A Caryatid is a stone carving of a woman, used as a column or a pillar to support the structure of a Greek or Greek-style building. Each episode we choose a “caryatid” -- a woman who is working today, furthering the profession through their work, and who ties in to the historical woman of our episode.
Note: Information below was current at the time of the episode's release. For the most up-to-date information, please refer to further research.
Season 1: The Firsts
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In 2008 Lori Brown received the Milka Bliznakov Prize Commendation for her work on the “Feminist Practices Exhibition”. The exhibition focused on architectural studies that used feminist methods of design, research, and practice by women in the field. At first it was a traveling exhibition and later it became a book “Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture”. Today Lori continues her message and investigations through ArchiteXX, a non profit organization which she co-founded and runs, that promotes gender equity. ArchiteXX is a collaborator #wikiD, a project to add more women architects on Wikipedia. Lori is a licensed architect in the state of New York and a Syracuse University Professor and is also currently working on a Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture.
https://www.architexx.org/about
Ep 01: Milka Bliznakov:
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Gabrielle was recently named the 2020 Whitney Young Award Recipient. She was the first African-American and the first woman to assume the role of managing director at Perkins and Will and, since 2013, has served as the firm’s director of global diversity. As a compelling role model, Bullock also champions diversity throughout the entire profession. Her efforts have led to her role as the first female African-American president of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) and speaking engagements and committee roles for AIA and other allied organizations.
https://www.aia.org/showcases/6227362-gabrielle-bullock-faia
Ep 2: Norma Merrick Skalarek
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/normamerricksklarek
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Elizabeth Roberts is an architect in New York City known for working on brownstones. She is passionate about working on older buildings and historic architecture to preserve and highlight it while updating it to today’s standards. She grew up in the Bay Area and studied architecture at UC Berkeley for undergrad. She then went to study Historic Preservation of Architecture at Columbia University in New York City. She worked at several firms before opening her own office, Elizabeth Roberts Architects.
https://sah-archipedia.org/essays/TH-01-ART020
Ep 3: Julia Morgan
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Eleanor K. Baum, is the first woman to become the Dean of an engineering school in the United States! In 1984, Eleanor was named Dean of Pratt Institute's School of Engineering in New York. Three years after that, she became Dean of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering at Cooper Union and is now Dean Emeritus. She is also the first woman president of the American Society for Engineering Education, ASEE. In 1990, the Society of Women Engineers awarded her the Upward Mobility Award. In 2007, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/eleanor-k-baum/
Ep 4: Elizabeth Bragg
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/elizabethbraggcumming
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Donna Sink is a practicing architect at Rowland Design based in Indianapolis. Prior to working at Rowland, Donna was a self-employed Architect, working on small residential projects. She also was the campus architect at Indianapolis Museum of Art and she’s involved in the local arts and design community as past President and current member of the Indiana chapter of AIA, a board member at People for Urban Progress and a member of the Indianapolis Sign Ordinance Revision Task Force. In 2016, the Indianapolis Business Journal named her a “Women of Influence.”
https://archinect.com/people/cover/1906872/donna-sink
Ep 5: Mariana Griswold van Rensselaer
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/marianavanrensselaer
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Wendy J. Miller is the current president of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), of which she is a fellow. She is a registered landscape architect and focuses on urban design and transportation. She has a consulting firm, Wendy Miller Landscape Architecture, that provides expertise in corridor design solutions, public involvement, and planning strategies to prepare communities for new and disruptive transportation technologies on the horizon.
http://www.millerbarefoot.com/about
Ep 6: Beatrix Farrand
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Alda Ly is the owner of Alda Ly Architecture and Design in New York City. She also co-founded Designer’s Assembly which supports young architects who aspire to ethical creatively fulfilling entrepreneurship. Alda’s project list includes retail, healthcare, media labs, cultural spaces, and co-working office spaces for women. Her work has been featured nationally and internationally in various publications. She is an alumni of UC Berkeley and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
Ep 7: Jane Drew
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Tiffany Brown is a woman of many things. She is a mother, an architecture professional based out of Detroit, Michigan. She is also a Project Manager at the Detroit office SmithGroup, she is a professor at Lawrence Technology University’s College of Architecture and Design. Just this year, Tiffany was awarded the AIA 2020 Associates Award. On top of everything that she has done and accomplished, Tiffany started an initiative called 400 Forward. 400 Forward was named in honor of the 400th living African-American woman recently becoming a licensed architect in 2017. This initiative aims to seek out and support the next 400 licensed women architects with an underlying focus on African-American girls through exposure, mentorship, and financial assistance. 400 FORWARD has been launched as a comprehensive program that introduces young girls to architecture, provides scholarships and wrap-around services to college students, and pays for study material and licensing exams for African-American women in architecture.
