Úna Marley, 31

Úna Marley moved to New York City from her hometown in Ireland about six years ago, and she’s been making her name known in the city’s architecture world ever since.

At J.T. Magen & Company, Marley oversees project management from start to finish, providing leadership for complex commercial interiors construction and serving as the mastermind behind daily field operations. In addition to being the main point of contact on a site, she also has a hand in the actual design of the firm’s projects.

But the best part of her job, according to Marley, is learning something new every day.

“I fell in love with it straight away,” she said. “Every day is completely different. You just learn so much, and every single project is different. It’s like you keep doing new jobs, you’re working with new trades, new design teams, new clients, new buildings.”

Within the past year, Marley led the office fit-out for an 80,000-square-foot headquarters for a confidential global fintech firm in New York City, which has since asked her to return for all of its future work in the city. She also worked on an office relocation project for financial services company BBVA at Two Manhattan West.

As for her current work, Marley said she is managing a 40,000-square-foot vertical expansion to the top of “one of New York City’s largest office landlord’s buildings” as part of an amenity space addition, including an outdoor terrace. Marley said the project encompasses a lot of “new structural work” that she hasn’t done before, as it requires bringing up the property’s elevator to an extra floor.

But it’s no problem for Marley, who said construction and design was always her area of expertise, even since she was a kid.

“From a very young age, me and my sister were both tomboys. We would ask Santa Claus for tractors and trailers and Legos growing up instead of Barbies,” she said.