Female visionaries; Brilliant architects of the 21st Century

(plus a few who influenced the 21st Century)

Donna D Carter; Revitalizing the Urban Core

DONNA D. CARTER, President of CARTER DESIGN ASSOCIATES, has experience in Architecture, Planning and Restoration projects. She has performed these professional services for institutional and governmental facilities, as well as for private clients. Project types include medical facilities, educational buildings, museums and community emergency response related facilities.
Ms. Carter has experience in master planning and urban design for economic development and revitalization projects. Many of the revitalization efforts have involved historic restoration and preservation. She has also provided transit related architectural, planning and development services. She has performed citizen participation and outreach for transit related projects and development issues. She has represented clients before boards and commissions as well as in public forums.

Teresa Coady; Building a Sustainable World

Coady is managing and founding partner of Bunting Coady Architects, a firm which focuses on constructing commercial and institutional buildings that are "biologically active producers of energy, rather than passive conservers." (Bunting Coady’s most significant contract at the moment is for the redesign of the Peace Arch customs and immigration building.)

In a recent paper, Coady notes that "buildings and their associated construction and occupancy footprints, consume one sixth of the world’s water, one quarter of the world’s wood and two-fifths of the world’s energy flow and raw materials

If the entire world suddenly developed overnight to the standard currently enjoyed in North America," she adds, "we would need seven planets Earth."

Coady is convinced architecture is moving away from a mechanistic paradigm "a shift that is occurring in every discipline," she says toward a more interconnected, biological paradigm, in which the energy flows and structural elements of buildings are modeled after patterns and rhythms found in nature. Coady and Bunting court would-be clients they feel are ready to pursue this approach which is often not only cost-effective, but cost-saving.

"Ancient arts describe a flow of energy that is lacking from our mechanistic approach to the engineered design of systems," she notes. "There is a natural biological exchange that we are dependent on to sustain life. We are only now beginning to realize that harmony in design is not only necessary for our survival, but spiritually as well. That is why architecture remains an art above a science."

Proselytizing clients to go green isn’t the way to go, Coady told Common Ground. "I don’t say to a client, try to make your building exhibit biofeedback, or reduce the amount of damage you’re doing to the environment, or try to have a building that takes care of itself you know, heats and cools itself. I don’t say to my client, "oh, try this out of context, this difficult, original thing to do and get on board with the direction that construction and architecture is going."

Instead, she explains to clients how it makes good business sense to follow principles inherent in natural systems. Mother Nature isn’t just smart, she’s shrewd; constructing eye-pleasing structures to maximum efficiency, using materials time-tested over millions of years.

I was born the daughter of an architect and spent much of my childhood on sites. I studied Engineering and Architecture and have an interest the integration of the art and the science of buildings to achieve the creation of living breathing buildings worldwide. In 1983 I did my thesis on this topic, and I started my company in 1992 to do this work. I had a partner join me from 1994 until 2006, and we created Bunting Coady Architects, one of Vancouver's well-known firms. Our firm specializes in sustainable architecture, planning and interior design. 

Note: Bunting Coady has now merged with BH Architects

Elizabeth Diller, NYC visionary

Diller Scofidio + Renfro is a New York City based  architectural firm founded by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio. They are particularly well known for their interdisciplinary approach to architecture. Their influence stems as much, if not more, from their contributions to the theory and criticism of architecture as from their built works. These are sometimes in the form of written work, but more often are in the form of installation art, video art or electronic art. They are the first architects to win a MacArthur Prize.


