Wellness of Ecosystems: Arup's Ilana Judah on Unconventional Paths, Clarity of Mission, and a Connections-Based Society
Ilana by David Anderson.
By Julia Gamolina
Ilana Judah serves as ARUP Americas’ Adaptation and Resilience Leader. A senior architect for over twenty-five years, Ilana is a climate specialist with profound experience throughout the built environment. Ilana was previously co-chair of AIANY COTE, a member of AIA National’s Resilience and Adaptation Advisory Committee and is a currently a board member of AIANY. She teaches and lectures widely, has received multiple awards for her research, and was a winner of Green Building Design and Construction’s 2017 Women in Sustainability Leadership Award. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Ilana talks about her evolution from an architect to a resilience leader, advising those just starting their careers to connect with people in different disciplines.
JG: I first met you at FXCollaborative, where you were the Director of Sustainability. You then went on to the University of British Columbia to get your Masters in Resources, Environment, and Sustainability. What were you looking to add to the expertise you had already built? How are you harnessing this for 2024 and beyond?
IJ: At FXCollaborative, I developed many years of experience in sustainable building design and urban design. Then after Superstorm Sandy, the experience I had helping clean up homes on Staten Island and participating in various recovery initiatives through AIA New York sparked my passion specifically for climate adaptation and resilience. I realized then that through professional practice, I didn't have enough of an understanding about how to think through the overall problem of resilience. I also thought it would be a good time, after ten years in New York and at FXCollaborative, to take an academic sabbatical both to understand the foundations of climate adaptation and resilience, but also to reflect on the past ten years and think about my path going forward.
I had a very enriching experience at UBC, working with one of the top professors in the field and in collaboration with the BC Housing Authority, who were an industry partner in my research. Through this time, I learned about climate adaptation and resilience from a more holistic perspective. My time in academia really helped me to think more broadly and to be more multidisciplinary in my approach, which has been very helpful in my current role at Arup.
Ilana speaking at the RIT Commencement. Photo courtesy of the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Going back to the beginning, you studied architecture at McGill. How did you choose where you studied architecture?
I grew up in Montreal. In Canada, it’s quite typical to go to university in your home city or province. McGill has been known as an excellent school since its founding — we call it the Harvard of Canada. There are several esteemed McGill architecture alumni working in New York, including Frances Bronet and Amale Andraos. As the School of Architecture sits within the Faculty of Engineering, it’s known for having a strong technical underpinning, in addition to design and a very strong history and theory program that was run by Professor Alberto Perez Gomez. In addition, I did not come from a well-off family. Going to McGill enabled me to have low in-province tuition rates, the ability to live at home, and very low debt when I completed my studies. I also really appreciated the opportunity to be in downtown Montreal, in an environment where I could be stimulated by the architecture, urban context, and historic fabric of the city.
Tell me now about how you got to Arup and your current role.
After Superstorm Sandy, I organized a panel titled “East Coast Adaptation” which included Fiona Cousins from Arup as a speaker. Arup was doing some really innovative work in this area, taking a systems-based approach to resilience. Rather than just implementing specific technical measures, they were thinking widely about how to make a system — whether it be a city, property, or governance structure — more resilient.
A few years later, I was interested in writing a paper on tall building resilience for CTBUH and asked Fiona if she'd like to be my co-author. When I was leaving FXCollaborative to study at UBC, Fiona encouraged me to reach out after I completed my degree. Arup kept coming up during my studies. The REDi resilience-based design rating system Arup developed emerged in my thesis research, as did the City Resilience Index. Arup was completing a seismic resilience study for UBC’s campus which my professor asked us to read. Fiona was also one of the many stakeholders I interviewed as part of my academic research. When I was ready to move back to New York the timing was such that there was an opportunity open to lead resilience for Arup’s East Geography, which I successfully applied for.
“Communication is essential — every resilience project I’ve worked on to date is not about delivering hard answers. It’s about a process of collaboration with my colleagues.”
How is it different than your previous roles in sustainability? What are you most focused on these days?
Leading climate resilience at Arup means being part of a multidisciplinary engineering practice that also includes architecture, advisory services, planning and urban design, and other disciplines. I’m part of a large team of nearly thirty people in Arup’s East Geography, and many more across our Americas region. In addition, whereas I previously had to cover all aspects of climate and sustainability as a generalist, I now rely on specialist subject matter expertise in many areas. For example, if I have a question about how to address air quality in a wildfire or how to reinforce a structure to reduce tornado risk, there is a specific person I can speak with for each.
I'm working on a variety of resilience projects right now, mostly with public sector clients. The projects range from rail infrastructure risk assessments, affordable housing resilience retrofits, to public healthcare resilience planning. I feel very privileged to be working on projects that are going to benefit the social good. It's been a wonderful experience to broaden my work beyond the building scale and learn from so many others that have expertise in various specialties.