https://www.architectmagazine.com/practice/noma-names-tiffany-brown-executive-director_o
Ep 8: Beverly Lorraine Greene and Georgia Louise Harris Brown
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/beverlygreenengeorgialouisebrown
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Jane Frederick is the current president of the AIA, and a fellow at the AIA. She graduated from Auburn University, where she met her husband in studio. They started a firm together in South Carolina called Frederick + Frederick. The firm does primarily residential and restoration projects. They focus on working with and adapting to the environment and how it can be used to their advantage. They also use new technology to get buildings closer to “net-zero”, where all the building’s energy is produced on-site. Jane also ran for the US House of Representatives in 1998. As president of the AIA, she is trying to promote action on climate within the building profession, and also advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
https://www.f-farchitects.com/team/
Ep 9: Louise Bethune
Season 2: International
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Gloria Kloter is a registered Architect and Interior Designer from the Dominican Republic and the State of Florida. She graduated from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. She is the owner of Glow Architects. Gloria has been published and invited to be a speaker at numerous events to share her journey as a foreign architect becoming licensed in the United States. She is an Associate Director of the AIA Tampa Bay. She founded the new Women in Architecture and Young Architects Forum Tampa Bay committees, and she is the Chair of both.
https://www.glowarchitects.com/about
Ep 11: Margot Taule
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Kate Duncan is a furniture designer based out of Toronto, Canada. She has been doing her thing for the past twenty years, creating heirloom-quality furniture. Her designs are influenced by the brutalist movement that was popular in the '70s and '80s. Her work is mostly made out of North American Hardwoods. Besides her aesthetic and craftsmanship, in 2014 Kate founded "Address Design Show" an inclusive annual exhibit that promotes both well-established and up-and-coming creatives.
Ep 12: Lilly Reich
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Nathalie grew up in Groningen, Netherlands in a family that focused on architecture, culture, and politics. She always loved Dutch art and architecture such as De Stijl. She attended TU Delft for school and worked for the Dutch firm Mecanoo after school. In 1993, she and two others founded the firm MVRDV in Rotterdam. The firm has become well known for its architecture and urbanism projects, and has received international recognition and awards.
https://www.mvrdv.nl/about/team/3/nathalie-de-vries
Ep 13: Han Schroder
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Sherry Larjani is President and Managing Partner at Spotlight Development Inc, in Toronto, Canada. She began her career as a junior architectural designer and eventually made the move to real estate development with Spotlight Development. Sherry is involved in a housing project with Canada’s first all-women real estate development. Everyone involved from the developers, architects, engineers, landscape architects, to the project managers are women.
https://www.spotlightdevelopment.com/team/
Ep 14: Valide Turhan Sultan
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Odile Decq is an architect based in France. In 2016, Odile was awarded the Jane Drew Prize which is awarded for promoting the role of women in architecture. Odile has been teaching for over 25 years. She has taught at Bartlett school in London, Sci-Arc in LA, Columbia University in New York, and at Harvard in Boston. She was Dean of Paris' École Spéciale d'Architecture (ESA) from 2007 until 2012 and taught at the school for several years. She launched her own architecture school in Lyon in 2014 called the "Confluence Institute for Innovation and Creative Strategies in Architecture". Odile is very engaged in and contributes to the discussion of architecture as a profession. She has been known to be outspoken in topics ranging from pay, equity in student enrollment, women's rights while working, down to even defending her iconic gothic appearance. Odile is praised for being "a creative powerhouse, spirited breaker of rules, and advocate of equality." In 2013, she was even awarded French Female Architect of the year.
https://www.odiledecq.com/bio/
Ep 15: Eileen Gray
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Vanessa Galvez is a civil engineer who studied at NYU’s Tanden School of Engineering. She was inspired to study engineering after watching a documentary about levee failures in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. After graduating she started work at the New York City Department of Design and Construction as a resident engineer. The same day Hurricane Sandy hit New York City. After the storm, Vanessa was charged with constructing 164 bioswales in Maspeth, Queens.