In 1986 they designed the set for The Rotary Notary and His Hot Plate, a performance piece by the Creation Production Company in Philadelphia which takes Marcel Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) as its inspiration, for which they received a grant from the Graham Foundation. Para-site, a site-specific installation they did for the Museum of Modern Art in 1989, investigated how technology is implicated in voyeurism. Their first built work (only the foundation) was the Slow House, a modest private residence almost completed in North Haven Point, Long Island, New York in 1990 (The client ran out of funds) . Flesh: Architectural Probes, published in 1994, and Back to the Front: Tourisms of War, published in 1996, are both collections of critical essays on architecture and culture interspersed with photos and drawings of their sculpural work. In 2002, they completed the Blur Building, a lake pavilion entirely enveloped in mist, at the Swiss Expo 2002. In 2003, they were the subject of a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum entitled SCANNING: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio. The firm recently designed the new building for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and has been working on the redevelopment of Lincoln Center inNew York City. In 2004 Charles Renfro was made a partner and they have since been known as Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

Staying active in the academic world, Elizabeth Diller currently teaches at Princeton University[1], Charles Renfro is a visiting professor at both Columbia Universityand Rice University, while Ricardo Scofidio has recently been named Professor Emeritus at Cooper Union.

In the summer of 2009, Diller Scofidio + Renfro opened the High Line, a park in New York City built on a stretch of an abandoned elevated train viaduct 20 feet above the street.

Notable Works:

Slowhouse (unbuilt, 1991)
Brasserie restaurant located in Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building, New York, NY (2000)
Blur Building Swiss Expo pavilion (2002)
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2006)
Alice Tully Hall performance hall redesign, New York, NY (2009)
The High Line elevated park, New York, NY (2009)
The Juilliard School renovation and expansion, New York, NY (2009)
Hypar Restaurant located at Lincoln Center, New York, NY (2010)
Brown University Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Providence, RI (2011)

Julie Eizenberg; Green Building Pioneer

In the nineteen eighties Koning Eizenberg Architecture began using sustainable features in their designs such as passive cooling, healthy building strategies, and sustainable water management techniques. In 1999 Koning Eizenberg designed and built their current studio as a demonstration project in economy and sustainability. Their office is recognized by the architectural community as well as the city of Santa Monica and state of California for its contribution to environmental responsiveness.

Koning Eizenberg Architecture (KEA) is an architecture firm located in Santa Monica, California. The firm was established in 1981 by Australian-born architects Hank Koning FAIA, FRAIA, LEED AP, and Julie Eizenberg, AIA, and in 2003 Brian Lane, AIA, LEED AP, assumed a managing principal role. The firm is recognized for a range of project types including: adaptive reuse of historic buildings, educational facilities, community places, and housing.

Koning Eizenberg Architecture’s work has been included in academic and popular publications including USA:Modern Architectures in History and A Guide to Contemporary Architecture in America Vol. 1.[4]Koning Eizenberg projects have also been published in magazines including I.D., Metropolitan Home, Architectural Record, Travel + Leisure, Residential Architect, Vanity Fair, Metropolis and Abitare, as well as in two monographs, Koning Eizenberg Buildings and Architecture isn’t just for special occasions.

Kathryn Findlay; Curvilinear Queen

Ushida Findlay Partnership
Kathryn Findlay, 1953-
Eisaku Ushida 1954-

The Tokyo-based Ushida Findlay Partnership was set up in 1987 by the
Japanese architect Eisaku Ushida and the Scottish architect Kathryn
Findlay. Ushida and Findlay are former associates of Japanese architect
Arata Isozaki (1976-82).

Ushida Findlay (also known by some as Ushida & Findlay Architects) work is characterised by plasticity: one of their most noted works is the fluid, organic project entitled Truss Wall House. However, the fluidity and boldness of the Japanese projects does not seem to have been expressed in their Homes for the Future housing. 

This housing project is orthogonal save the semicircular balconies.....which face north. The Ushida & Findlay building is reminiscent of CZWG's Cascades, Isle of Dogs in basic massing and is probably designed to harmonise with the adjacent building heights onto Glasgow Green and then softly step down to the internal postage stamp of greenery, out of some kind of respect.

Ushida Findlay were however also working on a Maggies Centre in Wishaw (now carried on by Reiach and Hall Architects, Edinburgh) and Granton Strand, Edinburgh so we will await with relish whether they can show more integrity with their oriental legacy. 

