Women in Architecture
An exhibit to celebrate women's achievements in the field of architecture, inspired by the 10 year anniversary of the original Women in Architecture: Houston exhibit presented at the Architecture Center Houston.
Coming soon to TxA 2024!
SPONSORS - IN PROGRESS
Women in Architecture Through Time
2014 to 2024
in progress
Lesley Lokko
2024
Lesley Lokko wins 2024 RIBA Royal Gold Medal
Rossana Nu
2023
(Neri & Hu Design and Research Office in Shanghai)
Appointed head of Weitzman School of Design at UPenn
Kimberly Dowdell
2022
First black female AIA President
"The interesting thing about making history is it isn’t the reason I got involved in AIA leadership. It was more that my voice had agency, and that I saw an opportunity to shape the conversation to be more equitable and inclusive."
- Emily Grandstaff-Rice
Tatiana Bilbao
2021
Tatiana Bilbao exhibit at SF MOMA
'Architecture from outside in'
Lilly Reich Grant for Equality in Architecture
2020
2nd Lilly Reich Grant for Equality in Architecture has been awarded to the research proposal: “[On Set with] Lilly Reich” by Valencian architects
Rosa Kliass
2019
First woman to receive the golden Necklace from the Institute of Architects of Brazil.
Zoe Berman
2018
Founding of Part W - action group that campaigns to raise the profile of women in the built environment by celebrating and drawing attention to women’s projects and skills
Neri Oxman
2017
granted tenure at MIT
Annie Chu
2016
2016 Presidential Honoree of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Distinguished Educator Award
Elizabeth Diller
2015
Broad Museum
Elizabeth Chu Richter
2015
AIA President 2015
2004 to 2014
Helene Combs Dreiling
2014
AIA President 2014
Ivenue Love-Stanley
2014
Awarded Whitney M. Young Jr. Award for designing for social issues by AIA
Louise Bethune
2014
100th Anniversary of her death
"On behalf of women architects I express our collective and respectful anger....
Historically important women designers are still not in the history books. But at this moment—on this day—in the history of the AIA, I express our collective joy." - Beverly Willis, on accepting Julia Morgan’s posthumous 2014 AIA Gold Medal
Beverly Willis
2014
Speaks on behalf of Morgan
Judith Edelman
2014
Passes away
Elinor Evans
2014
Turns 100 on August 4, 2014
“I Teach Them To See”
Alloy Kemp
2014
Civil engineer for Thorton Tomasetti and daughter of Diane Legge Kemp
Diane Legge Kemp
2014
Appointed Sr. Assoc. Vice President, RTKL Intl.
Billie Tsien
2013
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects
AIA Firm of the Year
The Missing 32 Project
2013
Call to action for both women and men to improve retention of women in architectural profession.
Susana Torre
2013
Gives the keynote address at “Feminism and Architecture: Intergenerational Conversations” at Parsons School of Design
Jeanne Gang
2013
Studio Gang receives the Great Places Award for the Northerly Island Framework Plan from The Environmental Design Research Association
Caroline James and
Arielle Assouline-Lichten
2013
students at Harvard GSD, launched a petition in 2013 asking the Pritzker committee to recognize Denise Scott Brown for the 1991 Pritzker Prize.
Emily Little
2013
Firm Achievement Award 2013
Austin, TX
Elizabeth Chu Richter
Helene Combs Dreiling
Kate Schwennsen
and Susan Maxman
2013
Past, Present and Future AIA Presidents at 2013 inaugural ceremonies
Francine Houben
2013
Esther Mccoy
2012
Publishes Piecing Together Los Angeles: An Esther McCoy Reader
Carrie G. Shoemake
2012
Glassman Shoemake Maldonado
AIA Houston Firm of the Year
"No one can write about architecture in Los Angeles without acknowledging her as the mother of us all."
-Reyner Banham, on Esther McCoy
Birmingham Library
Birmingham, UK
Valerie Garrett
2012
Affordable housing through community development corporation
Portland, OR
Elizabeth Gray
2012
Est. Gray Organschi Architecture, Storage Barn
Monica Ponce de Leon
2011
Est. Monica Ponce de Leon Studio
Amy Slattery
2011
AIA Young Architects Award
Lira Luis
2011
Becomes first recipient of Women in Architecture and Design ATHENA Young Professional Leadership Award
"I hope that record is shattered in short order, and I think it will be.... It’s only 82 stories.