https://kcroonews.com/celebrating-women-in-stem-vanessa-galvez/
Ep 16: Concepción Mendizábal Mendoza
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/concepcionmendizabalmendoza
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The Irish duo Yvonne and Shelley established Grafton Architects in 1978, along with three other partners, although only Farrell and McNamara stayed on. Prior to that, the two were offered to teach at the University College Dublin immediately after graduating in 1974, a challenge they accepted and enjoyed until 2006. In 2010, they held the Kenzo Tange chair at GSD Harvard and in 2011, the Louis Kahn chair at Yale University. They have been visiting professors in Switzerland and lectured internationally. In 2020, Shelley and Yvonne won the Pritzker Prize making them the first women duo to win the award.
https://www.graftonarchitects.ie/About
Ep 18: Zaha Hadid
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Momoyo is the co-founder of Atelier Bow-Wow in Japan. She always knew she wanted to be architect and after she graduated from the Japan Women’s University in 1991, she founded Atelier Bow-Wow with Yoshiharu Tsukamoto in 1992. They both attended the Tokyo Institute of Technology for a post-graduate degree and graduated in 1994. Their firm is known for its architectural theories like ‘Behaviorology’ and understanding how spaces are utilized in daily life.
http://www.bow-wow.jp/profile/biography_e.html
Ep 19: Nobuko Tsuchiura
Season 3: Everything but Architecture
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Ellen Taylor is the Vice President for Research of The Center for Health Design. She is an architect leading the charge in healthcare design. She has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Cornell University, a Global Executive MBA degree from Columbia University and London Business School, and a Ph.D. in design, patient safety, and human factors from Loughborough University in England. Ellen is a world-regarded writer and speaker. In 2017 she won the HCD10 Researcher Award. It recognizes significant contributions to the industry of healthcare design. Ellen serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Health Environments Research & Design Journal and the American Journal of Infection Control. Also, she is currently a board member for the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health Knowledge Community.
https://www.healthdesign.org/about-us/meet-team/ellen-taylor-aia-mba-edac
Ep 21: Florence Nightingale
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/florencenightingale
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Evelyn Harrison was one of the 2020 Dorothy Richardson Award Honorees. Evelyn lives in Washington DC and when she found out there were plans to sell her apartment building she made change HAPPEN! DC has a law that if an apartment building goes up for sale the tenants have the right to purchase option (known as the District of Columbia’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act ). In order to execute this, the building needed to form a tenants association. Evelyn gathered 200 signatures from her neighbors and formed an association saving their apartment building. Between the association that she helped create and now is on the board of, and the development manager that they are partnered with, they were able to get building upgrades such as upgraded laundry facilities, a playground, and even space where they can host community events.
https://www.neighborworks.org/blog/evelyn-harrison
Ep 22: Dorothy Mae Richardson
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/dorothymaerichardson
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Toni Griffin is a Chicago native who founded Urban American City, urbanAC in New York City. The company is a planning and design management practice that partners with public, private, and nonprofit groups to create urban justice through design and inclusive collaborations in order to address historic and current disparities involving race, class, and generation. They do this through the Just City Index that Toni developed as a way to highlight what challenges different cities struggle with and what the community would like to see change.
Episode 23: Jane Addams
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Claudia Amico Tudela is a Peruvian architect and urbanist. She received her bachelors and masters of architecture from the University of Sheffield and a Masters in Urbanism and Environmental Processes from EAFIT University in Colombia. She’s worked in Paris, Senegal, Colombia and Peru constantly advocating for the quality and improved nature of public spaces. She is the host of a program on Peruvian TV called Umbrales where she discusses topics of public spaces and social design. She also teaches at universities in Peru, runs symposiums and workshops all invested in affordable housing, democratic public spaces, and resilient cities in regards to climate change. “We need to be more political, work with municipalities, debate in the public sector. We need to have a great sensibility towards injustice and necessity and we need to feel a vocation to do something about it, no matter how small it is. We need to assume challenges, face them with confidence and empower ourselves with humility learning the value of the small actions and daily things.” C. Amico Tudela
https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-amico-tudela-046667137/?originalSubdomain=pe
Episode 24: Catherine Bauer
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Mabel O. Wilson is trained in Architecture and American Studies. Her training in these two fields informs her research and work. She has a transdisciplinary practice Studio & where Wilson makes visible and legible the ways that anti-black racism shapes the built environment along with the ways that blackness creates spaces of imagination, refusal, and desire. Her research investigates space, politics, and cultural memory in black America; race and modern architecture; new technologies and the social production of space; and visual culture in contemporary art, media, and film.