Eileen Gray, Pioneer and Visionary

Kathleen Eileen Moray Gray (August 9, 1878 – October 31, 1976) was an Irish furniture designer and architect and a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture.

Eileen Gray's contributions were overlooked for many years, but she is now considered one of the most influential designers of modern times. Many Art Deco and Bauhaus architects and designers found inspiration in Eileen Gray's furniture and house designs.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Gray was involved with the Union des Artistes Modernes which had well-known members. She designed and furnished herself a new home, Tempe à Pailla, outside Menton. This is another icon of Modernist architecture, a space designed for her to dwell and work, a living/working machine as she wanted it, a space which could be constantly changed with multi-purpose furniture.

Eileen loved a challenge; it is believed that was why she chose such a difficult site. She built on existing structures which anchored the house, based her house on ship structures, using forms that were long and narrow, many decks for views and levels for storage. Eileen was very social, she took advantage of the entertaining space for her guests and incorporated views of the city and the sea with balconies and large windows. However, she was also in a way private and enjoyed her space: this can be viewed on the plans of Tempe a Pailla on her choice of where she positioned her rooms, as the bedrooms, service rooms and courtyard were tucked away at the back, revealing a tranquil view of the distant mountains. It was almost like the house can be split in half, one side public and the other private. Eileen treated the outside space the same way as she treated the inside space; she did this by having the same tiles, the same material inside and out. She liked to take advantage of the sunlight, in fact she designed each room with regard to where she would receive the most sunlight or the least, and she even incorporated a way in which she could control the light in certain rooms: in the bedroom a medium-sized circle could be moved according to the amount of light she wanted to enter the room, almost like an eclipse, as if she had her own sun to play with.

Marion Mahony Griffin; Blazing architectural trails

Frank Lloyd Wright's first employee was a woman, and she became the world's first woman to be officially licensed as an architect. Like many other women who design buildings, Wright's employee was lost in the shadow of her male associates. Nevertheless, Marion Mahony Griffin contributed greatly to Wright's career and also to the career of her husband, Walter Burley Griffin.

She was born Marion Lucy Mahony in Chicago, Illinois, the second child and eldest daughter of the five surviving children of Jeremiah Mahony, a journalist from Cork, Ireland, and Clara Hamilton, a school teacher. She graduated from MIT in 1894, where she studied with Constant-Désiré Despradelle. Mahony went to work the next year in the Chicago studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, designing buildings,furniture, stained glass windows and decorative panels. She would be associated with Wright's studio for almost fifteen years and was an important contributor to his reputation, particularly for the influential Wasmuth Portfolio, for which Mahony created more than half of the numerous renderings. Architectural writer Reyner Banham called her the "greatest architectural delineator of her generation". Her rendering of the K. C. DeRhodes House in South Bend, Indiana was praised by Wright upon its completion and by many critics.

Wright understated the contributions of others of the Prairie School, Mahony included. Unfortunately, the views of most architectural historians from the 1950s to 2000 follow Wright's lead. A clear understanding of Marion Mahony’s contribution to the architecture of the Oak Park Studio comes from Wright’s son, John Lloyd Wright, who says that William Drummond, Francis Barry Byrne, Walter Burley Griffin, Albert Chase McArthur, Marion Mahony, Isabel Roberts and George Willis were the draftsmen--the five men and two women who each made valuable contributions to Prairie style architecture for which Wright became famous. During this time Mahony designed the Gerald Mahony Residence (1907) inElkhart, Indiana for her brother and sister-in-law.

Zaha Hadid, 21st Century Visionary

Zaha-Hadid-photo-by-Steve-Double


Zaha Hadid, CBE (Arabic: زها حديد‎ Zahā Ḥadīd; born 31 October 1950) is an Iraqi-British architect, and is currently one of the top architects globally, and a visionary creator of iconic 21st Century buildings.

Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.

