These Are the Women Who Changed Modern Architecture

Born in Chicago in 1949, Carol Ross Barney distinctly remembers as a child hearing John F. Kennedy talk about the importance of helping one’s country—and she felt that architecture was a way to do that. After graduating from the University of Illinois in 1971, she decided to enter the Peace Corps with her husband. They were assigned to Costa Rica, which she says was "the first place I was thrust into sustainability." Upon returning to Chicago, Ross Barney joined architecture firm Holabird and Root. Later, in 1973, she cofounded Chicago Women in Architecture and served as the group’s first president. She then started a solo practice in 1981 before partnering with college classmate James Jankowski in 1982, when they formed Ross Barney and Jankowski. "This is a really hard profession," says Ross Barney, "and I eventually did learn that being a woman in architecture is part of the hill you have to climb. But I never regretted my choices."