Episode 25: Jane Jacobs
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Andrea Thompson attended North Carolina A&T State University and received a bachelors degree in Architectural Engineering with a concentration in HVAC. Today she works as a Senior Project Manager at Specialized Engineering Solutions in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company does mostly work on healthcare projects and she feels passionate about this type of work because she is able to help people since at some point everyone requires healthcare and that she wants to increase comfort and reduce infections through clean, efficient systems.
https://specializedeng.com/sess-andrea-thompson-20-women-to-watch-in-hvac/
Episode 26: Margaret Ingels
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Brazil has dozens of groups fighting for government-supported housing, such as Front for Housing Struggles, Homeless Workers Movement, and the National Housing Struggle Movement to name a few and the leaders of most of these groups are women. Their mission is to help the working class through housing policies of social interest with urban reform. They also advocate for access to services and education. The organizations work to secure permission and funding to repurpose these abandoned spaces into affordable housing. They focus on finding vacant buildings in downtown areas of large cities because there, people have access to services, schools, jobs, hospitals, and work.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2018/03/women-lead-fight-housing-brazil/
Episode 27: Jane Edna Hunter
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When Mayor Aja Brown was elected, at the age of 31, Mayor Aja Brown was the youngest mayor ever elected in the city of Compton, CA. Aja has a bachelor’s degree in public housing, urban planning, and development, along with a master’s degree in urban planning with a concentration in economic development from the University of Southern California. Aja launched a 12-point revitalization plan called “New Vision for Compton” which focused on quality of life, youth development, infrastructure, education, and economic development.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aja_Brown
Episode 28: Frances Perkins
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Dawn is a bridge engineer who got a Bachelors in Civil Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and a Masters in Civil Engineering from UC Berkeley. She has worked on many different types of projects over her career including pedestrian bridges, suspension bridges, and cable-stay structures. A few of her most noteworthy projects are the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement in California, the New Bridge for the St. Lawrence in Montreal, and the A30 in Montreal. According to LinkedIn, she currently works for the New York City Department of Transportation as the lead engineer on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway design-build project.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-harrison-pe-95178829/
Episode 29: Emily Warren Roebling
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/emilywarrenroebling
Season 4: Academics, Critics, & Theorists
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Alison Killing is an architect based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Alison is the FIRST architect to win a Pulitzer Prize. Through satellite imagery, Alison was able to find newly built camps in China that are believed to be detaining Muslims. Not only was she being recognized by her discovery of these camps but also her use of satellite imagery as a form of investigative journalism.
Episode 31: Ada Louise Huxtable
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Kymberly Pinder is the Dean of the Yale School of Art. She is the first woman of color to hold the position. Pinder received her masters and PhD from Yale and then went on to have an extensive career in academia working for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of New Mexico to name a few. She has also written a book Painting the Gospel: Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago. She has been lauded as a scholar of race, representation and murals.
Episode 32: Amaza Lee Meredith
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Tamara Eagle Bull FAIA is a member of the Oglala Lakota Nation and a firm owner/architect based out of Lincoln, Nebraska. Tamara is the FIRST NATIVE AMERICAN WOMAN ARCHITECT in the US! She is considered to be a recognized leader in the realm of Contemporary Native American Architecture. And she is an advocate for culturally relevant and responsible design.
Episode 33: Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/maryelizabethjanecolter
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Mayra Jiménez Montano is the Dean of the School of Architecture of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). She graduated from the School of Architecture at UPR with a Masters of Architecture in 1993, and then later she got her PhD in Visual Arts and Education from the University of Granada in 2017. She’s been teaching at the University of Puerto Rico since 1995, that’s more than two decades of molding young minds and architects. Mayra coordinates the School of Architecture summer program for high school students, as well as teaching first years and thesis students. Her passions include teaching methodologies and different ways to pursue creative research.
Episode 34: Khaleda Ekram
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Gina Ford is a landscape architect, principal, and co-founder of the Boston-based architecture firm Agency Landscape + Planning. She teaches at and was a Harvard GSD grad just like Carol. In fact, while at Harvard, Carol taught Gina! Gina has received the Harvard GSD's Eliot Traveling Fellowship, the Wellesley College's Shaw Fellowship, and several awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Planning Association, and more!
Episode 35: Carol R. Johnson
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Martha Schwartz is a successful landscape architect, urbanist, artist, and climate activist. Originally from Philadelphia, she got a Bachelor of Fine Arts at University of Michigan and then went on to work on a masters at U of M for two years before transferring to the Harvard GSD to finish her degree in landscape architecture. In 1980 she started her own firm Martha Schwartz Partners which is still going strong today and has offices in Cambridge, MA, London, and Shanghai. She is also a tenured professor of landscape architecture at the Harvard GSD, and from what I could find I believe she is the first woman to be tenured in that department. She began teaching there in 1987.
