The annual gathering of Columbia Business School real estate alumni took place on May 5th at the Columbia Club of New York and was a celebration of Professor Lynne B. Sagalyn, as we honored her, and thanked her for her vision, dedication, and thought leadership. This lively reception, which draws alumni from near and far, is presented annually by the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate and Real Estate Circle and sponsored by Goodwin Procter LLP. Cia Buckley Marakovits ’93, CIO and Managing Director of Dune Real Estate Partners, presented Professor Sagalyn with the 2016 Distinguished Real Estate Partner award on behalf of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate, to a room of Columbia Business School alumni spanning 55 graduation years.  

Lynne B. Sagalyn is the Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate at Columbia Business School where she is the director of the MBA Real Estate Program and the founding director of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate.

An expert in real estate development and finance, Sagalyn has published extensively on a broad range of issues in the fields of urban development finance, public/private partnerships, and real estate finance. In addition, she has developed scores of cases for graduate-level teaching of real estate finance and investment strategy and been an innovator in curriculum for real estate study.

She is widely known for her research on city building. After more than twelve years of work, Power at Ground Zero: Politics, Money, and the Rebuilding of Lower Manhattan will be published by Oxford University Press September 2016 on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. Her earlier books on city building included Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon (MIT Press, 2001), and, Downtown Inc.: How America Rebuilds Cities, co-authored (MIT Press, 1989). In addition, she has published numerous articles in referred journals.

Professor Sagalyn’s activities outside academia are diverse. She has been a litigation expert, a consultant to both private firms and public agencies and a member of the New York City [Board of Education] Chancellor’s Commission on the Capital Plan. She has done extensive executive teaching, particularly for Tishman Speyer Properties and the Urban Land Institute. For nineteen years she has served on corporate boards; currently she serves as Vice-Chair of UDR (NYSE:UDR) and a director and chair of the audit committee of Blackstone Mortgage Trust (NYSE: BXMT). In the not-for-profit realm, she serves on the board of directors of the Regional Plan Association (RPA) and co-chairs its New York Committee, the Skyscraper Museum, and the audit and compliance committee of Planned Parenthood New York City.

Prior to returning to Columbia in July 2008, Professor Sagalyn held appointments at the University of Pennsylvania in both the School of Design (City Planning Department) and the Wharton School (Real Estate Department).

Professor Sagalyn received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University, and a B.S. with distinction from Cornell University. Prior to her appointment at Columbia Business School, she was on the faculty of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at M.I.T., where she taught Real Estate Finance as part of the school’s pioneering degree program in real estate development.

Professor Sagalyn will be stepping aside from her current role and role and will become Professor Emerita at the end of this academic year. It was an honor to celebrate her superior contributions to Columbia Business School and the Real Estate Program in particular.

Thanks to all who were able to attend. For those who were unable to join in the festivities, see who from your class was there, by viewing the below photo slideshow. We hope you can join us next year. (For a full-screen view of the photo slideshow, click on the icon at lower right of the slideshow.)

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