Museum Events

Past Events

2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005

2009 Events

The Architecture of Writing: Wright, Women & Narrative
On June 10, 2009, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum co-presented with the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation a sold-out evening program, “The Architecture of Writing: Wright Women and Narrative,” as part of the Guggenheim’s 50th anniversary celebration. Moderator Suzannah Lessard with panelists Gwendolyn Wright and Carol Gilligan explored the how and why writers choose or avoid a particular aspect of their narrative. How, they asked, could such an important legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright – the 100 women who worked in his studio – remain overlooked or ignored by so many writers who have previously written about every aspect of Wright’s life.

Preceding the panel discussion were two brief conversations between Moderator Suzannah Lessard and Lois Davidson Gottlieb, architect and Taliesin Fellow 1947-1948, as well as one of the six women architects featured in the film “A Girl Is A Fellow Here”. The other conversation included Lessard and Beverly Willis, the film’s writer-director.

Photo credit: Adam Bell © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
On Left: Moderator Suzannah Lessard interviews Lois Davidson Gottlieb.
On Right: Lessard talking to the film's writer-director Beverly Willis.
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The Architecture of Writing Part II
presented a full morning of investigation into the creative and collaborative world of women architects, designers and landscape architects. Among the questions at issue were: What are the most effective critical models for writing about women and their impact on the built environment? What do different theories and methods offer the feminist historian of architecture? And how do historians go about the challenging task of writing about women in the design professions? Through these questions, four BWAF Fellows~ Jane King Hession, Susan Morgan, Monica Penick, Thaisa Way used their own experiences as researchers and writers to explore the various approaches when it comes to the crucial matter of writing women into the annals of history. Three BWAF Trustees, Lian Hurst Mann, Peggy Deamer, and Cynthia Hammond, provided introductory remarks, moderated discussion, and offered closing remarks, respectively. The Architecture of Writing, Part II marks the third biennial BWAF Fellows' Colloquium, a series designed to engage scholars, practitioners and BWAF Fellows in issues pertinent to the Foundation and to the historiography of architecture.
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Transforming Skylines and Communities
BWAF, in collaboration with the National Building Museum, presented Jeanne Gang, founder and principal of Studio Gang Architects on March 9, 2009. Gang, one of a new breed of young architects changing the profession, discussed the transformative elements of urban buildings and neighborhoods in her native Chicago and beyond. Jeanne Gang extends into the 21st century a continuum at least four generations long of outstanding women architects who, too, were transforming skylines across America beginning at the turn of the 20th century. In her introduction, Beverly Willis, FAIA, situated Gang's oeuvre within this continuum of American women architects. This lecture is part of the Women of Architecture series at the NBM, presented in collaboration with BWAF to celebrate Women's History Month.

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2008 Events

Challenging the Paradigm: A Conversation with Three Women Deans of Architecture
Frances Bronet, Dean, University of Oregon; Karen Van Lengen, Dean, UVA; and Donna Robertson, Dean, IIT; explored the challenges, opportunities, and responsibilities of women in the profession of architecture in a public program at the National Building Museum on March 10, 2008. In a conversation moderated by Wanda Bubriski, BWAF Director, the Deans discussed their vision for architectural education, their careers in architecture, and their roles in shaping architecture’s future. The Deans addressed such issues as the importance of women's leadership, and the opportunities and responsibilities that come with positions of power in architectural education. Challenging the Paradigm is part of the Women of Architecture series at the NBM, presented in collaboration with BWAF to celebrate Women's History Month.
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Opening of The Beverly Willis Library
The Board of Trustees of the National Building Museum celebrated the opening of The Beverly Willis Library on March 10, 2008, honoring founding trustee Beverly Willis. Willis and Chase Rynd, Director of the National Building Museum, cut the red ribbon, officially opening the Library which will serve as a resource to the Museum’s curators as well as the center for the NBM's new Fellows Program. The Beverly Willis Library also provides access to Ms. Willis’ electronic archives, which cover her work and research over the past 50 years.

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2007 Events

Histories, Herstories: Reappraising the Legacy of American Architecture
Gwendolyn Wright, Professor of Architecture at Columbia University; Cynthia Hammond, Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Architecture at McGill University; and Susan Piedmont-Palladino, Associate Professor of Architecture at Virgia Tech; addressed the need to recover the lost histories of 20th-century women architects on March 15, 2007 at the National Building Museum. Presentations included Historical Constellations, drawing connections between histories, Saving the Future: Women, History and the Architectural Icon, urging practitioners to take an active hand in their legacies, and Histories, Herstories... Ourstories, examining the often biased criteria used to evaluate architecture. A capacity crowd attended.
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Women in Modernism: Making Places in Architecture
This sold-out event at The Museum of Modern Art on October 25, 2007 marked the second biennial BWAF Colloquium. With a focus on architectural arbiters, speakers covered topics addressing the institution of architecture and its mechanisms of power. Participants included featured speaker Gwendolyn Wright, Professor of Architecture at Columbia University; Sarah Herda, Executive Director of the Graham Foundation; Karen Stein, former Editorial Director of Phaidon Press; and Toshiko Mori, Chair of the Department of Architecture at Harvard University. Barry Bergdoll, MoMA's Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, moderated. Beverly Willis, FAIA, delivered an introduction. A transcript of Gwendolyn Wright's talk is available here.

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2006 Events

Three Tracks to Success
On April 6, 2006, the National Building Museum presented Three Tracks to Success, a public program sponsored by BWAF. Three successful principals of women-owned architecture practices—Suman Sorg, FAIA, principal of Washington, DC-based Sorg Associates; Joan Goody, FAIA, principal of Boston-based Goody, Clancy & Associates; and Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, principal with Chicago-based Ross Barney + Jankowski, Inc—discussed their careers. The speakers described how they became interested in architecture and the paths they took to produce award winning architectural designs.

2005 Events

Fabricating Identity
Does one find an architectural identity, or is it a matter of production, fabrication, just like the production and fabrication of architecture itself? Gwendolyn Wright, Professor of Archiecture, Columbia University, featured on TV's History Detectives, and Moderator Diane Favro, Professor of Architecture, UCLA, Past President, Society of Architectural Historians, with the 2005 BWAF Research Fellows, will explore some of the ways that architecture identity has been formed, produced, and fabricated over the past fifty years. This event, the first biennial BWAF Colloquium, took place on November 4, 2005, at the Center for Architecture.
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