Famed Pelli Architects to Headline New York Event on ‘Next-Gen Buildings and Cities’

OAKLAND, Calif., September 8, 2014 /3BL Media/ –– World-renowned architects César and Rafael Pelli will bring their vision to VERGE Salon: Next-Gen Buildings and Cities in New York City on September 16, a one-day event focusing on how technology and data are transforming the future of our buildings and cities. The father-son architecture team will participate during a day of presentations and workshops by corporate sustainability and technology leaders.

Awarded with the American Institute of Architects' prestigious Gold Medal, César Pelli is acclaimed for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and major urban landmarks, including the Petronas Towers in Kaula Lumpur, the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles and the World Financial Center and Winter Garden in New York City.

Rafael Pelli's design achievements include his work on Bloomberg Tower, the Simons Center for Systems Biology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, and high-rise residential buildings in Battery Park City. A leader in sustainable design, Rafael Pelli designed the Verdesian, the first LEED Platinum high-rise residential rental building in the United States and New York City's first LEED Platinum building.

VERGE Salons, part of GreenBiz Group's global VERGE event series, are high-energy events focusing on the technologies and systems that accelerate sustainability solutions across sectors in a climate-constrained world. Among the topics at VERGE Salon are how green infrastructure, technologies and grid solutions create value for buildings and cities; leveraging data to accelerate greenhouse gas reductions and water efficiency; and the impacts of benchmarking mandates on building efficiency upgrades.

“César and Raphael Pelli represent the convergence of world-class design and an understanding of how the next generation of buildings can play a central role in urban sustainability,” said GreenBiz Group Chairman and Executive Editor Joel Makower. “Their work embodies a central theme of VERGE, that technology and design can be a positive force for environmental and social change.”

One current Pelli project is the San Francisco Transbay Terminal, which includes the world’s largest rooftop park in the center of one of the world’s most sustainability-minded cities. The design features measures to increase biodiversity, water purification, air filtration and quality public space.

"We are honored to host a rare multi-generational conversation between two of architecture's great practitioners and urban visionaries, César Pelli and his son Rafael Pelli, who will candidly discuss some of the groundbreaking projects that they have created and are currently working on around the world," said Jack S. Nyman, executive director of the Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute. "These concepts will better empower individuals and lead to improved global knowledge that will contribute to reversing the unsustainable patterns of consumption that we have charted since WWII."

Other VERGE Salon featured speakers include, Bina Venkataraman of the White House, Vishaan Chakrabarti of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Seth Schultz of C40, Dana Schneider of Jones Lang LaSalle, Nils Kok of GRESB, Molly Zinzi or Google NYC, Brad Swing of the City of Boston, Jackie Henke of TD Bank, Richard Anderson of the New York Building Congress, Jon Orcutt of the NYC Department of Transportation, John Gilbert of Rudin Management Company and Michael Berkowitz of Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities Challenge.

VERGE Salon is produced in partnership with The Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute, of the Zicklin School of Business, at Baruch College, City University of New York, which provides applied research, professional and continuing education and conferences to the real estate industry, as well as organizations focused on public policy.

The event will take place at the William and Anita Newman Conference Center at Baruch College in New York City. For more information, visit http://grn.bz/VSALONNY.

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