Despite all the construction cranes that can be spotted around New York City, it is still the rare woman who gets to design a major building in this town.

Annabelle Selldorf and the late Zaha Hadid realized various high-profile New York projects. Now, as the lead architect for Greenwich West, a 30-story condominium rising in Hudson Square, Françoise Raynaud joins the select group.

Mrs. Raynaud, 59, is based in Paris and relatively unknown here, but she has made a name for herself at home with public and private projects, including libraries, cinemas, corporate headquarters and housing. She founded her own firm in 2005, after nearly two decades working for starchitect Jean Nouvel, much of it heading up his projects in Asia.

“I was the specialist of towers in the office,” she said in an interview in Greenwich West’s sales gallery, which will open in late October.