Read the February 2012 Briefly here.

In this issue:

• Architecture and the Great Recession
  
• BWAF 10th Anniversary Season
  
• Making A Place- Roberta Washington, FAIA
  
• Expanded Leadership at BWAF
  
• In Memoriam- Anne Griswold Tyng

Original photo by Flickr user nuria.mpascual

On March 8, the National Building Museum (NBM), in collaboration with the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF), presents its seventh annual Women of Architecture program, Architecture and the Great Recession. The program aims to:

• Examine the current economic situation in historical perspective
• Explore how women have been particularly impacted by the economic crisis
• Consider the opportunities created by this period of retrenchment
• Strategize about the best ways to cope with turbulent trends in the market sectors, from private to public and back again
• Discuss the changing priorities and values in contemporary architecture with a special focus on women and gender

WHERE: National Building Museum
401 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20001 (Judiciary Square Metro, Red Line)

WHEN: Thursday, March 8, 2012 6:30 – 8:00 pm

COST: $12 Member | $12 Student | $20 Non-member.

Buy tickets on NBM.org

A panel of developers, architects, and design experts examines how the building industry is responding to profound challenges created by the current recession. Mara Liasson, Fox News and NPR, provides opening remarks and then moderates a discussion among the following panelists:

Photo Credit: Doby Photography /NPR

Mara Liasson is a political contributor for FOX News Channel (FNC). She joined the network in 1997 and serves as a regular contributor to FOX News Channel’s “Special Report with Brit Hume,” the top-rated political program on cable television. She also serves as a panelist on “FOX News Sunday,” FOX Broadcasting Company’s (FBC) public affairs program that airs nationwide each Sunday morning. Liasson is a national political correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR). She joined NPR in 1985 as a general assignment reporter and newscaster. Liasson’s reports can be heard on the award-winning newsmagazines, “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition.” During her tenure, she covered the 1992, 1996 and 2000 presidential elections and prior to her current assignment, Liasson was NPR’s White House correspondent during all eight years of the Clinton administration.

Photo Credit: Sheila Cahnman

Sheila Cahnman is the Group Vice President / Regional Healthcare Leader for HOK based in Chicago. Her team’s projects include 1,000,000 plus square foot facilities under construction at Eshkenazi Health in Indianapolis and The Ohio State University Medical Center. Sheila is an accomplished writer and speaker on healthcare design including her article series on “Key Considerations in Patient Room Design”. She was recently selected one of the twenty-five most influential in healthcare design by Healthcare Design Magazine and serves on its Board.

Photo Credit: MaryAnne Gilmartin

MaryAnne Gilmartin is the Executive Vice President of Commercial & Residential Development for Forest City Ratner Enterprises in New York. During her 17 years at Forest City, Ms. Gilmartin has played a pivotal role in the creation of civic public/private development throughout the city.Ms. Gilmartin oversees the company’s most visible and prestigious projects: The Barclays Center — the future home of the NBA Nets franchise — collaboratively designed by Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects.

Photo Credit: Claire Weisz

Claire Weisz, AIA is an architect and educator based in New York City. Her partnership, WXY architecture +urban design, focuses on the public realm and urban and environmental regeneration. As a design focused practice, their work has been recognized by the profession’s top awards: an AIA NY Honor Award in Architecture (Bronx Charter School for the Arts), The Waterfront Center Top Honor Award (The Battery Bosque), an Architectural League Emerging Voices program in 2011 and a Chrysler/House Beautiful Innovative Designer Award in Architecture. Weisz was featured in the October 2011 issue of Architect Magazine, the magazine of the American Institute of Architects. She currently serves as the Treasurer on the BWAF Board of Trustees.

Photo Credit: Cathleen McGuigan

Cathleen McGuigan is editor-in-chief of Architectural Record, the nation’s leading architecture publication for more than a century. McGuigan is the second female to serve as editor in chief of Architectural Record. The first was Mildred Schmertz, who led the magazine from 1985 to 1990. In addition to guiding Architectural Record, McGuigan also serves as editorial director of GreenSource, a sustainable design magazine launched in 2006, and SNAP, a products publication that debuted in 2009.

Purchase tickets to the seventh annual Women of Architecture program, Architecture and the Great Recession on NBM.org.

Beginnings – what attracted you to architecture and how did you begin your career? Was there an influential experience or mentor that helped steer you towards this field?

