Award-Winning Architect & Designer

Ronnette Riley is best described as a fiercely dedicated leader. She is dedicated to transforming Ronnette Riley Architect into one of the best places to work and work with! The Principal & Owner of the firm is grounded in a tradition of design excellence. Under Ronnette’s leadership, the firm’s success is build on translating their client’s goals into elegant and effective design solutions. Her firm has completed over 1,000 projects, including schools and higher education facilities, government facilities, healthcare facilities, offices, parks, bridges, maintenance facilities, cultural institutions, housing, and social service centers.

When Ronnette became a licensed architect in 1983, less than 1% of licensed architects in the United States were women. Now it’s crept up to between 15-17%; hence one can say there are still a lot of barriers for a female architect in a primarily male-dominated profession. “I have to not only be a good architect, but I need to teach my female architects how to navigate and negotiate with men and coach them to be stronger and stand up for themselves and their design when faced with bias,” she elucidates. “I am still occasionally addressed as “dear” or “sweetheart. We still have to have our ears up to ensure we are taken seriously.”

She is a support system to the female business owners out there, trying hard to establish themselves by being involved in professional organizations like AIA, CREW, NAWBO, and SARA that foster the success of young female professionals. Her involvement with such organizations has led to younger women seeking advice from Ronnette. “I have also had numerous employees over the years who have come back to me for guidance in starting their own firms, repeatedly. My entire firm is 72 percent women, and any mentorship starts in the office,” she adds. “I have many ways of working to inspire and empower my team members. I have hired an outside consulting firm to help with leadership and growth opportunities. We have had retreats and other training to provide professional development to all levels of staff. I ensure all my employees have face time with clients and knowledge of contracts. I encourage my team to become involved in outside activities that will empower them and benefit the firm.”

This unique ideology has been one of the key reasons for Ronnette’s success. “Success is a tall hill you climb every day. The beauty of architecture is incremental success, you have the opportunity to achieve at many levels. You have projects you do successfully, you have projects that are written about around the world, and you have projects that are modest and may only impact a family or neighborhood,” she says. “I’m still working on my journey with success, that’s the beauty within architecture. I felt successful sitting in 53 meetings with Steve Jobs for the design of the Apple flagship store and with the Chairman of the Coca-Cola Company for their first NYC Retail Store on Fifth Avenue!”

Ronnette Riley Architect is recognized for integrating both innovative and traditional materials and methods into intelligent and well-crafted spaces and for Ronnette’s ability to manage the collaborative construction process on time and budget. The firm’s reputation for comfortable design and technical competence has led to many repeat clients and steady growth in institutional, retail, commercial, and residential projects. “We have become an expert on accessibility (ADA) design, which has brought us both design work and expert witness work. Our industry is very susceptible to economic downturns, so having other capabilities helps weather those,” adds the pioneering leader. “Our biggest achievements have been creating alliances with other firms to do larger work. For instance, working collaboratively with our architectural friends and peers has allowed us to be involved in large transportation projects, including the current massive renovation of Penn Station in New York City.”

It is pertinent to mention that Ronnette Riley Architect has completed over 800 renovations, rehabilitations, or retrofit projects and wants to expand the ground-up portion of its portfolio. The company is currently working on the design of the new East Hampton Senior Center, collaborating with Ross Barney Architects, and designing a 5-story firehouse for the Fire Department of New York, working with Cameron Engineering & Associates. “For the future, we are working on ownership expansion. 75% of our rising leaders are women. We are expanding our office space; we are in a growth mode and have broadened the building types we design. There is so much more to come, and I aspire to be fiercely dedicated towards achieving it,” asserts Ronnette. WL