Episode 36: Florence Bell Robinson
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/florencebellrobinson
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Maria Nicanor is the Executive Director of the Rice Design Alliance or RDA, the public and outreach programs of Rice Architecture. They do a lot, architecture tours, design competitions and publications such as Cite. Maria has a BA in Art and Architectural History and Theory from the Autonomous University of Madrid and Sorbonne University Paris, and a MA in Museum and Curatorial Studies from New York University. she was the Inaugural Director of the Norman Foster Foundation in Madrid, and the associate Curator of Architecture and Urbanism at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. While she was there she lead the curatorial team of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, an international traveling laboratory for urban experiments and public programs. AND she was part of the team leading the international architecture competition for the Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki, Finland. She still consults organizations and city governments on the development and good practice of architecture competitions. Maria contributes to contemporary-art and architecture publications and lectures all over the world about the future of museums and the role of architecture in museum practice.
Episode 37: Lina Bo Bardi 1914-1951
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Dr. Harriet Harris is the Dean of the School of Architecture at the Pratt Institute and advocates for equality in architecture. Harriet is from the UK. In 2001 she graduated first of her class in Architecture school. While in architecture school Harriet was also a hustler, she did all sorts of jobs, she volunteered, she was the editor of her college magazine, and she won competitions. She started the firm Design Heroine Architecture with her buddy Suzi Winstanley where they focus on democratizing architecture. In the words of Harriet “we need an architecture for the 99%. Architecture today needs to see itself as responsible for and relevant to addressing the world’s problems - climate crisis, social justice, inclusivity, and diversity, and so on. All of these problems are inherently at the heart of what architecture should be focusing on, and that’s how we’re reconvening the school’s agenda.”
Episode 38: Lina Bo Bardi 1951-1992
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/linabobardi2?rq=linA
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Nmadili attended the University of Tennessee and Georgia State University to receive undergraduate degrees in architecture and urban studies. She then went on to get a master’s in African Studies from Clark Atlanta University focusing on the evolution of modern vernacular architecture in Nigeria. In 2013, she founded CPDI Africa or Community Planning and Design Initiative Africa. This organization is a research-based, culture-inspired initiative created to develop this new architectural language for Africa through design competitions and their global studio. Nmadili serves as the director of the African Global Studio program which is an African-centered academic platform for architects and designers which teaches philosophies not found in traditional architecture education. It is a virtual platform and architects and students from all over the world can take classes from leading professors and architects who are known for teaching African centered architecture.
Episode 39: Astra Zarina
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/astrazarina?rq=episode%2039
Season 5: Power Couples
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Ada Karmi-Melamede was born on December 24, 1936, in Tel Aviv. She has degrees from the AA in London, Alma Mater of several of our ladies, and from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. She’s been a professor at Columbia, Yale, and Penn. In 1986 she and her brother Ram Karmi won a competition to design the Supreme Court of Israel compound, completed in 1992. In 2007, Ada was awarded the Israel Prize, for architecture, just like Dora did.
Episode 41: Dora Gad
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Lauren Larson is a furniture designer based out of New York City. Together with her husband Christian Swafford, they own a furniture company called Material Lust.
In this article, they talk about their partnership and how they collaborate with one another. Be sure to check out the link for other contemporary designers who are couples and partners too!
Episode 42: Charlotte Perriand
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Lindsay Clare is one half of Clare Design. She and her husband Kerry started their firm in 1979 on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. They worked there for about 20 years before they got asked by the New South Wales Government Architect to be the very first Design Directors of the governmental department.
They moved to Sydney and worked in that role for 2 years. They were also adjunct professors at University of Sydney from 1998-2005. In 2000, Lindsay and Kerry founded Architectus Sydney and were the Design Directors for 10 years. They currently have offices in Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, and Sydney. Lindsay and Kerry were joint recipients of the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2010.
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Leda Speziale San Vicente was a civil engineer with a specialty in structural engineering, from Mexico City. She was the 11th woman to graduate with a degree in engineering from Mexico. She became one half of an engineer power couple when she married fellow engineer Ignacio Guzman. He was always totally supportive of her and her career despite the chauvinism that was normal at the time.
Leda started her career in the government sector but the majority of her career has been spent in Academia. She began as a professor at The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Eventually became the head of the engineering department and today she is professor emeritus, the first woman to reach that status at the university.
Episode 44: Shakuntala Bhagat
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Yes, we have the duo! Tavia and Monet together have an interior design firm called Forbes Masters. Based out of Atlanta, this duo met in 2012 working on a project when they decided to form their own company. They realized they complimented each other.