Looking back at your career overall, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
The challenge throughout my career has been taking the road less traveled, and sometimes feeling like I’m actually paving a whole new one. I've questioned what my next step would be at various milestones throughout my career. This started in architecture school, when I was trying to figure out what my thesis topic was, when sustainability was not in the mainstream of architectural education.
When I decided to leave FXCollaborative, I was at a similar point of trying to identify the next step in my unconventional path. I spent about six months working with a specialized coach to determine my need to return to studies, my shift towards climate resilience, and the acceptance that in order to take this path, I would likely not be working in an architecture firm in future.
I would say that's really been the biggest challenge for me — a lack of clarity. When I know what my mission is, it's very clear, and that mission sets forth a clear direction. But when there's lack of clarity, that's when there's challenge and frustration. Trying to get to that clarity requires a lot of patience and acceptance of things not always revealing themselves when you want them to, but knowing that they will come to you when you're ready.
“ Trying to get to that clarity requires a lot of patience and acceptance of things not always revealing themselves when you want them to, but knowing that they will come to you when you’re ready.”
What have you also learned in the last six months?
It's been a difficult few years if you consider the aftermath of the pandemic, the ongoing climate crisis, multiple wars, and the challenges our industry is currently facing. These are challenges that drive us to be more nimble, more creative, and to learn how to navigate increasing uncertainty and complexity. What I've learned in this context is that it's really, really important to keep communicating and to be open. It's a time where it's easy to be fearful, where there's perhaps an instinct to be protective, but where it’s essential to be open, to have strong communication, and to be vulnerable.
The field of climate resilience is a challenging topic — you are designing for an uncertain future and dealing with very, very complex systems. Communication is essential — every resilience project I’ve worked on to date is not about delivering hard answers. It's about a process of collaboration with my colleagues. It's about working together with my clients who I consider my collaborators, to find approaches that help respond to an uncertain future. As somebody who likes to feel secure, who likes to know the right answer, I think that this way of being has been a really interesting challenge and learning experience for me.
Who are you admiring now and why?
I have a lot of admiration and respect for my current clients, many of whom happen to be women. They are working as climate leaders in large complex organizations trying to affect significant change. This can be a herculean effort, which they are undertaking with tremendous grace. Their roles require both technical skills and less tangible capabilities such as emotional intelligence.
And then, my colleagues. I'm working with many people who are in the earlier parts of their careers and I appreciate their work ethic, commitment and passion in a world that one can feel quite pessimistic about these days. I also work with many leaders who are women at Arup and who have been pioneers in the field of engineering, surmounting many obstacles to get there. When I need encouragement, I think of them.
Ilana hiking at the Olympic National Park. Photo by David Anderson.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
It goes back to the way I was brought up by my parents who were modest, humble people. They defined a way of living that wasn't about excessive consumption, but about experience, community, and repairing the world. How do we create a sense of a good life, a happy life, and a better environment that isn't centered around consumption, that is about meaningful connection, experiences and sharing? That's my mission — to change the way we think about how we live. There are a series of communities around the world called the Blue Zones. These are places where you have the highest number of centenarians, most of whom are healthy and active. These areas are not wealthy, they're places that by standard economic metrics might be considered fairly poor. However, they are rich with community, where people are healthy, contributing, and living sustainably.
As an architect, I fundamentally believe that shifting the way we live from a consumption-based society to a connection-based one will give us the best chances of surviving as a species on this planet. It will not only affect our wellness — physically, psychologically, and societally — but will most importantly impact the wellness of our ecosystems. Success to me looks like a shift towards these societal values.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career?
Starting your career, it's really important to get to know lots of people of different ages, different backgrounds, and who are doing different things. One of the things many architects I know did was hang around architects a lot. That's good in many ways — these are your peers, these are your friends, you have a lot in common with them, and you've been through a lot together. However, I would encourage people to reach out to people doing other things. What does a person in finance do? What does an economist do? What does somebody who's working in international development do? As we live and evolve in this very complex world, where I think the key to being successful will be to function in a way that's multidisciplinary. Solving the problems we face require all kinds of backgrounds, skills, and creative ways of thinking. Being able to connect with different people doing different things in different disciplines will open our minds to creative solutions.
At the same time, it's really important to have a strong foundation in what you were trained in. Most people who I've advised who are very interested in going into sustainability and who have studied architecture, I've encouraged to do their exams and spend the first five years of their careers practicing architecture to understand the foundations before they specialize. These are two different pieces of advice, but I think both are very important and not necessarily in conflict with each other.