Photo Credit: BWAFArchive

As a child I was attracted to drawing and art. In school, art was my favorite subject. When I was in the eighth grade, we had an English class assignment to interview three people who had occupations that we might want to pursue. I had thought I would become an artist but I had a fast reality check with one of my teachers who convinced me that becoming an artist was difficult – but if you were black and female, it was all the more improbable. To be practical, I probably wanted to think about becoming an art teacher, I was told. I interviewed my art teacher. But I needed two more occupations to complete the assignment.  I interviewed my Mom who worked at a hospital (in which I had no interest) and my mom suggested that I interview a new neighbor who was renting a house next door to us for a year. He was an architect who was teaching at North Carolina’s historically black A & T College (which since became a university).

Mr. Gray talked about how architecture expanded on art to create spaces and structures that could comfort the body, soothe the soul and stir the spirit. Architecture, he said, was problem-solving. Good architecture could improve people’s lives and their neighborhoods.  He made it all sound incredibly cooler than becoming an artist. I was hooked. From then on I had a name to describe what I really wanted to be in life. Architect.

When I told my high school guidance counselor that I wanted to become an architect she tried to convince me that architecture was a highly improbable field for a black person to choose. But because I had met a black architect I was sure that it was possible.  Although I didn’t know it at the time, my chance meeting with Mr. Gray at the age of thirteen steered my life in a direction that I could not have imagined before. In the library I found a little AIA pamphlet “So You Want to Be an Architect” which I read and followed religiously. Until I entered college, I never encountered another architect.

What does “architecture culture” signify to you, and how do you go about contributing to, and or changing, this culture? What are your hopes and dreams for the future of architecture and the built environment?

Architecture Culture is the dynamic which expresses how people interact and relate in the world of architecture; capturing the hierarchies, approaches and principles adhered to in the community of practice. The architecture culture also highlights the inclusion and exclusions of the profession.

At Howard University in the late 60s, my freshman architecture class of fifty had eight females. The architecture professors where black and white men and the visiting lecturers were mostly white men, but I was always sure that there were women out there somewhere.

1400 Fifth Avenue a 128 unit at 116th Street and Fifth Avenue. Photo Credit: Choi

At Columbia University’s graduate school (where I studied Hospital and Health Facility Design) there were many more women studying. However, it was programs offered by AIA NYC that I met the first practicing women architects. In time I joined the Women’s Caucus at the AIA and the Alliance of Women in Architecture.  It was through friendships made in the AWA that I found a study partner for the ARE and got licensed. In 1983 I joined the short-lived Association of Black Women in Architecture which was started in NYC by a black woman named Garnett Covington who herself had only recently become licensed.  There I found myself in the company of 30 or so black women – all of whom were or wanted to become architects. In 1985, Howard University had a conference on black women in architecture; during which I first met Norma Sklarek, who in 1954 had become New York’s first licensed black female architect. Skarlek was like the reigning mother hen to us all.

In 1997 I learned of two black women who had been licensed as architects in Illinois in 1942 and 1949.  I immediately decided that I had to know more about these women – their lives and their work.  Thus began a search for information that would expose and explain the lives of Beverly Greene and Louise Harris Brown. Since then I have researched and written about Beverly Greene who may have been the first black architect to work for the Chicago Housing Authority, who moved to New York, received her third architectural degree in 1945 (this time from Columbia) and worked for both Edward Durrell Stone and Marcel Breuer. Louise Harris Brown who became interested in architecture in the first place because of Mies van der Rohe lectures she attended in 1939. Brown got a second degree in engineering and worked designing the structural systems for two of Mies Van der Rohe’s best known Chicago buildings before establishing her own architectural practice in Brazil.

Louise Harris Brown in office of Frank J. Kornacker 1949. Photo Credit: Sarah Brown

[Editors Note: For more information on Brown's career, visit the Collection and Built By Women.]

Their lives were determined and complex and deserve to be known along with those of other early women in the profession. So in addition to trying to establish a place for myself in architecture, I’ve wanted to ensure that the legacies of blacks and women alike are not lost.  Concurrent with my practice, which I started in 1983, I’ve been building my own archive of pioneering black women in the profession.  Through my research I endeavor to “make a place” for these oft unheralded trailblazers, and envision publishing the fruits of my labor of love at some point soon.  Perhaps knowledge of blacks and women in the profession can alter the prevailing architecture culture.

Advice for someone interested in entering an architecture-related field?

Grimes Elementary School in Mt. Vernon New York. Photo Credit: Mark Valentine

By the time a person expresses a desire to become an architect they often have already decided that it is something that they must do. I would advise them to look at the different ways that one can be an architect. Whether it is designing in a large or small firm, a public agency or corporate realm,  or starting their own practice,  I ask them to explore ways to pursue their interest in a particular area: educational or health care projects, preservation, the next level of Green and sustainable design, interiors or one of the many other architecture-related fields which exist.

Most recently,  young people with recent degrees have asked for advice on how to get  a job in architecture. A hard question with no easy answers.

Favorite site, place, building? Why does this particular location speak to you?