Episode 45: Aino & Elssa Aalto
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Katharina Plath is the founder and principal of the Public Relations firm Head and Hand PR. Katherina is from Germany and she has an MBA in Economics and Interior Design. She also has a master's degree from the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Katharina has lived and worked in Hamburg, London, Milan and Paris and now New York.
Episode 46: Aline B. Saarinen
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Lisa Iwamoto is part of the award-winning firm IwamotoScott, with her partner Craig Scott. At their firm, they do traditional architecture BUT they also do interior projects where Lisa works on experimental fabrications similar to Charles and Ray. In addition to her practice, Lisa is the Chair at the University of California at Berkeley, where she has been teaching since 2001.
Episode 47: Ray Eames
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Fien is one half of Muller Van Severen, a furniture design firm which she started with her husband Hannes Van Severen. Fien and Hannes met in a sculpture class when they were in art school at Sin-Lucas Ghent in Belgium. Hannes is the son of a famous modern Belgian designer Maarten Van Severen, and Fien grew up in a house that was full of color and paintings. Both of these upbringings along with their sculpture background influence their designs. One of their first pieces was a set of leather swing loungers that had a floor lamp attached to it. In their home outside of Ghent, there wasn’t any electric wiring in the ceiling, so it inspired adding a lamp to this chair. They said their collaboration doesn’t have very set roles and that they do everything together. Sometimes she has the initial idea, sometimes he does. They say they can work this way because they ‘trust each other and accept each other’s criticism because we appreciate the other’s work, personality, background, and talents.’
Episode 48: Florence Knoll
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Zoe Chan is one half of the firm Chan and Eayrs started with her husband Merlin Eayrs. Zoe was born in London and she studied architecture. She really wanted to build an actual project during school so she bought a property in London and designed and built the whole thing while she was in school. She sold it once it was done and used the money to buy empty sites for future projects once she was done with school. Now with her husband Merlin, they continue to work in this way. Their firm has no true client because they buy a property and design and build the entire project and interiors down to the furniture and cutlery within the house. They live in the space while they do this to really understand the project and it’s potential. Then they sell the house with everything in it and move on to the next project.
Episode 49: Florence Knoll Bassett
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/florenceknollbassett
Season 6: Business Bosses and Leaders
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June Grant is a Jamaican architect that practices in Oakland at her firm blink!Lab Architecture. She has a master’s degree from the Yale School of Architecture. She was president of the NOMA Bay Area Chapter and she is also a member of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture a.k.a. ACADIA. : She presented at Obama 2010 Green Conference and was a YBCA100 honoree. Her practice blink!LAB Architecture focuses on environmental and social justice, so she is really committed to making a difference in our field just like Verma was.
For more information on June make sure to check out:
Episode 51: Verma Panton
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Carmeon is based out of Memphis, Tennessee, she is an environmental curator, interior designer, and creator of the brand Nibi Interiors. She was also last year's winner of the show HGTV’S next design star - by winning she will have her own show on the network called Reno my Rental. Check out this article to read more about her: https://www.insider.com/hgtv-star-carmeon-hamilton-on-mental-health-family-and-entrepreneurship-2022-5
Episode 52: Dorothy Draper
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/dorothydraper?rq=episode%2052
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Mikyoung Kim is from Hartford, Connecticut. She received a bachelors in Sculpture and Art History from Oberlin College in 1989. She then decided to study landscape architecture at the Harvard GSD. In 1994, she opened her own landscape architecture firm in Boston. Her firm focuses on restorative landscape designs. They are working to address environmental and health related issues through their designs. She continues to use her sculpture background as well in her designs.
Episode 53: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/corneliahahnoberlander?rq=episode%2053
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Paola Meléndez Domínguez is a Puerto Rican textile designer owner of Paola Meléndez Casa which sells handcrafted textiles for interior designs. She graduated from Parsons School of Design with a love for screen printing and fabric art. In 2019 she launched her company Paola Melendez Casa designing patterns and fabricating luxury interior fabrics. She starts out by hand painting every design, then that gets digitized and fabricated.
Follow them on: https://www.instagram.com/paolamelendezcasa/
Episode 54: Lillian G Murad & Laura Ashley
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/lilliangmuradlauraashley
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Emma is an architect based out of Kenya, in 2017 she became the first WOMAN president of the Architectural Association of Kenya. With her husband, she co- found her corporate architecture firm Design Source that specializes in hospitality, commercial, and energy across East Africa.
