Cathy Saldaña was a UP Diliman student leader in the late turbulent ‘80s, elected in the University Student Council in 1987. She graduated from the UP Diliman College of Architecture in 1990 and in 2000 graduated with Honors from the Asian Institute of Management.
Cathy is currently one of the prominent female Architects in the country. She is known for Hospitality Design, Retail Mixed Use, Corporate and Residential High Rises, Logistics, Industrial, Island Development and is one of the pioneers in sustainable resort design. She was also one of the pioneers in international architectural outsourcing in 2006.
She has been doing challenging and technical work out there in the Philippine islands, along coastlines, in major cities and provinces. She did 2 airports for Ayala Land, alongside several Ayala Land hotels such as Seda Lio in El Nido, Palawan, local design renovations of Shangri-La Resorts, Filinvest, Punta Fuego Group, Discovery, Marriott Hotels, HII and several private island luxury hospitality places.
She was recently awarded for Best Architecture Design for an Office Tower in the Asia-Philippine Property Awards for her Diamond Tower project for Damosa Land in Davao City. She has also received citations for other buildings and high rise projects.
There are advocacies close to her heart: inclusive sustainable architecture and the preservation of natural environments amidst new building technologies.
She is part of several women’s leadership groups such as Women in Real Estate, the Urban Land Institute WLI and is recognized for her contributions to the building industry as a female Architect. She was one of the first batch of writers for BluPrint in 1997-2004, and currently contributes articles to the Philippine Daily Inquirer for sustainable design and urban planning.
Hers is a familiar and strong voice in conventions and conferences both locally and internationally, as she has been and continues to speak at Hospitality Investment Conferences, Is one of the four Directors of Anthology Architecture Festival, and is active with the Urban Land Institute. She is always a speaker or a featured Architect at Worldbex, and is the Program Director for the upcoming World Congress of EAROPH or East Asian Regional Organization for Planning and Human Settlements in 2021, and many others. Cathy is an International Associate of the American Institute of Architects; was formerly President of the UP College of Architecture Alumni Foundation and in 2019 was elevated as Fellow at the United Architects of the Philippines.
She has recently delivered lectures and research papers both in Florence, Italy; Palermo, Italy and Newcastle, Australia.
She is the owner and Managing Director | CEO of PDP Architects, based in Makati City and another design outsource company called Collaboration Authority. She is also a Director of a real estate firm building a dive resort in Batangas.