-Jeanne Gang, on Aqua Tower
Jeanne Gang
2010
Aqua Tower
Tallest building in the world designed by a woman
Kazuyo Sejima
2010
Wins Pritzker Prize with Ryue Nishizawa
Leslie Elkins
2010
Bayou Bend Visitor Center
Houston, TX
Barbara Bestor
2010
El Toro Residence
Santa Barbara, CA
Abby Stone
2010
Entry to 13.3 % Exhibit: “Pritzker Prize Winners with no Pants”
Donna Kacmar
FAIA
2009
Fisher Street House
Houston, TX
Stella Betts
2009
Est. LevenBetts Architecture
Selected for 2009 Emerging Voices series
Dina Griffin
2009
Principal at IDEA
Collaborated with Renzo Piano Building Workshop on the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago
Stephanie Eugster
2008
Designs ‘Light House’ for Competition ‘The 99K House Exhibit” 2008 (Finalist)
Jeanne Gang
2008
Ford Calumet Environmental Center
Caulmet, IL
Lori Ryker
2007
Est. Studio Ryker
"Many women architects teach, and say that the best way to encourage women to enter the profession is for them to see women on the faculty of architecture schools. They note that having women deans helps..."
-Suzanne Stephens, Not Only Zaha
Andrea Leers
2007
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
AIA Firm of the year
Kate Schwennsen
2006
Second woman elected President of AIA
"We become members of the AIA ...to learn to live a life as a professional."
- Kate Schwennsen
Julie Eizenberg
2006
Receives AIA National Honor Award for The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
Grace La
2005
Receives AIA Design Award for Brady Street Bus Shelter
Milwaukee, WI
"My Professor used to discuss our projects with us long into the night... and he would always ask about every detail of my project... about such seemingly unimportant matters as how to attach the door handle to the door... Once, out of sheer fatigue, I protested ‘But sir, this isn’t architecture!’
And he looked at me and said ‘Next time we meet, you bring me a list of three things which do not concern architecture.’
Well, I’m still looking for those three things."
-Eva Jiricna
1994 to 2004
Jennifer Siegal
2003
Appointed Loeb Fellow
Harvard GSD
Lori Ryker
2003
Est. Artemis an educational not-for-profit organization
"Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?"
-Zaha Hadid at opening of the Cincinnati Art Center 2003
Beverly Willis
2003
Est. Beverly Willis Foundation with intent to “change the culture of [the] industry so women’s work... is acknowledged, respected and valued.”
Leslie Elkins
2003
Live Oak Friends Meeting House
Houston, TX
Margaret Mccurry
2002
Named “The Designer of Distinction” by AIA
Lindy Roy
2001
Receives Young Architects Program award 2001 for her project “Subwave”
Toshiko Mori
2002-2008
Appointed Chair of Department of Architecture at Harvard GSD
Frances Halsband
2001
Receives Distinguished Plym Professor award
Sandy Mendler
2001
First winner of the Sustainable Design Leadership Award
Natalye Appel
2000
Oak Forest Library
Houston, TX
Laurie Hawkinson
2000
Corning Museum of Glass
Corning, NY
Allison Areiff
2000
Co-founds Dwell Magazine
Jennifer Yoos
1999
Partners with Vincent James Assoc. Architects
Minneapolis Rowing Club Boathouse
Minneapolis, MN
"Good ideas come from everywhere. It’s more important to recognize a good idea than to author it."
-Jeanne Gang
Zaha Hadid
1999
Mind Zone at Millenium Dome
London
Kate Stohr
1998
Founds Architecture for Humanity with Cameron Sinclair
Patricia Patkau
1998
Petite Maison du Weekend Wexler Center for the Arts
Columbus, OH
Sylvia J. Smith
1996
Appointed Principal FXFowle Architects
Jeanne Gang
1997
Est. Studio Gang
Monica Ponce de Leon
1994-1998
Inter-Faith Center
Northeastern University
Evanston, IL
1974 to 1994
Susan Maxman
1993
American Institute of Architects
Elected First Female President
Sheila Kennedy
1991 - 1995
Faculty at Harvard GSD
"We have the knowledge, we have the riches, we have the power. What is called for is a profound shift in the way we regard this planet and everything on it. Exploitation must be replaced by stewardship. And for stewardship to extend its healing hand, we must act responsibly."
