Kate Ascher is an author and was executive vice president of the

New York City Economic Development Corporation New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is a nonprofit corporation whose stated mission is to "leverage the city’s assets to create beneficial jobs that drive growth. This ensures equitable and sustainable development across al ...

. Her 2005 book, ''The Works: Anatomy of a City'', a textual and graphic exploration of how the complicated and often overlapping

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

of a modern city works, garnered wide discussion and praise when it was published. She left the NYCEDC in 2007 for

Vornado Realty Trust Vornado Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust formed in Maryland in 1982, with its primary office in New York City. The company invests in office buildings and street retail in Manhattan. Investments Notable properties owned by the ...

. She formerly held positions with the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorize ...

and in corporate finance. In the wake of the

2007 New York City steam explosion On July 18, 2007, an explosion in Manhattan, New York City, sent a geyser of hot steam up from beneath a busy intersection, with a 40-story-high shower of mud and flying debris raining down on the crowded streets of Midtown Manhattan. It was ...

Ascher was quoted by several media outlets on the history and nature of utility steam use. "We are an older city with infrastructure that was sophisticated in its time," she told the

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

. "In any one of those systems, there is older pipe and newer pipe." Asher is an Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

Education

Ascher received her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in government from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

and her B.A. in political science from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

References

External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alumni of the London School of Economics Brown University alumni 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American women {{US-nonfiction-writer-stub