Six innovative projects by women architects

While the profession of architecture continues to make strides in addressing its gender imbalance – nearly 50% of candidates pursuing licensure were women in 2023, according to NCARB data – men still hold the majority of licenses, as well as firm leadership positions. To mark the end of Women’s History Month, we’ve rounded up six outstanding projects by women architects who continue to blaze a trail in the field. Check them out below.  

Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts – Jeanne Gang, FAIA, Studio Gang  

Jeanne Gang, FAIA, leader of Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Paris-based firm Studio Gang, is known for the diversity of programs and sizes in her design work. This ethos is perfectly demonstrated in the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts restoration and renovation project, completed in 2023.  

The museum first opened in 1937 and had accumulated eight disparate structures over the years. It needed a cohesive vision for its future. Gang’s design united and integrated all the structures under a sculptural concrete roof, reusing the existing buildings while infusing them with new purpose. To the north, a “Cultural Living Room” acts as a flexible community space for gathering and special events, while to the south, an outdoor dining pavilion, which replaced an existing asphalt parking lot, opens the building to the neighboring MacArthur Park for the first time.  

Adams Street Library – Amale Andraos, WORKac  

Amale Andraos grounds her work at New York-based WORKac in experimental forms and bold uses of color, a style that Andraos and partner Dan Wood call “polemical optimism.” This has resulted in public projects ranging from playful parking garages in Miami’s Design District to an art museum in Andraos’ birthplace of Beirut, Lebanon. In addition to her work with WORKac, Andraos is also the first female dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Design.  

While doing community outreach for the Adams Street Library project in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Dumbo, Vinegar Hill, and the Farragut Houses public housing complex, WORKac received feedback that children’s spaces and programming were sorely lacking in the area. This led the firm to put children at the center of its design for the new Brooklyn Public Library branch, the first new branch to open in 20 years. The adaptive reuse of a former torpedo factory showcases exposed brick and beams while allowing for the addition of sculptural walls and a unifying tangerine, beige and white color scheme.  

The library opened in 2023 and has received numerous awards, including an AIA NY Honor Award in Interior Architecture in 2023 and the AIA/ALA National Library Award in 2022.  

NXTHVN – Deborah Berke, FAIA, TenBerke 

Deborah Berke, FAIA, is the founding principal and owner of New York-based TenBerke, as well as dean of the Yale School of Architecture – the first woman to hold the position. She won AIA’s Topaz Award honoring educators in 2022.  

A recent example of TenBerke’s versatility is showcased in the design for NXTHVN (“Nexthaven”), a 40,000-square-foot former ice cream factory transformed into a nonprofit arts incubator in New Haven, Conn.’s diverse Dixwell neighborhood. Founded by artist Titus Kaphar, NXTHVN aims to foster relationships between artists and students and the larger community of New Haven. The adaptive reuse project resulted in a 61% reduction in energy use compared to the AIA 2030 baseline. It opened to the public in 2021.  

Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland – Farshid Moussavi, Farshid Moussavi Architecture  

Iranian-born architect Farshid Moussavi helms an eponymous London-based practice while also serving as a professor in practice of architecture at Harvard University. The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Cleveland, Ohio, completed in 2012, represents her first commission in the United States.  

Located in the city’s Uptown District, the building’s mirror-finish black stainless-steel envelope reflects its urban surroundings. A hexagonal base is modified imperceptibly on each story of the building’s four stories, rising to a square roof. Inside, the top floor of the museum houses its primary exhibition space, encouraging visitors to explore events and displays on the first three floors. The firm’s project description notes that “an intense shade of blue fire-resistant paint covers the museum’s interior surfaces creating a sense of boundlessness, which suggests the sky or sea and places emphasis on the works of art.”  

The museum’s design aims to catalyze creativity and growth in the area, with a public plaza that hosts seasonal programming.

Gowanus CSO Facilities – Annabelle Selldorf, FAIA, Selldorf Architects  

German-born Annabelle Selldorf, FAIA, is a sought-after designer in the art world. Her firm’s recent work on public infrastructure projects in New York, however, showcases a commitment to structures that may be seen as less glamorous, but are equally as important to the life of the city.  

Two such projects on Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal represent a $1.6 billion investment in the borough’s waterways and public spaces. Partnering with New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, Selldorf Architects designed two wastewater retention facilities, which will intercept and store combined sewage during wet weather events. According to the city, the structures will “significantly improve the health of the canal and create 3.6 acres of new public waterfront open space and amenities for the Gowanus community.”  

Selldorf Architects worked within the community and incorporated public feedback to shape their designs of CSO Facility Red Hook and CSO Facility Owls Head.  

The estimated date of completion for CSO Red Hook is 2027, following a March 2023 groundbreaking, while the Owls Head facility is estimated to be completed in 2028.  

The Alice at Goodman Theatre – Chris-Annmarie Spencer, AIA, Wheeler-Kearns Architects  

A native of Manchester, Jamaica, Chris-Annmarie Spencer, AIA, is a firm principal at Chicago-based Wheeler Kearns Architects. Her work has spanned a number of community-driven and adaptive reuse projects, with one recent notable example being The Alice at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.  

The Alice is Goodman Theatre’s new Center for Education and Engagement, connecting two pre-existing adjacent buildings. The center consists of two STEM learning labs, an audition studio, reception and lobby space, support spaces, and a centralized video control space for the whole facility.  

The design honors and prioritizes wood, a nod to both the founder of the Goodman Theatre, a lumber industrialist, and the named donor of The Alice, an avid trail runner. An acoustical “wood curtain” feature wall, made of clean striped rift-cut red oak and backed with grey acoustical fabric, was designed to “meander” through the center, defining the boundaries between public and learning spaces. As the firm notes in the project description, “The Alice has become the visible manifestation of The Goodman’s free arts-as-education mission and its increasing impact on Chicago and beyond.”