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.

Join Us for the WIA Monthly Committee Meeting on November 20th at the Center for Architecture!

We invite you to connect with your colleagues in architecture and design at WIA’s monthly committee meeting on November 20th, where we’ll be hearing from the 2025 Common Bond Scholarship recipients, Amanda Mostafa, Justine Flora, and Daniela Pedroza.

The Common Bond program is an annual initiative that celebrates design excellence and supports the Center for Architecture. Each year, scholarships are awarded to exceptional architecture students selected by area schools chosen by the Common Bond honorees.

These inspiring young women, at the beginning of their professional journeys, will share their achievements, ambitions, and perspectives on the future of architecture and design.

Join us for an engaging discussion and help champion the next generation of talent!

Amanda Mostafa is is a fourth-year Bachelor of Architecture student at New York City College of Technology. Her academic work reflects a strong commitment to design excellence, exploring the intersections of architecture, fabrication, and sustainability. Through studio and research projects, she investigates innovative ways to expand the boundaries of design and technology while emphasizing environmental stewardship and community engagement.

Beyond the classroom, Amanda is actively involved in leadership and service through the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and Freedom by Design, where she helps organize firm tours, workshops, and exhibitions that enrich the student experience. She also serves as a College Laboratory Technician in the department’s Fab Lab, supporting students in digital fabrication, model-making, and parametric design.

Justine Flora is a Master of Architecture candidate at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture. After earning her Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Barnard College, her early career in luxury retail drafting deepened her understanding of construction documents, code, and spatial layouts. Seeking design that engages more meaningfully with public life and environmental responsibility, she explored library design, landscape architecture, graphic design, illustration, yoga education, and food activism. These experiences as a collective remind her that playful design, from the kitchen to the classroom, has the power to strengthen collective networks. Her meditative drawing practice, informed by early drafting, remains the medium that unites her varied pursuits. Flora aspires to become a licensed architect and professor, and to establish a worker-owned practice committed to creating spaces that nurture collective well-being, honor local histories, and respond thoughtfully to the challenges of climate change.

Daniela Pedroza Altamirano is a fourth-year architecture student at Parsons School of Design whose work centers on mentorship, education, and care-driven design. As a board member of the AIAS Parsons Chapter, she leads initiatives that foster peer mentorship, academic support, and professional growth within the architecture community. Guided by the belief that architecture is both a discipline of making and of teaching, her approach emphasizes iterative experimentation and collaboration, values she brings into the classroom through tutoring as she works toward becoming an architectural educator. Having grown up across cities in South and Central America, Daniela developed a deep awareness of how architecture and urban planning shape social inequality and housing instability, experiences that inform her commitment to humanitarian architecture. She aspires to build systems of care and resilience through low-impact, health-conscious materiality and community-centered design.

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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.