After graduating she worked with her former teachers, Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, becoming a partner in 1977. It was withKoolhaas that she met the engineer Peter Rice who gave her support and encouragement early on, at a time when her work seemed difficult to build. In 1980 she established her own London-based practice. During the 1980s she also taught at the Architectural Association. She has also taught at prestigious institutions around the world; she held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, the Sullivan Chair at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, guest professorships at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, the Knowlton School of Architecture, at The Ohio State University, the Masters Studio at Columbia University, New York and the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at the Yale School of Architecture in New Haven, Connecticut. In addition, she was made Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She has been on the Board of Trustees of The Architecture Foundation. She is currently Professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in Austria.

A winner of many international competitions, theoretically influential and groundbreaking, a number of Hadid's winning designs were initially never built: notably, The Peak Club in Hong Kong (1983) and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales (1994). In 2002 Hadid won the international design competition to design Singapore's one-northmasterplan. In 2005, her design won the competition for the new city casino of Basel, Switzerland. In 2004 Hadid became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Previously, she had been awarded a CBE for services to architecture. She is a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In 2006, Hadid was honored with a retrospective spanning her entire work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In that year she also received an Honorary Degree from the American University of Beirut.

Zaha Hadid's architectural design firm - Zaha Hadid Architects - is over 350 people strong, headquartered in a Victorian former school building in Clerkenwell, London.
In 2008, she ranked 69th on the Forbes list of "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women". On 2 January 2009, she was the guest editor of the BBC's flagship morning radio news programme, Today.

In 2010 she was named by Time magazine as influential thinker in the 2010 TIME 100 issue] In September 2010, The British magazine New Statesman listed Zaha Hadid at number 42 in their annual survey of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".
She won the 2010 Stirling Prize for one of her most celebrated work, the Maxxi in Rome.

Hadid is the designer of the Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park in Seoul, South Korea, which is expected to be the centerpiece of the festivities for the city's designation as World Design Capital 2010. The complex is scheduled to be completed in 2011.












A winner of many international competitions, theoretically influential and groundbreaking, a number of Hadid's winning designs were initially never built: notably, The Peak Club in Hong Kong (1983) and the Cardiff Bay Opera House in Wales (1994). In 2002 Hadid won the international design competition to design Singapore's one-north masterplan. In 2005, her design won the competition for the new city casino of Basel, Switzerland. In 2004 Hadid became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Previously, she had been awarded a CBE for services to architecture. She is a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica. In 2006, Hadid was honored with a retrospective spanning her entire work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In that year she also received an Honorary Degree from the American University of Beirut.

Anna Keichline, 20th Century Pioneer

Anna Keichline was the first woman to become a registered architect of Pennsylvania, but she is best known for inventing the hollow, fireproof "K Brick," which was a precursor to the modern concrete block. A hollow fireproof clay brick that was cheaper and lighter than any other building brick to that date. The K Brick could be filled with insulating or soundproof material and was designed for hollow wall construction. In 1931, the American Ceramic Society honored Anna Keichline for her invention of the K Brick.

A prolific inventor, Anna Keichline patented seven inventions. Anna Keichline's first patent was for an improved combined sink and washtub design. In 1924, she patented a kitchen design that included sloped countertops and glass-doored cabinets. In 1929, Anna Keichline patented a design for a space saving bed that folded away into the wall.

Maya Lin, Youth prodigy inspires

When she was only 21 and still a student, Lin created the winning design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

Maya Ying Lin (born October 5, 1959) is an American artist who is known for her work in sculpture and landscape art. She is the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C