Episode 55: Dorothy Hughes
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Anna grew up in Laufen, Germany. When she was 19, she went to Bangladesh for a year to volunteer with the NGO Dipshikha where she learned about sustainable development. She studied architecture at the University of Arts and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria. In 2005, her thesis project was built in Bangladesh — the METI Handmade School. The project was built with the help of the local community using mud and bamboo, traditional materials from that area. Anna’s projects continue to focus on local craftsman, materials, and methods. Anna teaches the method of Clay Storming, or brainstorming through clay, at various universities.
Clay Storming: https://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/2019/09/23/-clay-storming-is-the-new-brain-storming-.html
Episode 56: Revathi Kamath
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Janis Brackett is the Director of Community Projects at Kirksey Architecture, in this position she oversees Religious, Recreation, Cultural/Civic, and Non-Profit projects. And she is passionate about collaboration in the design process. She works with boards, committees and volunteer groups because she knows the importance everyone has in creating a meaningful space. Janis has a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Master’s in Architecture from the University of Kansas. She was the AIA Houston President for three years, and was elected to AIA National’s “think tank” as 2017-2018 Strategic Councilor At Large. She has also been a part of the City of Houston/AIA Houston 2020 Visions Steering Committee, Chair of Gulf Coast Green, and Editorial Committee for GreenWorks Houston. And above all she finds time to be a mentor to those coming up in the field with the passion for participation and change that she has.
Episode 57: Mayumi Watanabe de Souza Lima
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/mayumiwatanabedesouzalima
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Nakita Reed is an architect and Associate at the firm Quinn Evans who focuses on the intersection of Architecture, historic preservation, sustainability, race, and gender. Nakita got her Bachelor of Science in Architecture, University of Virginia, 2006 , Master of Science in Historic Preservation, University of Pennsylvania, 2010, Master of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania, 2010, and Just recently in 2022 she won the AIA young architect Award. She is the host of the podcast Tangible Remnants, which is part of Gabl Media!
Episode 58: Doris Duke
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Aíne O’Dwyer is a civil engineer from County Tipperary, Ireland. She attended NJIT to study civil engineering. While in school she had an internship at a large construction company that turned into a full time job. In 2017, she opened her own engineering and construction management firm Enovate Engineering. As CEO she is one of the youngest CEOs in the industry, starting her company at 32 years old.
Episode 59: Kate Gleason
Season 7: Wild Card
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Amanda Williams is an artist and architect. The Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago represents her. She got her architecture degree from Cornell University with an emphasis on fine arts. Amanda’s work consists of a series of exhibitions, installations, sculptures, you name it. On the gallery website - it says that “Amanda’s work seeks to inspire new ways of looking at the familiar, and in the process, raise questions about the state of urban space and ownership in America.” Along with being at the 2018 Venice Biennale, Amanda has had exhibitions at the MOMA in New York and the Museum of Contemporary art in Chicago. She is also on the Obama Presidential Library Center Museum Design Team. In 2022, Amanda was awarded the McArthur Genius Grant.
Episode 61: Sylvia Harris
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Barbara Bouza is an architect and the new president of Walt Disney Imagineering. She has a Bachelors of Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona, and did her graduate studies at the AA in London. She has worked at many firms over the years: Foster + Partners, RBB, Morphosis, and Gensler LA where she eventually became the co-managing director and principal. Barbara has always been a big promoter of well-being, and that was one of the reasons that Disney reached out to her, so she and the Imagineers are exploring ways to allow guests to decompress or experience a less stimulating environment, while maintaining Disney quality and storytelling in the space. The mental wellbeing initiatives stretch beyond the parks to include the Imagineers themselves. Barbara said about her colleagues “An area that I want to focus on is how we can support each other better,” “We’re in this for the long haul, and we’re creating this environment where wellbeing and health are at the center of everything everybody does.”
Episode 62: Ruth Shellhorn
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Megan Weston-Jesso is a plumbing apprentice in Canada. She is passionate about educating the public about all things plumbing. Megan stood out to me because of her mission to raise awareness on water quality. The Ontario Building and Construction Tradeswomen Organization featured her in their series WorkingTradeswomenWednesday, shining a light on her work and her path. On the feature, Megan said, "I gave plumbing a chance and honestly it has been the best decision because there are endless opportunities in this field.” Megan is very active on social media, you can find her and follow her on Instagram as @waterplumbergirl.
