Even before editor and historian Jan Cigliano Hartman began studying the history of architecture in the 1970s, she was well aware of the stark imbalance in printed knowledge between women and men architects. Forty years later and things still hadn’t changed.

“I was Googling general architectural subjects—architects under forty; architects at eighty; architecture’s top award winners—and I found that ninety five percent or more of the names that came up were men,” explains Hartman. “Yet, I knew of plenty of influential work by women. I also knew that many of their stories were buried under the weight of their dominant and more prominent male peers.”

It became clear the issue wasn’t going to disappear on its own, so she decided to do something about it. Hartman and Amale Andraos, a New York designer and former dean at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, are the authors of The Women Who Changed Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, March 2022), a collective biography highlighting 122 architects from 28 countries whose works have significantly influenced the trajectory of the built environment. Some names herein will be familiar—Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand, Florence Knoll, and Zaha Hadid. But many more had gone largely unrecognized despite their impressive achievements and contributions.

“This book will bring female architects into the central narrative,” Hartman says. “Students will now hear about Lilly Reich’s pivotal role in the design of Mies van der Rohe’s world-renowned chairs and Barcelona Pavilion, and Anne Tyng’s hand in the interior design of Louis Kahn’s Yale University Art Gallery and Design Center. And what about the many female associates of Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio? They are unsung heroes.” Read on for a sampling of the many works Hartman brings to light in an effort to set the record straight on the history of modern architecture.

Julie Snow

Julie Snow was born in Minnesota in 1948 and realized her passion for architecture while attending the University of Colorado. In 1989, she founded James Snow Architects with Vincent James, and, in 1995, opened her own firm, Julie Snow Architects. “I would pursue projects that had some visionary leader at the helm,” she says. “If you had a vision, if you had an idea of what architecture needed to do, then I would make it happen.” In 2014, Snow named firm-veteran Matthew Kreilich as coprincipal, and the firm became Snow Kreilich Architects. Today, about half of Snow Kreilich’s employees are women or minorities.
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Judith Chafee

Toshiko Mori

Meg Graham

Jeanne Gang

“When I began practicing, not much attention had been paid to tall buildings for quite a while beyond the realm of corporate architecture,” explains Jeanne Gang, founder of her Chicago-based firm Studio Gang. “I thought they deserved to be considered in a new way, and there seemed to be a lot of fertile territory not yet explored.” Since designing the eighty-two-story Aqua Tower in 2010, Studio Gang has continued to create sculptural skyscrapers that reject the traditionally hermetic environments of their predecessors by, for instance, extending the indoor/outdoor threshold of each unit with terraces that stand in for traditional porches. Over the past 20 years, the firm has grown to more than 130 people working from offices in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and Paris. At her firm, Gang discovered and fixed a small but unexpected pay gap between men and women, and called on other leaders to do the same. “Equal pay puts you at the same level,” she says. “It’s the key to being respected by your peers.”" layout="" credit="Aqua Tower, Chicago, IL, Studio Gang, 2010. Photograph by Steve Hall, © Hall + Merrick" photoUserId=""/>

Deborah Berke

Carol Ross Barney

Lisa Iwamoto

Lene Tranberg

Mónica Ponce de León

Ponce de León took a job teaching at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. In 1991, she cofounded Office dA with Nader Tehrani, and, in 2011, founded her own firm, MPdL Studio. A major focus of her career has been the application of robotic technology to building fabrication. At Harvard, she directed the school’s first robotic fabrication lab and served as the graduate program coordinator. From 2008 to 2016, she was the dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. Here, she developed the largest robotic fabrication facility in any school of architecture in the United States. Since then, this model has become the standard for the country’s architecture schools. In 2016, she became the first woman dean of the Princeton University School of Architecture while also continuing to practice at MPdL Studio." layout="" credit="Conrad NY Conference and Events Center, Conrad New York Downtown Hotel, New York, NY, MPdL Studio, 2012. Photograph by John Horner" photoUserId=""/>

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An Architect’s Book Spotlights the Profound Impact of Women Designers

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These Are the Women Who Changed Modern Architecture