6.11.15 | New York, NY | One of the top female leaders of global architecture and design firm Perkins+Will has been recognized as one of the most influential and inspiring women in the U.S. real estate industry. 

Janice Barnes, planning and strategies global leader for Perkins+Will, accepted the Sokol Media Pioneering Women in Real Estate award at a June 10 ceremony in midtown Manhattan. The award honors Barnes’ contributions to urban and regional planning, workplace design, sustainability, and “resiliency”—an increasingly important design strategy that focuses on a building’s ability to withstand more frequent and more powerful natural disasters brought about by climate change. 

Barnes, who is based out of the New York office of Perkins+Will, chairs the firm’s global Resiliency Task Force, advancing resilient design principles and practices firm-wide as a way to maximize environmental, social and economic benefits across communities. She also leads the New York office’s urban design, brownfield development, and community engagement strategies for municipal and regional clients, and writes extensively on workplace design. 

“The ability to think at various scales and create comprehensive, actionable, strategic plans is one of Janice’s major contributions to our firm and to peers in the practice areas she leads,” says Paul Eagle, the managing director of Perkins+Will’s New York office. “These successes have helped bolster Perkins+Will’s reputation in many industries as a hub of leading design talent and valuable expertise.” 

Barnes’ acceptance of the Pioneering Women in Real Estate Award comes on the heels of numerous other recent honors, recognitions, and leadership activities, including profiles in industry publications Architecture and Oculus; the publication of a book chapter in Wiley’s The Handbook of Interior Design; and a lifetime achievement award from the Cocke County Education Foundation in Tennessee, where she grew up. Barnes will also deliver the keynote at the St. Catherine’s University Design and Business Conference this fall in Minneapolis, and she is slated to appear in an upcoming video by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) on the role of resiliency in design. 

“Resiliency to climate change and its stressors is the greatest design challenge facing the world today. There are many roles to play, many scales to cross, and significant needs in most communities,” says Barnes. “I encourage each of us to think about what this means personally and use our respective talents to help to address this global problem.” 

Barnes joined Perkins+Will in 2001. She holds a Ph.D. in Architecture and Business and a Master of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan; a Master of Architecture from Tulane University; and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Tennessee. She is a LEED Accredited Professional. This is her first Pioneering Women in Real Estate Award.   

About Perkins+Will 

Perkins+Will is an interdisciplinary, research-based architecture and design firm established in 1935 and founded on the belief that design has the power to transform lives and enhance communities. Each of the firm’s 24 offices focuses on local, regional and global work in varied practice areas. With hundreds of award-winning projects annually, Perkins+Will is ranked as a top global design firm. Perkins+Will is recognized as one of the industry’s preeminent sustainable design firms due to its innovative research, design tools, and expertise. The firm's 1,700 professionals are thought leaders developing 21st century solutions to inspire the creation of spaces in which clients and their communities work, heal, live, and learn. Social responsibility is a fundamental aspect of Perkins+Will’s culture and every year the company donates 1% of its design services to pro bono initiatives. For more information, visit www.perkinswill.com.