mejía, Permanent Representative of Colombia to United Nations
Introduction: Mr. Theodore Liebman, FAIA, CSU, Principal, Perkins Eastman
• Professor H. Oner Yurtseven, CSU, Professor Emeritus, Purdue School of Engineering
• Mr. David Piscuskas, FAIA, President, AIA New York Chapter; Founding Principal, 1100 Architect
Keynote
Mr. Thomas Vonier, FAIA, RIBA, President American Institute of Architects,
Secretary General, International Union of Architects (UIA)
1:00 PM LUNCH BREAK
The UN Cafeteria will be open to all participants during the noon break
3:00 PM SESSION 3: CASE STUDIES – Reshaping cities and the urban rural continuum through Gateway Portals
Chair: H.E. ………Perm Representative of Japan (TBC)…..…. to the UN
Moderator: Mr. James McCullar, FAIA, President, CSU; Principal, James McCullar Architecture
Panelists
• Mr. Feniosky Pena-Mora, Commissioner, NYC Department of Design and Construction
• Mr. Professor Francisco Sanin, Syracuse University (Medellin)
• Ms. Irena Zubcevic, Chief, Division for Sustainable Development, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
• Ms. Michelle Young, Founder, Untapped Cities
Audience Q&A
4:00 PM SESSION 4: Gateway Portals in implementation of the New Urban Agenda: A conversation on the way forward
Chair: H.E. ………Permanent Representative of Ecuador (TBC)…..…. to the UN
Moderator: Professor Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, CSU, ACSA Distinguished Professor, CCNY Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture
Panelists
• Professor Eugenie Birch, Penn Institute for Urban Research; President, General Assembly of Partners (GAP)
• Mr. Filiep Decorte, Acting Director, NYC Office, UN-Habitat
• Mr. Navid Hanif, Director, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination
• Mr. Sarbuland Khan, Former Executive Director, Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies (GAID)
Audience Q&A
5:00PM CLOSING REMARKS
Dr. Aliye P. Celik, Vice President, CSU