Maya Lin, a Chinese American, was born in Athens, Ohio. Her parents immigrated to the United States from People's Republic of China in 1949 and settled in Ohio in 1958, one year before Maya Lin was born. Her father, Henry Huan Lin, was a ceramist and former dean of the Ohio University College of Fine Arts. She is the niece of Lin Huiyin, who is said to be the first female architect in China. Lin studied at Yale University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981 and a Master of Architecture degree in 1986. She has also been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Yale University, Harvard University, Williams College, and Smith College.She was among the youngest in Yale University when she received an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts in 1987. She is married to Daniel Wolf, a New York photography dealer. They have two daughters, India and Rachel. Lin, having grown up surrounded by white people, has said that she "didn't even realize" she wasChinese until later in life, and that it was not until her 30s that she had a desire to understand her cultural background. Commenting on her design of a new home for the Museum of Chinese in America near New York City's Chinatown, Lin attached a personal significance to the project being a Chinese-related project because she wanted her two daughters to "know that part of their heritage."

In 1981, at age 21 and while still an undergraduate, Lin won a public design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, beating out 1,441 other competition submissions. The black cut-stone masonry wall, with the names of 58,261 fallen soldiers carved into its face, was completed in late October 1982 and dedicated on November 13, 1982.] The wall is granite and V-shaped, with one side pointing to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the Washington Monument.

Lin's conception was to create an opening or a wound in the earth to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the soldiers. The design was initially controversial for what was an unconventional and non-traditional design for a war memorial. Opponents of the design also voiced objection because of Lin's Asian heritage. However, the memorial has since become an important pilgrimage site for relatives and friends of the American military casualties in Vietnam, and personal tokens and mementos are left at the wall daily in their memory.

Lin believes that if the competition had not been "blind", with designs submitted by number instead of name, she "never would have won". She received harassment after her ethnicity was revealed - prominent businessman and later 3rd party presidential candidate Ross Perot was known to have called her an "egg roll" after it was revealed that she was Asian.[15] Lin defended her design in front of the United States Congress, and eventually a compromise was reached. A bronze statue of a group of soldiers and an American flag was placed off to one side of the monument as a result.

Maya Lin is one of the most prominent architects in the 21st century. Although she started out in the 20th century, her vision and focus was always on how the space needed to be in the future and what it meant to the people. She tried to focus less on how politics influenced design but more on what emotions the space would create and what it would symbolize to the user. Her belief in a space being connected and the transition from inside to outside being fluid, coupled with what a space means, has led her to create some very memorable designs. Along with architectural projects, Maya Lin also worked on several sculptures.

Maya Lin's most significant works:

Vietnam Veterans Memorial (VVM) (1980-82), Washington, D.C.
Aligning Reeds (1985), New Haven, Connecticut
Civil Rights Memorial (1988-89), Montgomery, Alabama
Open-Air Peace Chapel (1988-89), Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania
Topo (1989-91), Charlotte Sports Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina
Eclipsed Time(1989-95), Pennsylvania Station, New York, New York
Women's Table (1990-93), Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Weber House (1991-93), Williamstown, Massachusetts
Groundswell (1992-93), Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio
Museum for African Art (1992-93), New York, New York.
Wave Field (1993-95), FXB Aerospace Engineering Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan
10 Degrees North (1993-96), Rockefeller Foundation Headquarters, New York, New York
A Shift in the Stream (1995-97), Principal Financial Group Headquarters, Des Moines, Iowa
Reading a Garden (1996-98), Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland, Ohio
Private Duplex Apartment, New York City (1996-98), New York[26]
Topographic Landscape (1997) (Portable sculpture)
Phases of the Moon (1998) (Portable sculpture)
Avalanche (1998) (Portable sculpture)
Langston Hughes Library (1999), Clinton, Tennessee
Timetable (2000), Stanford University, Stanford, California
The character of a hill, under glass (2000-01), American Express Client Services Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Ecliptic (2001), Grand Rapids, Michigan[26]

Marianne McKenna; The “M” in KPMG!

Marianne McKenna is a founding partner of the award-winning practice of KPMB Architects. She is an alumnus of Swarthmore College (B.A. 1972) and Yale University (M. Arch. 1976), where she studied under architect Harry Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed and Charles Moore. Prior to forming KPMB, Marianne worked for seven years as an associate of Barton Myers on projects ranging from the Hasbro Inc. New York showrooms to 35 East Wacker Drive in Chicago.

