Milagros
Lecuona
A member of our club since 1999, Milagros was elected in her first run
for City office, and was sworn in as a member of the White Plains Common
Council on January 7, 2008.
Lecuona Brings "Unique Talents"
By Rock Stamberg
Published: January 11, 2008 in the White Plains Times
After winning election to the Common Council in November, newly sworn-in
Councilwoman Milagros Lecuona told White Plains residents, “I’m a fighter,
I’m a hard worker, and I’m going to be there for you.” Lecuona aims to work
according to her own credo, which she calls “D.D.E.E.,” an acronym for
Development, Diversity, Environment and Education, “though not necessarily
in that order,” she said in an interview after being sworn in on Jan. 7.
“Right now I am busy getting familiar with all the issues…and I am planning
to get more involved with the ones that are more related to my expertise.”
“The Renaissance of our downtown has dramatically changed the face of
White Plains and has brought new challenges for the infrastructure and for
the health and safety of the residents,” Lecuona said. “I want to work to
stabilize our tax base, protect the character and safety of our
neighborhoods, increase our affordable housing stock even more, acquire and
preserve open space, develop a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly downtown and
have an open government willing to work to achieve the best results for our
residents.”
Trained as an architect in Spain (she holds a BA/MA from the School of
Architecture of the University of Barcelona but is not a New York
State-licensed architect), Lecuona is a project director for Peter Gisolfi
Associates in Hastings-on-Hudson, where she manages large-scale building
renovation and new construction projects, and she is president of Lecuona
Associates. “I believe that in this particular historic moment for White
Plains,” she said, “my architectural and urban planning experience, in
combination with my own cultural background, will add unique talents to the
ranks of the Common Council.”
“Technology is something that is really governing our lives,” Lecuona
said, “and I want to make sure technology and green building design are part
of our normal way of working in White Plains.” To make her point, at her
initial Common Council session, Lecuona recused herself from voting on the
proposed façade for the affordable/market-value housing planned for 240 Main
St. because she hadn’t yet been brought up to speed on all the details her
colleagues previously had. “The approval was for the design and the
materials and I hadn’t yet seen the list of materials. Just because [the
developer] is saying ‘It’s a glass building’ doesn’t mean they’re giving you
all the information. There are hundreds of types of glass…and since part of
this building will be [designated] for affordable housing and there have
been issues with [estimated] monthly heating bills…in a glass building,
that’s quite an issue,” she continued. “Cappelli and his lawyer said that
they already know how to deal with [the] issue of lowering energy costs for
affordable housing, but we haven’t seen it. I don’t know what kind of glass
or other materials they’re [planning on] using. It’s one thing to approve a
design; another is to approve a design and materials. I’ve been in the
[architectural] business for more than 25 years and have had to present
similar presentations to my [former] clients…when [I] presented designs, I
presented a lot of boards with a lot of details. What was presented [at the
Common Council session on Monday evening] was just one board with two
images. I think it would have been quite rash of me to approve the exterior
look of a building on the most important street of the city without having
seen all the details.”
At A Glance: Milagros Lecuona
Lecuona was born in Spain and attended the German School in Tenerife,
Canary Islands, Spain. In 1970 she moved to Barcelona to attend the School
of Architecture at the University of Barcelona and to become a team player
for the Real Club de Tennis Barcelona. In 1978, she moved to Madrid, where
she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, majoring in Urban
Planning at the School of Architecture at the University of Madrid. Lecuona
moved to the U.S. in 1987 and has been a White Plains resident since 1989.
She has two children, both of whom are White Plains High School graduates.
She became a U.S. citizen in October 2005 and a Democratic district leader
in 2006.
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