Women architects

In the world of building design, the role of women is often forgotten. Certainly, male architects have captured the limelight with soaring skyscrapers and other high-profile buildings. Architecture is a male-dominated field; the most-sought after commissions and the highest awards rarely go to women. Nevertheless, many woman have overcome obstacles, established highly successful careers, and designed landmark buildings that change the way we see our world.

This page is your starting place for exploring the rich and varied achievements of women architects. You'll find links to information about several interesting and important women architects, followed by resources to help you discover other women who made important contributions to building and design.

Women Architects

Zaha Hadid
Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1950, Zaha Hadid is the first woman to win a Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Her work experiments with new spatial concepts and encompasses all fields of design, ranging from urban spaces to products and furniture.

Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan designed hundreds of homes, churches, office buildings, hospitals, stores and educational buildings in California, including the famous Hearst Castle.

Marion Mahony Griffin
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. Still, it's easy to speculate that Marion Mahony Griffin contributed greatly to Wright's career and also to the career of her husband, Walter Burley Griffin.

Denise Scott Brown
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.

Susana Torre
Born in Argentina, Susana Torre is best known for her many renovations and remodelings in the United States.

Anna Keichline
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.

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