Marianne has directed a diverse range of KPMB’s projects which have received international acclaim in the spheres of culture, business and science. This includes the Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a watershed in sustainable design in the region and ambassador for Canada at the 2002 Green Building Challenge in Oslo, Norway. She was the design partner for the Torys LLP offices in downtown Toronto, which was the August 2008 cover feature of Interior Design. Marianne was also partner-in-charge of McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre* in Montreal and University of Waterloo Quantum-Nanotechnology Centre. Marianne has also partnered with Bruce Kuwabara on many of the firm’s civic projects, from Kitchener City Hall to most recently Le Quartier Concordia*, an integrated vertical campus for Concordia University in downtown Montreal.

The architecture of concert halls and how design is used to engage community and the public realm has been Marianne’s special focus for over 20 years through her work on the Royal Conservatory of Music. She first worked on a study for the RCM in 1986 as an associate of Barton Myers. In 1990, Marianne produced the award-winning Master Plan, and steered the phased realization including an updated Master Plan in 2003. Opening in September 2009, the RCM has been described as the ‘last jewel in the crown of Toronto’s Cultural Renaissance” and will be a unique international destination for music education, performance and community outreach.

Marianne has taught at McGill University, L'Université de Montréal and the University of Toronto and lectured and acted as guest critic at Yale University. She has juried a range of art competitions for integrated artworks for Concordia University, Torys LLP and others. Marianne currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Institute of Contemporary Culture (ICC) for the Royal Ontario Museum.

Julia Morgan, 20th Century Pioneer

Julia Morgan was the first woman to study architecture at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first woman to work as a professional architect in California. During her 45-year career, Julia Morgan designed more than 700 homes, churches, office buildings, hospitals, stores, and educational buildings, including the famous Hearst Castle.


Career Highlights and Challenges:

1902-1903: Worked for John Galen Howard, University Architect in Berkeley
1904: Established her own practice in San Francisco
1906: Office destroyed in a fire caused by the 1906 earthquake; Morgan established a new office
1919: Newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst hired Morgan to design his San Simeon estate, Hearst Castle
1920s: Problems with her inner ear required surgery that distorted Morgan's face and affected her balance
1923: Fires in Berkeley destroyed many homes designed by Morgan
1950: Morgan closed her office; she died in 1957
Selected Buildings by Julia Morgan:
1917: Livermore House, San Francisco
1922: The Hacienda, William Randolph Hearst's home at Valley of the Oaks, CA
1922-1939: San Simeon (Hearst Castle), San Simeon, CA
1924-1943: Wyntoon, Mount Shasta, CA
1927: Laniakea YWCA, Honolulu, HI
1929: The Berkeley City Club, Berkeley, CA

Shelia Sri Prakash, India's Visionary

Chief Architect and Founder of Shilpa Architects

Sheila Sri Prakash (July 6, 1955, Bhopal, India) is an architect and planner of Indian origin. She founded Shilpa Architects in Chennai, India in 1979 and has the distinction of being among the first women in India to have started and operated her own firm. She studied architecture at the Anna University School of Architecture and Planning and also attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design's Executive Education Program. She is a strong proponent of sustainable design and planning and is known for her work in introducing vernacular techniques into contemporary designs. She is regarded as the founding practitioner-researcher that identified and defined the field of Spaciology  - the impact of space design and planning on society. Her research findings seed an emerging perspective of study that are globally relevant yet particularly appropriate in high-density rapidly developing economies. Her work probes the powerful reciprocal impact linking the built environment to human behavior, through urban design, architecture andsociology.

She was also a key charter member who was instrumental in establishing the Indian Green Building Council.



Several of her architectural designs can be seen at Mahindra World City, New Chennai, the Madras Art Museum at the Cholamandal Artists' Village, Kuchipudi Art Academy in Chennai, Paranur Railway Station etc., and the World Bank funded urban housing development program in the year of shelter for the shelterless.

