Associate Director of Urban Design and Building Innovation

2 years ago

Sidewalk Labs

Location
Language
Type
New York
English
Full-time
Level
Profession
Deadline
Mid-senior level, Senior
Urban designer
30.11.2021
Location
Language
Type
Level
Profession
Deadline
New York
English
Full-time
Mid-senior level, Senior
Urban designer
30.11.2021

About Us

Sidewalk Labs is an urban innovation company that tackles cities' greatest challenges. We create products and solutions, invest in new companies, and help developers build more sustainable, innovative, and equitable places around the world. Our ambitious vision requires us to push ourselves beyond conventional thinking, and we work hard in pursuit of our mission. Our cross-disciplinary team consists of experts from real estate, urban planning, government, finance, technology, and engineering, among other backgrounds. Our urban innovations include Delve (a generative design product that empowers real estate teams to design better, faster, with less risk), Mesa (an easy-install kit for commercial buildings that cuts energy costs, improves tenant comfort, and simplifies building operations), Pebble (a low-cost vehicle sensor to help manage parking and curb space), and Affordable Electrification (a new way to manage home energy use to meet a customer’s monthly budget). We're also developing an offsite construction company that can deliver high-quality mass timber buildings for more sustainable living and working. With the potential to radically improve quality of life in cities for all, our work is both exciting and complex. We are working to achieve something unprecedented — help us build it!

About the Role

Sidewalk Labs’ development advisory services team works directly with real estate developers to deliver innovative urban development services for more ambitious, sustainable, and equitable projects. Our end-to-end approach starts with a holistic project vision and an Urban Innovation Strategy that identifies, evaluates, and recommends best-in-class innovation opportunities around buildings, mobility, and infrastructure, and continues through piloting, design, and implementation. The advisory services team’s work draws on the multidisciplinary expertise of its urban development specialists, best-in-class external collaborators, and Sidewalk’s family of cutting edge technologies such as Delve and Pebble. Its work not only directly realizes value for and positive impact on some of the most ambitious urban development projects today, but also generates insights for potential new urban innovations. The Associate Director, Urban Design and Building Innovation role will be an integral part of the advisory services team. You will work directly with real estate development clients to craft Urban Innovation Strategies, synthesizing the team’s diverse expertise across real estate, finance, mobility, and sustainability into an actionable and compelling plan. Recent projects include the repositioning of the 180-acre Vancouver Innovation Center and creating the first-of-its-kind all-electric neighborhood in San Francisco. In particular, you will be a leading contributor in the areas of urban design, placemaking, and innovative buildings. You will draw on your technical expertise and past experience, and undertake research and external collaborations to help developers realize a more innovative, sustainable, and inclusive built environment. Your work will also help incubate new insights and ideas around building innovations, such as flexible use, healthy buildings, and sustainable materials. In this role, you will report to the Director of Planning.

What You're Gonna Do

Your primary responsibility will include: - Deliver development advisory services to real estate development customers, and contribute domain expertise around urban design, placemaking, and building innovations - Produce Urban Innovation Strategies that synthesize diverse innovation recommendations around program concepts, mobility, infrastructure, and sustainability, and produce graphic and written materials that communicate design concepts in a compelling way - Work across Sidewalk Labs and contribute domain expertise in urban design and building innovations to the development of products such as Delve - Support and eventually develop and lead new research and incubation initiatives focused on enhancing the sustainability and affordability of buildings through innovations, like flexible use, healthy buildings, sustainable building material, and low-energy buildings - What You Will Achieve After 3 months you will - Have made substantial contributions to several of Sidewalk Labs’ development advisory engagements - Gain familiarity with Sidewalk Labs products - Be able to pitch Sidewalk Labs and its development advisory services team externally After 6 months you will - Have developed the urban design, placemaking, and building innovation aspects of Urban Innovation Strategies independently - Have mapped out the opportunity space for new research and incubation focused building innovations, and developed an actionable research roadmap - Have become an expert user of Sidewalk Labs products such as Delve After 12 months you will - Be a design lead on advisory service client engagements, actively drawing on internal resources and managing external consultants - Have successfully executed a research scope around building innovations, and be in a place to support its further progress along an incubation and commercialization pipeline

About You

Experienced in urban design and building innovation - 5+ years of post-graduate experience, with a degree in MAUD, MArch, BArch + MUP or equivalent; - Experience working on complex urban district-scale master plans, with sufficient experience to have undertaken work with minimal supervision and across large, cross-functional teams; - Experience designing urban multi-family, multi-tenant commercial, and mixed-use buildings. An ideal candidate would have seen a project from feasibility through project execution, with experience interfacing with multiple design disciplines (e.g. structural, MEP); - Knowledge/experience with sustainable buildings; LEED or Passive House certification. - Demonstrated ability to innovate on urban- and building-scale design solutions that thoughtfully challenge the status quo; - Ability to draw on wide-ranging knowledge of sustainable and innovative building best practices, and propose and execute on an actionable plan for future research; Solve problems, together - Exceptional communication skills, both verbally and visually, with the ability to create anything from concept-level diagrams to drive internal consensus to compelling external-facing material for our advisory services’ clients; - Ability to work effectively across large, cross-functional teams, manage external consultants, and interface with clients; - Be flexible and able to respond to changes in a rapidly growing start-up environment; - You are committed to creating more equitable and inclusive outcomes both in the workplace and in the work you do. - We are very excited to hear from you.

Skills

What We Offer

Sidewalk Labs is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We actively seek applicants from underrepresented communities. Even if you are not 100% sure you are right for the role, please apply and we will be happy to consider your application. All employment is based on merit and business need, and we respond to each application we receive.

International Candidates

Unfortunately, it seems like this job is not available for international candidates. Unless you’re eligible for a work visa otherwise, please double-check with the company.
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