2024 Women in Construction: Joy M. Ortiz-Colón, Amenta Emma Architects

What was your greatest professional achievement or most notable project in the last 12 months? 

Growing up in Puerto Rico, I fell in love with the Spanish-Colonial style architecture that has stood the test of time, historical battles, and weather. The fact that many of these structures are still standing centuries later inspired me to pursue a life-long goal of becoming a licensed architect. As of three months ago, I reached the finish line in completing all the requirements to be a licensed architect. After a five-year professional degree in architecture at Cornell University, then three years minimum of experience, and passed six licensing exams ranging from 3-5 hours long each, I’m incredibly proud to have finally achieved this goal. According to the AIA Connecticut, I am now one of 24 other licensed AIA Hispanics/Latinos within this state, and I’m very honored to be among those ranks. Que honor y felicidad! 

What has been the driving force behind your success in the AEC industry? 

I have been incredibly blessed to have a great support system and to have found wonderful mentors along the way. Having mentors to lean on for guidance and advice helped me mature professionally and grow in the confidence of my talents and abilities. Having experienced the value of having mentorship, I think it’s important to be able to become a mentor as well over time. Being able to inspire the next generation of architects and designers is something that I see as valuable. That’s one of my motivators for being so involved in JEDI and engaging in events for the Pre-K through 12^th grade and college students.