Over the last three decades, Sheila Sri Prakash has been a strong voice for uplifting the socio-economically disadvantaged through urban planning] She is the principal inventor on two patents for low cost building products and materials.

She has been invited to speak at several national and international forums such as the Confederation of Indian Industry and she was a key member of the delegation from India to the United States Green Building Council's Annual Conference in Chicago in 2007. On February 7, 2011 she spoke at the Goethe Institute about Notions of Space. In 2002 she was a Visiting Scholar and Research Fellow at Ball State University's School of Architecture. In 2011, she was selected by Leibniz University of Hannover in Germany and the University of Valencia in Spain, to be featured in a traveling exhibition across Europe that showcased notable women architects and their impact on society. She was the only architect from India, among seven women architects from around the world who were selected in honor of their professional accomplishments. She was an invited speaker during the Earth Day celebration at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, as an international expert in sustainable design in the developing world.

Sheila Sri Prakash is currently working on several projects worthy of note. Of particular significance is the new South City Township by Larsen and Toubro that is an approximately 4000 apartment residential township. Another large scale housing project within Mahindra World City, a boutique 5-star beach resort near Pondicherry, as well as the state of Tamil Nadu's first platinum rated office complex for Cethar Vessels

Denise Scott Brown; Creating Liveable Cities

Over the past century, there have been many husband-wife teams. Typically the husbands have attracted the fame and glory while the women worked quietly (and some would argue, intelligently) in the background. However, Denise Scott Brown had already made important contributions to the field of urban design when she met and married her husband, Robert Venturi. Although he appears to be more frequently in the spotlight, her research and teachings have shaped modern understanding of the relationship between design and society. Learn more about Denise Scott Brown

Important Works:

1970s: Preservation planning for historic districts in Galveston, Texas and Miami Beach, Florida
1980s: City plan for downtown Memphis, Tennessee
1990s: Helped prepare the master plan and schematic design for the Denver Civic Center Cultural Complex in Denver, Colorado. Also created campus plans for Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania.
Advised on urban planning and design for New York's World Trade Center site

Kazuyo Sejima, 21st Century Vision

Visionary Japanese architect launched a Tokyo-based firm that designed award-winning buildings around the world. She and her partner, Ryue Nishizawa, share the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize.



Kazuyo Sejima (妹島 和世 Sejima Kazuyo?, born 1956, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese architect. After studying at Japan Women's University and working in the office of Toyo Ito, in 1987 she founded Kazuyo Sejima and Associates. In 1995 she founded the Tokyo-based firm SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates) together with her former employee Ryue Nishizawa. Sejima has been appointed Director of the Architecture Sector for the Venice Biennale, for which she will curate the 12th Annual International Architecture Exhibition, to be held in 2010. She is the first woman ever selected for this position. In 2010 she was awarded the Pritzker Prize, together with Ryue Nishizawa.



Projects by Kazuyo Sejima and Associates:

