Julie Hiromoto

She is an expert at delivering large-scale projects, including One World Trade Center. She is a leader of HKS’s Global Design Council and editorial board. She received the AIA's 2019 Young Architect Award, has taught sustainability courses at New York University and is an ambassador for the International Living Future Institute.

Prior to joining HKS, Hiromoto was at the center of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s high-performance initiative, beginning with its launch in 2009. Her team lobbied SOM’s leadership to sign the AIA 2030 Commitment—in the first few years of reporting, SOM became one of the most significant contributors to the 2030 database.

Julie Hiromoto founded the Sustainable Knowledge Network, which endeavoured to green SOM’s operations and offered a forum for discussion about green building strategies and technology. For more than a decade, she has played several critical roles in the firm’s project at One World Trade Center, including implementation of its sustainable design guidelines.

She was instrumental in launching CASE (Center for Architecture Science and Ecology), a forward-thinking building system technology research and development consortium that creates project teams of academics, design professionals, and manufacturers. The initiative has contributed to ten research areas through its unique style of engagement, producing a large-scale demonstration of air-quality remediation and energy savings by constructing a modular green wall based on NASA technology at an emergency call center in the Bronx.

She is a recognized leader in the sustainable design community and chaired the Large Firm Round Table Sustainability Group at AIA (2015-17). She helped create two new working groups focused on water and energy, and developed a water resource guide that is referenced in the COTE Top Ten Toolkit.