2020 Women in Real Estate: Tamar Warburg, Director of Sustainability at Sasaki

Who inspired you to join the CRE Industry? I had been torn between two passions, architecture and sustainability. Ed Mazria’s manifesto in 2003 was a revelation: if buildings produce half of global greenhouse gas emissions, why not combine the two into a sustainable architecture practice? We can design and build for climate change, with energy-conserving – and producing– architecture that contributes to a more resilient environment. 

What recent projects are you most proud of? Sasaki is an incredibly creative and ambitious design firm, and I’m proud to be part of teams designing carbon-neutral and energy-positive buildings for Princeton Athletics, Mass Bay Community College Health Sciences Center, and the Southern CT State University Business School. All feature high-performing building envelopes and systems with renewable energy generation including solar PV and geothermal. 

What is the best advice you have received, and who was it from? A colleague said that yes, COVID is tough; but as women, we know how to adapt. We have the resilience to refocus our planning work in light of the virus, we understand how to redesign offices to reduce transmission, and we have a renewed appreciation for the design of public open spaces. Most of all, we are developing new methods for creative collaboration and client engagement even while working remotely. Resilience is the key.