Onishi Civic Center (2003–05)
Platform I Vacation House – 1987 to 1988 – Chiba, Japan
Platform II Studio – 1988 to 1990 – Yamanachi, Japan
Platform III House (Not Built/Project Only) – 1989 to 1990 – Tokyo, Japan
Castelbajac Sports Store – 1990 to 1991 – Kanagawa, Japan
Saishunkan Seiyaku Women's Dormitory – 1990 to 1991 – Kumamoto, Japan
N House – 1990 to 1992 – Kumamoto, Japan
An Apartment Building (Not Built/Project Only) – 1991 – Osaka, Japan
Nasumoahara Harmony Hall (Not Built/Project Only) – 1991 – Tochigi, Japan
Pachinko Parlor I – 1991 to 1993 – Ibaraki, Japan
Villa in the Forest – 1992 to 1994 – Nagano, Japan
Pachinko Parlor II – 1993 – Ibaraki, Japan
Y House – 1993 to 1994 – Chiba, Japan
Police Office in Chofu Station – 1993 to 1994 – Tokyo, Japan
Service Center at the Tokyo Expo 96 (Not Built/Project Only) – 1994 to 1995 – Tokyo, Japan
Yokohama International Port Terminal (Not Built/Project Only) – 1994 – Kanagawa, Japan
Gifu Kitagata Apartment Building – 1994 to 2000 – Gifu, Japan
Pachinko Parlor III – 1995 to 1996 – Ibaraki, Japan
U Office Building – 1996 to 1998 – Ibaraki, Japan
Small House – 1999 to 2000 – Tokyo, Japan
Kozankaku Student Residence – 1999 to 2000 – Ibaraki, Japan
hhstyle.com Store – 1999 to 2000 – Tokyo, Japan
Asahi Shimbun Yamagata Office Building – 2000 to 2002 – Yamagata, Japan
House in a Plum Grove – 2001 to 2003 – Tokyo, Japan
Onishi Civic Center – 2003 to 2005 – Gunma, Japan
Theater and Artscentre- 2007 – Almere, The Netherlands







Norma Merrick Sklarek, Photo by Rich Schmitt

Norma Merrick Sklarek, 20th Century Pioneer

Born in 1928, Norma Merrick Sklarek was the first African-American woman to be licensed as an architect in the United States and the first woman to be elected Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 1985, she helped establish the first architectural firm to be formed and managed by an African-American woman.

Her many projects include a new terminal, serving 10 million annual passengers, for Los Angeles International Airport.

Major Projects:
City Hall in San Bernardino, California
Fox Plaza in San Francisco
Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport
U.S. Embassy in Tokyo

Susana Torre; Elegance, Grace and Beauty

                                                                    Ironworkers Union

                                                               MOW Top Room

Susana Torre describes herself as a feminist. Through her teaching, writing, and architectural practice, she works to improve the status of women in architecture. She is best known for her urban design and her many renovations and remodelings. Susana Torre's works include:

1979: The Editor's and Graphic Designer's lounges in the Old Pension Building in Washington, DC
1980: The interior of the Consulate for the Ivory Coast in New York City
1981: A master plan for the restoration of Ellis Island in New York Harbor
1982: A turn-of-the-century carriage house in Southhampton, New York (This received an Award of Excellence of Design from Architectural Record)
1985: Schermerhorn Hall at Columbia University
1987: Fire Station Five in Columbus, Indiana

... and many more since!!!

Torre has been awarded numerous awards for her designs and scholarly work, such as the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies of the Visual Arts, The National Gallery, Fall 2003; The Graham Foundation 2002; The National Endowment for the Humanities, USA, 1986, 2005; The American Institute of Architects New York Chapter 1994; Fulbright Senior Scholar, US Commission for International Educational Exchange 1990; The National Endowment for the Arts, USA, 1973, 1979, 1986, 1990; and The Architectural Record Houses Award of Excellence for Design 1981 and 1988.

Roberta Washington; Building Healthy Cities

Roberta Washington, FAIA, has been principal of Roberta Washington Architects, PC since 1983. Prior to starting her own firm, Ms. Washington worked as a health facility planner/designer for various New York City architectural firms and later ran a design studio for Maputo Province in Mozambique where she designed healthcare, educational and cultural projects.

In her own firm, Roberta Washington has designed and acted as project director for dozens of new and renovated housing projects, schools and health facilities.

Ms. Washington is a past president of the National Organization of Minority Architects and a past chairperson of the New York State Board of Architecture. For six years she was also the Housing Committee chairperson and co-chair of the Land-Use Committee for Central Harlem's Community Planning Board. Currently she serves on the board of the Center for Architecture Foundation where she was 2009 president. In 2006 she was elevated to the American Institute of Architects' College of Fellows.







Sources: Architecture.about.com, wikipedia.org, CommonGround.ca, e-architect.co.uk, absoluteastronomy.com