I’d have to say my favorite location is New York City where the choices and mixes of environment are incredible. In addition to being able to easily see what other architects are up to, there are other benefits as well.

Want to commune with nature, go to the Botanical Gardens or Wave Hill.

Want to have lunch by the sea, go to Battery Park City.

Want to be transported to the past, visit one of the City’s many historic districts.

Want serenity, go to the Cloisters.

Want to lie in a meadow, visit Central Park.

Want to watch the world past you by, go sit on the red steps at Time Squares’ TKTS.

For more information on Roberta Washington Architects, PC, visit: http://www.robertawashington.com/

Matilde Ucelay Photo Credit: As seen on arch.columbia.edu.

Event Details:

Friday, February 10
4:00PM-5:30PM
Columbia University (Google Map)
Ware Lounge, 5th Floor Avery Hall
Sponsored by GSAPP

On Friday, February 10, Ines Sanchez de Madariaga will present her work on the Spanish architect Matilde Ucelay, the first woman to qualify to practice architecture in Spain.Her promising career was limited due to her participation in the defense of the Republic during the Spanish Civil War, for which she was prosecuted during Franco’s regime.

Ines Sanchez de Madariaga is a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the Madrid School of Architecture where she directs the first Spanish group on gender, architecture, and city planning, which she founded. She received her MSc from Columbia University, and her PhD from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid. She has been a visiting professor at Columbia, the London School of Economics and the Bauhaus School of Architecture. Her book on Matilde Ucelay is forthcoming.

“Women in Architecture: Matilde Ucelay” is coordinated by the PhD students in architecture history and theory at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

<Read More>

(1920-2011)

Anne Griswald Tyng, 1978. Photo Credit: The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania

Anne Griswold Tyng, FAIA architect, designer, and theorist renowned for her skills synthesizing geometry and the built environment, passed away at her Greenbrae, CA home on December 27, 2011 at age 91.

Tyng’s design legacy was one of pioneering and brilliance.  Born on July 14, 1920 in Jiangxi, China to Episcopal missionaries from Boston, Tyng had an interest in mathematics and geometric forms from a young age. She was among the first group of women to graduate from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design with a Masters of Architecture in 1944, and she was the only woman in the US to apply for and receive her architecture license in 1949, though during the exam one of the male proctors refused to administer the test to a woman.  Despite frequent discrimination in the job market because of her gender, she joined Louis Kahn’s practice Stonorov and Kahn as a consulting architect and continued to work with Kahn in his independent practice until 1964.  Tyng went on to teach at the University of Pennsylvania for 27 years, where she received a Ph.D. in architecture for her theoretical work on hierarchical symmetry and organic form in constructs of human habitation.  She received a number of grants to continue this work, including Grant Foundation Fellowships and a New York AIA Brunner Grant.

Yale University Art Gallery Ceiling. Photo Credit: Joy Wulke

Tyng’s best known architectural projects include the Trenton Bath House, Yale University Art Gallery, and un-built City Tower, all collaborations with Kahn.  She pioneered the use of the tetrahedron ceiling grid in the Yale University Art Gallery, a groundbreaking design for its visual dynamism and functionality that allows access to electrical and HVAC components.  The proposed City Tower, which utilizes tetrahedronal concrete floors for stability, was Tyng’s design.  Her independent work includes the Walworth Tyng House (1953) and Waverly Street House (1967), both of which utilize habitable space-frame construction—another of Tyng’s pioneering feats.  The Walworth Tyng House was awarded an Honorable Mention for its “ingenious structural system” by the AIA Philadelphia.

City Tower and plaza model (un-built). Photo Credit: Steven Vance

However, Tyng’s independent designs and contributions to Kahn’s projects are largely unknown to the public. Her work, like many others, suffered the fate of miss-attribution to her male counterpart. It was not until the twilight of her life at age 90 that her 2010-2011 installation, “Anne Tyng: Inhabiting Geometry”, brought her out from under the shadow of Kahn to publicly showcase her concepts in their full radiance and in their own right. Commissioned by the ICA Philadelphia and with a grant from the Graham Foundation in Chicago, the installation featured three-dimensional shapes at human scale that the audience could enter and explore, demonstrating the relevance of geometric form to spatial awareness.  The sculptures were complimented by a selection of archival material from her past projects, publications, and research, including Urban Hierarchy (circa 1970) and the Four-Poster House (1971-1974).

A truly visionary woman and captivating individual, Anne Tyng will be missed.

- Gioia Connell

[Show as slideshow]

The film premieres at the IFC. Photo Credit: BWAFArchive

The theatrical premiere of the film recently took place on November 18th in New York (International Film Center) and Los Angeles (Laemmle’s Music Hall).  Film screening and publicity can be found at First Run Features.  Also see the EAMES: The Architect and the Painter Facebook page for news.

