AIANY Women in Architecture Committee Meeting

This meeting is offered at the Center for Architecture and on Zoom. Please email skaba@aiany.org for details on how to join virtually.

Please join the AIANY Women in Architecture Committee at our October committee meeting. After committee and member announcements, we are excited to host Andrea Kretchmer of Xenolith Partners LLC (Developer) and Julie Chou of Purpose by Design Architects as they present their winning project, The Stemma, an 11-story affordable housing development in Crotona Park East, The Bronx.

This team was selected through a New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) competition, and the project will consist of 149 affordable apartments, 30,000 sf community recreation center, and will be designed to Passive House standards. This development will be constructed on a long-vacant, city owned lot between East 170^th Street and Jennings Street.

If you’re curious about how teams are put together for public competitions, what is required, and want to see what well designed and intentionally inclusive projects look like, please join us on October 16^th at 6:30 pm at the Center for Architecture or on Zoom.

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Andrea Kretchmer, Principal, Xenolith Partners LLC

Andrea Kretchmer is a developer of affordable housing and mixed-use projects in New York and Connecticut. Andrea is a founding principal at Xenolith Partners LLC, a woman-owned affordable housing development company. At Xenolith, Andrea focuses on new construction of mixed-use developments. Her interests include cultivating for-profit and non-profit partnerships; government, community and industry relations; and the pursuit of municipally-owned development sites.

Andrea has developed more than 1200 units of affordable and supportive housing, and has 500 more in predevelopment. Andrea’s developments include community facility space and supportive services. Among the populations served are formerly homeless individuals and families, survivors of domestic violence, those returning from incarceration and persons living with HIV/AIDS. Fitness, and passive and active recreation spaces are a focus of Andrea’s development projects. Xenolith is a certified WBE in New York City, New York State, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Andrea is a leader among WBE developers, working with lenders, investors and municipal agencies to support the participation and evolution of other WBE firms.

Prior to starting Xenolith, Andrea was also a founding principal of The Kretchmer Companies LLC, a woman-owned affordable housing development firm based in New York City and spent several years with a mixed-use developer based in Westchester County. With those firms, Andrea completed the development of Coney Island Commons and Stanley Commons, both 200,000+ sf mixed-use projects with large community facility spaces including a 43,000 sf YMCA. Andrea’s Connecticut experience includes the adaptive re-use of a historic mill in Stonington, CT and an award-winning 80-unit mixed-income Passive House development in New Britain, CT,

Andrea began her career as a practicing geologist. She has extensive experience in the investigation and remediation of contaminated sites throughout the New York metropolitan area. Her experience includes a wide scope of soil, surface water, ground water and ecological investigations. Andrea brings the unique combination of brownfield and real estate development to her projects.

Andrea received her Bachelor’s Degree from Colgate University and her Master’s Degree in Geology from UCLA. Andrea is the Membership Chair and a Board Member at the New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH) and is a Fellow at the Urban Design Forum. Her past board services include Citizens Housing and Planning Council, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the New York City Brownfield Partnership, the Bronx Real Estate Summit and Congregation Rodeph Sholom.

Julie Chou, AIA, Principal, Purpose by Design Architects

Julie Chou, AIA is an architect and a founding principal of Purpose by Design Architects (PXD), a woman-owned, purpose-driven practice dedicated to building strong communities and advancing the collective right to healthy, safe, sustainable, and equitable spaces. PXD is a certified WBE in NYC and NYS and is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and uplifting underrepresented professionals through its work.

Julie has led the completion of more than 500 units of affordable and supportive housing. Her projects have served diverse and vulnerable populations, including homeless and formerly homeless individuals and families, LGBTQ+ youth, people returning from incarceration, and persons living with substance use disorders and mental health challenges.

Beyond practice, Julie has advanced initiatives in shelter design, public bathroom access, trauma-informed spaces, and climate-focused policy through fellowships and grants with the Urban Design Forum, the Architectural League, and the New York State Council on the Arts. For the past eight years, Julie has served on Manhattan Community Board 5, where she is currently Vice Chair of the Land Use, Housing, and Zoning Committee, representing the community on major planning issues such as the recent Midtown South rezoning.

She holds an economics degree from the University of Chicago and an architecture degree from The Cooper Union, grounding her work in an interdisciplinary perspective that seeks to optimize site capacity for development of thoughtful, community-oriented and sustainable design, as opposed to simply maximizing the development of a site.

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The committees of AIA New York are the foundations from which the Chapter positions itself in the field of architecture, whether through discussion, advocacy, policy making and development, event and exhibition planning, or other endeavors.

Committees meet monthly, usually at the Center for Architecture. AIA members, AIA associate members, and general public are all welcome to participate.

If you have questions or are considering attending a meeting for the first time, contact each committee’s co-chairs for more information at aiany.org/committees.