Our Current Projects

While serving as the City of Shoreline's Senior Transportation Planner, Nora spearheaded the City’s adoption of a Complete Streets Ordinance that requires all roadway projects to be designed to accommodate all travel modes, including walking, biking, driving, and riding transit. The policy provides the legal teeth to shift from an auto-dependent community to one that offers multiple ways of getting around.

Subsequently, Nora led three rounds of successful grant applications for the Washington Transportation Improvement Board’s Complete Streets Award, collectively funding more than 1.5 million dollars of pedestrian and bicycle improvements in Shoreline.

As the City's Senior Transportation Planner, Nora led the vision for a trail that will run parallel to the light rail extension. The Trail Along the Rail will provide direct pedestrian and bike access to the 148th and 185th St. Stations, and beyond to the existing 195th St. pedestrian bridge. In addition, the trail will connect to parks, schools, business districts, and more. The trail also fits into a bigger vision of growing the regional trail network that will ultimately connect light rail communities throughout Puget Sound.

For the opening of the light rail extension on August 30, 2024, about 20 non-contiguous blocks of trail were constructed in partnership with Sound Transit. Now, the City is pursuing grant funding to build the full vision of the trail. 

During a very transformative time when the City of Shoreline was getting ready to open two new light rail stations, this timely study of how shared-use mobility hubs provide space for first and last mile connections to bikeshare, scootershare, carshare, as well as ride-hailing services. 

As the Senior Vice President of Sustainability, Codes and Standards, Tien led the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association's (NRMCA) efforts for advocacy in alignment with core values. Decarbonized the concrete industry by 21% in seven years by launching industry leading Environmental Product Declaration Program to meet international demand for transparency. Collaborated on the Concrete Sustainability Council responsible sourcing scheme recognized by the BREEAM assessment program and the USGBC Social Equity Pilot Credit

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2050 Carbon-Neutrality Roadmap

Arch2030 for Products

PCR for Concrete

Buy Clean is a procurement policy approach incorporating low-carbon requirements into government construction material purchasing. While at NRMCA Tien led policy development, lobbied federal, state and local governments for reporting of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), including incentives to assist manufacturers;  low carbon concrete in building codes; and successful adoption of first US low carbon concrete procurement law that meets performance requirements in real-world applications.

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 Washington State Aggregate and Concrete Association’s Director’s Award for Advocacy

 Trade Association of the Year by Reed Awards with 75+ legislative victories  

Each year, fire kills more Americans than all other natural disasters combined. It has become clear that current code language puts citizens, fire fighters, and other first responders at risk. To address climate changes, increase population and expanded use of combustible materials, Tien engaged in data analytics, represented the construction industry and proposed several code changes and legislative bills to ensure public safety through the functional recovery of property and community.

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LAFD Req No.07 Fire Safety at Construction Sites published

NASFM-Fail Safe Trade-Off Research

ICC -Tall Wood Buildings Research

Los Angeles Fire District 1 Expansion

Dodge Data Quantitative Analysis

Operational excellence -  While at Weyerhaeuser/Quadrant, directed production and business development capacity by strategically planning the concepts and products, environmental impacts, and market opportunities leading to a six-fold growth.  Lean tools included (1) designed value stream around customer, (2) balanced work flow evenly, (3) customer pull, and (4) continuously improvement. 

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MUDA: Defects-Over Production-Waiting-Non-utilized Talent-Transportation-Inventory-Motion-Extra Processing

Nora led the strategic vision to strengthen the vitality of Skyway Park by activating its edges and reinvigorating its interior through a broad palette of design interventions. Through a community-based outreach process, a set of park activation projects were identified to draw multigenerational use and spontaneous play.

Activation projects included a gateway park and a street vacation to create a more inviting and playful entrance to the park as well as major upgrades to the park’s sports fields, paths, parking, and lighting.

In 2023, King County Parks implemented $2.92 million of capital improvements based on the activation plan.

Concrete Joint Sustainability Initiative -Sustainable program management, social and climate policies - For millions of people in the U.S., the consequences of natural disasters have become increasingly real, personal, and devastating.  Recommendations and publication of the joint efforts between the public and private sectors in educating building professionals and other community leaders on the vital role of resilient, high-performing structures.

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Strengthened the built environment

Empowered advocacy

Launched integrated dialogue

As the City's Senior Transportation Planner, Nora guided the update of Comprehensive Plan’s Transportation Element (TE) to better serve the community’s current and future transportation needs. Based on public input, six measurable goals were developed to guide the implementation of the plan. Due to Nora’s leadership and expertise, the TE update process explored innovative ways to offer people more safe, convenient, and efficient multi-modal transportation choices.