-Susan Maxman
Lise Ann Couture
1989
Est. Asymptote with Hani Rashid
Brigitte Shim
1988
Est. Brigitte Shim Architects
Integral House, Toronto with Howard Sutcliffe
Nanako Umemoto
1986
Est. Reiser + Omemoto with Jesse Reiser
"Architecture is the architect’s sense of Civilization. Its future aesthetics will be the integration of architecture, engineering, and technology.
-Diane Legge Kemp
Susan Maxman
1985
Est. Susan Maxman Architects
Margot Siegel
Katherine Diamond
Norma Sklarek
1985
Est. Siegel-Sklarek-Diamond Architects, an all female firm
Merrill Elam
1984
Est. Scogin Elam And Bray with Mac Scogin
Hsinming Fung
1984
Est. Hodgetts and Fung with Craig Hodgetts
Tod Williams,
Billie Tsien,
Liz Diller,
and Richard Scofidio
1983
Art On The Beach 5
Margaret Mccurry
1982
Est. Tigerman McCurry Architects with Stanley Tigerman.
Instant City
Maya Lin
1982
Wins national competition for Vietnam Memorial design in 1981 as student at Yale University
Memorial opens in 1982
Susana Torre
1981
Wins Ellis Island Design Competition
Susana Torre
1977
Opens exhibit (Women in American Architecture) At Brooklyn Museum with Suzanne Stephens
Elinor Evans
1980s
Rice School of Architecture Faculty, including Elinor Evans
Laurinda Spear
and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
1977
Est. Arquitectonica with Bernardo
Fort-Breschia and Andres Duany
Natalie De Blois
1976
Begins teaching at University of Texas
Natalie DeBlois with former students
"Her mind and hands worked marvels in design and only she and God would ever know just how many great solutions, with the imprimatur of one of the male heroes of SOM, owed much more to her than was attributed by either SOM or the client."
-Nathaniel Owings on Natalie deBlois
Leslie Kanes Weisman
1974
Co-founds Women’s School of Planning and Architecture
1944 to 1974
Gertrude Kerbis
1973
Est. Women in Architecture Chicago with Cynthia Weese, Natalie de Blois, and Carol Ross Barney
Sally Walsh
1972
Joins S.I. Morris | Houston Central Library
Liz Diller
1971
with Richard Scofidio
SLOW HOUSE concept
Merrill Elam
1969-1981
Architect and Senior Associate
Heery and Heery Architects and Engineers, Inc.
Denise Scott Brown
1967
Begins partnership with Robert Venturi
Elinor Evans
1966
Rice University School of Architecture faculty
Norma Sklarek
1966
Appointed first African-American Director of Architecture at Gruen and Assoc.
Los Angeles, CA
Ada Louise Huxtable
1963
First architecture critic at The New York Times
"She has made people pay attention. She has made people care. She has made architecture matter in our culture in a way that it did not before her time."
-Paul Goldberger, on Ada Louise Huxtable
Natalie De Blois
1960
PepsiCo Headquarters
New York City
Natalie De Blois
1960
Union Carbide Bldg.
New York City
" ...an elegant box of glass and aluminum, floating on piers but respectful of the street and of the scale of its neighbors. Like the Seagram Building, it is a jewel of metal and glass....one of the few instances of modern commercial architecture in New York succeeding at what it set out to do — create an elegant, refined, and civilized environment that would enrich the city at large."
-Paul Goldberger on PepsiCo Headquarters
Juliet Peddle
1959
Designs Crawford Elementary School based on “passive solar principles”
Terre Haute, IN
Greta Grossman
1958
Hurley Residence
Los Angeles, CA
Beverly Willis
1958
Est. Beverly Willis and Associates
Beverly Lorraine Greene
1958
United Nations Headquarters
Paris
Annie Albers
1957
Invited to collaborate with Knoll Textiles
Anne Tyng
1954
Collaborates with Louis Kahn on City Tower concept
Marjorie Pierce
1953
Designs The Lexington Arts & Crafts Society Building
Lexington, MA
Eleanor Raymond
1949
Collaborates with Dr. Maria Telkes on Solar House
Dover, MA
Natalie De Blois
1948
SOM Terrace Plaza Hotel
Cincinnati, OH
"My buildings will be my legacy...they will speak for me long after I’m gone."
-Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan
1947
Works on the Hearst Castle
San Simeon, CA
1893 to 1944
Anne Tyng
1942
B. Arch. Radcliffe College,
Studied under Gropius and Breuer
Marion Mahony Griffin
1936
Designs library and museum for the Raja of Mahmudabad
Berenice Abbott
1935
Changing New York photographer;
documented the city and its urban design
"To create, one must first question everything."
-Eileen Gray
Eileen Gray
1931
Designs and furnishes Tempe à Pailla
Menton, France
Lilly Reich
1929
Barcelona Chair
Co-designed with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Eileen Gray
1929
Designs E-1027 with Jean Badovici
Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France
Charlotte Perriand
1928
B306 Chaise
Perriand was originally rejected by Le Corbusier when he told her, “We don’t embroider cushions here.”
"There is one thing I never did, and that was flirt. That is, I didn’t “dabble,” I created and produced, and my job was important. There was mutual respect, mutual recognition."
- Charlotte Perriand
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky
1927
Frankfurt Kitchen
Ise Gropius
1928
Bauhaus Woman
View of the engine room on the North German Lloyd ship
Bauhaus Women
1927
The weavers on the Bauhaus Stairway Dessau 1927:
From left going up the stairs: Lena Bergner; Grete Reichardt;
center top: Gunta Stölzl; next to her: Lijuba Monastirsky;
coming down: Otti Berger, Lis Beyer; on her right: Elisabeth Mueller and Rosa Berger; Ruth Hollos behind Lisbeth
Oestreicher in front.
Photo: T. Lux Feininger
Marianne Brandt
1926
Bauhaus Woman
Help! Liberated Woman!
Photo-montage
Gunta Stölzl
1923-1924
Black and White
Wall Hanging
Ida Ryan
1922
First woman in U.S. to receive M. Arch. at MIT;
Interior of Amherst Apartments
Orlando, FL
Isabel Roberts
1920
Architectural assistant to Frank Lloyd Wright
Gunta Stölzl
1917-1918
Serves in WWI as voluntary Red Cross nurse. Maintains sketchbook diary while serving behind Italian and French front lines
Annie G. Rock-Fellow
1918
Safford School
Tucson, AZ
"And why shouldn’t a woman do as well at this profession as a man? Why, in my opinion, the very nature of the field invites her services. In fact, it needs her."
-Fay Kellogg
Henrietta C. Dozier
1916
Est. private practice
Alice C. Austin
1915
Designs the commune of Llano Del Rio, CA
Mary Colter
1914
“Architect of the South West”
Lookout Studio
Grand Canyon, AZ
Marion Mahony Griffin
1912
Co-designs the City of Canberra in Australia with husband Walter Burley Griffin
Eleanor Manning
1908
Drafter for Lois Lilley Howe
Isabel Roberts
1908
Isabel Roberts House, often accredited to Frank Lloyd Wright River Forest, IL
Mary Colter
1905
Hopi House
Grand Canyon, AZ
Nora Blatch Barney
1905
Civil Engineer
Architect
Suffragist
First woman to earn an engineering degree in the U.S., Cornell University
Marion Mahony Griffin
1903
Church of All Souls
Evanston, IL
Henrietta C Dozier
1903
All Saints’ Episcopal Chapel
Atlanta, GA
Eileen Gray
1902
Among first women to be admitted to the Slade School of Fine Art, London to study lacquer work prior to pursuing Architecture
Josephine Wright Chapman
1902
Tuckerman Hall
Worcester, MA
Denied admission by AIA and Boston Architectural Club
Theodate Pope Riddle
1901
Hill-Stead
Farmington, CT
Julia Morgan
1897
First woman in U.S. to start and head her own firm
1897
First woman admitted to L’École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris after third attempt of entrance exam
1898
Sophia Hayden
1893
Women’s Building
Chicago World’s Fair
"Even more important than the discovery of Columbus, which we are gathered together to celebrate, is the fact the General Government has just discovered women"
- Berthe Potter Palmer, on the Women's Building at the Chicago World's Fair
About Us
About WiA Houston
Women in Architecture Houston is a committee of AIA Houston.
WiA works to promote equal opportunity, celebrate advancement, empower success, & foster future generations for women in architecture.
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