keeping active is the reward

Sinoun Bun

Doorwoman

Sinoun Bun keeps it homey on the Upper East Side

BY MADELEINE THOMPSON

Sinoun Bun is in the right place for someone who loves kids and families as much as she does. Bun has been at doorwoman and concierge at 300 East 77th St. for 16 years and has come to know her building’s residents well.

She delights in working there and considers it a second home. “I love everybody — all the tenants, all my staff,” she says. “The building makes me happy, because all my kids are very old. Over here it makes me very active.”

Bun’s actual home is in the Bronx, where she has lived since coming to the city from Cambodia in 1983. She spent a brief period living in Philadelphia, where one of her daughters is working towards becoming a dental hygienist.

She has four children for whom she likes to cook just about anything; her kids particularly love her pasta. In her free time, Bun enjoys fishing. She goes to Crotona Park and Bear Mountain, and catches everything from striped bass to blue perch. “My dad got me into it and I got addicted to it,” she says. “It meditates your mind and keep you from all the drama.”

A self-described independent woman, Bun has had to advocate for herself as a female in a male-dominated industry. She started out in housekeeping and babysitting and worked her way up to doorwoman and then concierge. She handles packages, phone calls, work orders and everything else that makes the Upper East Side building feel like home.

The key, she says, has been to treat everyone equally. “If I have something to say I’m going to say it. I’m not so intimidated. I can’t let somebody look down on me,” she says. Besides, she gets along with everyone.

To other young women hoping to get ahead in the industry, Bun advises that they be patient and stay strong.