Biography

Professor in practice at New York City of Technology (CUNY) and founding principal of +lab architect pllc, whose mission is to build resilient capacity and advance goals for a sustainable, regenerative future while giving underserved communities greater voice and visibility.

He is an internationally recognized leader in disaster mitigation, resilient planning, and regenerative design strategies. He is part of Resilient 21, a coalition advising the white-house on resilient strategies. He served as a COP27 delegate and leads the COP-30 AIA team. He is a technical advisor on the New York State Climate Impact Assessment for the governor’s office. Illya worked with NYC OEM on 2023 Hazard Mitigation Plan for the city. As New York state disaster coordinator, he created the AIA Unified Task Force City and State addressing impacts of COVID19 pandemic Video Task Force. Illya is advised HUD, the federal government, as part of the Resilient Housing Taskforce.

While with ICC/ANCR- the Alliance for National Community Resilience helped create community resilience benchmarking system. He is a founding director of KIGRR – Kalinago Institute for Global Resilience and Regeneration on the island of Dominica. His office is advancing culturally significant community resilience hubs and regenerative cluster housing in several communities across the world. The US State department deployed Illya to missions in Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and the Republic of Turkey following the devastating earthquakes. He served as the 2021 AIA New York State president and is currently serving as the AIA National President. Prior to coming to New York, he worked in Germany, Italy, and Holland. He has worked in the field for over 30 years.

Bio Courtesy of: illyaazaroff.com