Sally Helgesen, author of The Female Vision.

The second annual retreat of the BWAF Industry Leaders Roundtable convened at the Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund on October 12-13, attended by senior executives from eight of the largest architecture and engineering firms.  These leaders have committed to advancing women in their firms and in the building industry; at the retreat they assimilated ideas and knowledge from expert presenters Sally Helgesen, author of The Female Vision, and Sarah Meyer-Davis, Managing Partner of Strategic Diversity Advisors, into a qualitative, strategic case and a quantitative business case for women’s advancement. 

Sara Meyer-Davis on metrics in the building industry.

A key theme of the discussion was the desperate need for innovation in the built environment and the strong emerging evidence for the superior innovative capacity of heterogeneous teams. Among the outcomes of the two-day event: action plans for each firm and for the roundtable as a whole, and a strong statement of purpose and intent to lead the entire industry forward.

Pay Wu (Deloitte Services LP) on Mass Career Customization.

Three well-known speakers presented their latest research on these topics, followed by workshops led by facilitator Nancy Alexander.  Pay Wu of Deloitte Services, LP, presented Mass Career Customization. Author Sally Helgesen’s topic was Innovation: Why the Female Vision is Key. Sara Meyer-Davis opened the second day’s workshops with In Business What is Achieved is Measured.

Anna Franz & Barbara Price w/ Architect Barbie.

Special guest Anna Franz, Director of Planning and Project Management at the Office of Architect of the Capitol, spoke about High Performance and Sustainable Solutions for Historic Federal Buildings – Transformation and Innovation.

Franz also discussed the Capitol’s current architecture and engineering projects, as well as those coming up. Firms that attended the event included AECOM, Perkins+Will, HOK, Weidlinger Associates, Arup, Thornton Tomasetti, Sorg Architects, and Buro Happold, among others. For a full description of the Roundtable, click here.

In this issue:

• Industry Leaders Roundtable Retreat
• BWAF Fellow Premieres Eames Film
• Willis’s Lifetime Achievement Award
• Colleagues’ Corner – Despina Stratigakos, Lenore Janis, Francine Houben, Annabelle Selldorf
• Follow Up: Esther McCoy Exhibit at the MAK

A group shot of the WLS conference attendees. See photo credits below.

Summary of Willis presentation on the Glass Cliff

Women have broken the glass ceiling, but there are only a handful of women in the executive suites of the large AE firms. From the pinnacle of power and influence at the top, there is a steep fall off to the next level at the bottom of the cliff that is the second rung of firm leadership. To many women in the firm, the lack of women in the C Suite suggests that women’s voices are not considered valuable. Studies have shown this simply isn’t true and firms with women in top leadership are more successful.

Wondering why this situation exists, Willis looked at a number of factors. While women comprise on average  50% of the architectural class at all universities, shockingly, only one out of four design professors are women. Until the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Women’s Leadership Council was formed in 2005, no woman professor had ever been recognized with a teaching award. Now women are receiving about 25-30% of all the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture awards and over half of the writing awards. While many juried individual design awards have recognized women, very, very few women have been recognized by the AIA. None have ever received a gold medal and only a European, Zaha Hadid, has received a Pritzker Award. Only one woman-owned firm, the Boston based Leers Weinzapfel Associates, has received a Firm Award. Clearly this lack of recognition contributes to viewing women’s accomplishments as less valuable. Does this need to change? YES.

Summary of conversation between Nancy Alexander and Helene Dreiling, FAIA about cultural change

Nancy Alexander, BWAF vice chair, and Helene Dreiling FAIA, Secretary of the AIA, engaged in a summit-closing conversation about the possibilities for cultural change in firms and in the profession as a whole.  They built their remarks on three quotations: “Women are the real architects of society” (Harriet Beecher Stowe), “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” (Peter Drucker) and “Sometimes the strings just have to practice by themselves” (member of the Yale Black Alumni Association). Their conclusions:  without full participation by a full spectrum of society, with all its different perspectives, the creation and re-creation of entire new cities in the coming decades will not be satisfactory; that the present culture of the architectural profession isn’t hospitable to the different vision and contributions of women, and that so-called “women’s issues” must be recognized as critical strategic and business imperatives – everyone’s issues; and that while initiatives that empower individual women are useful, change will not happen unless firms and the profession also take collective responsibility for changing culture.  Among their specific recommendations: a commitment by the AIA to gathering more specific data not only to measure progress and deficiencies, but also because what a culture counts – and doesn’t count – sends a message about what it values.

For more information on the event, see the Conference website as well as the Speakers List and Summit Agenda.

Photo Credits: Heather Taylor