Episode 63: Lillian Ann Baumbach
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/lillianannbaumbach
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Dr. Victoria Heilman is a Tanzanian architect who has a Bachelors of Architecture from the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, a Masters degree in Architecture from the Catholic University of America in DC and a Doctorate in sustainable building practice with a focus on Tanzania from University of Stuttgart in Germany. Victoria is focused on making sustainable design and construction more mainstream within Ardhi University where she teaches. She also founded Tanzania Women Architects for Humanity which rebuilds houses after natural disasters with low-cost and easily available materials. She also founded her own firm Alama which has sustainability at the center of its design principles and also tries to use basic technologies and passive design to save energy.
Episode 64: Urmila Eulie Chowdhury
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/urmilaeuliechowdhury
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Pearl Yamaguchi is an alumnus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa just like Mae! Pearl graduated with a BS in electrical engineering. She's had a varied career working as a project engineer, nuclear engineer, and research specialist. Throughout her career, Pearl was mentored by Mae and now she is the mentorship forward, she is a member of the SWE and a champion of the Mae Nakatani Nishioka Scholarship Fund. Pearl also encourages others to begin scholarships and mentors on how to become better at fundraising.
Episode 65: Masako "Mae" Nakatani Nishioka
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/masakomaenakataninishioka
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Greta is an environmental activist who made headlines when she was protesting outside the Swedish Parliament advocating for climate change. At age 15, Greta was spending her Fridays demanding Parliament take immediate action for climate change mitigation. Greta Thunberg is the youngest caryatid on our Show! In 2019, Greta was Time’s Person of the Year for her work on climate action.Episode 66: Dorothy Erskine
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Patricia Uquiola Hidalgo is a Spanish industrial designer and architect and based in Milan. She studied architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan where she graduated in 1989. Throughout her career she’s been an assistant lecturer, worked with many well known designers such as Achille Castiglioni and Vico Magistretti. She was the Head of Design for Lissoni Associati and in 2001 she decided to open up her own firm. Her projects all over the map from The Museum of Jewlery in Vicenza, Hotel Mandarin Oriental in Barceloa. Retail and display for Cassina, BMW, Ferragamo, Flos, H&M. She has done product and furniture design for numerous companies, for example: Haworth, Kartell, Louis Vuitton, Morroso. Patricia’s work has been part of museum exhibitions and some of it is a part of the permanent collection at MoMA in New York. In 2011 King Juan Carlos I of Spain awarded the Medalla de Oro al Mérito en las Bellas Artes and the Order of Isabella the Catholic.
Episode 67: Clara Porset
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Alexandra Lange is an architecture and design critic. Her work has been published in publications like Metropolis, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, and the New York Times - just to name a few. Alexandra is also the Editorial Lead for the podcast New Angle Voices. Besides her countless publications, Alexandra is an author of several books, including her latest publication “Meet me by the fountain: an inside history of the mall”.
Episode 68: Esther McCoy
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/esthermccoy
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Jennifer Sudario P.E. studied architecture at UC Berkeley with a minor in structural engineering. That minor made her realize that her passion was actually in structural engineering, so she went to Cal Poly to get her Masters in Civil & Environmental Engineering in 2012. After she graduated, she started working at ARUP in San Francisco and was a bridge engineer for five years. In 2018, she transferred to the LA office of ARUP as a Senior Bridge Engineer where she worked on cut-and-cover tunnel and reinforced concrete design of freeways in the LA area. In April of last year, Jennifer was promoted to be ARUP’s West Coast Bridge Team Leader.Episode 69: Lois Cooper
Season 8: Places We’ve Called Home
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Astrid Diaz is an architect from San Juan, Puerto Rico and she has a Master in Architecture from the School of Architecture at the University of Puerto Rico. Astrid has always been very invested in Puerto Rico, after graduating architecture school she started a television program teaching Puerto Rican viewers about architecture, construction, history and preservation. Years later it is still on air, and she was even nominated to an Emmy in 2016! Astrid has her own firm ADV Architects and she is also involved in social housing. She designed modular homes after Hurricane Maria, meant to withstand strong hurricanes.
Episode 71: Gertie Besosa Silva
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Jacqueline started her firm Touzets studio with her partner Carlos Prio-Touzet, located in the Coral Gables Neighborhood of Miami. Jacqueline is Cornell Graduate, is a champion for a sustainable future, interested in building a community of coastal resilience and she is the chair of the Resiliency Committee on the Board of MRED (University of Miami School of Real Estate, Development, and Urbanism), a trustee for History Miami museum, and is an AIA Advisor to the Sea Level Rise Committee.
Episode 72: Marion Manley
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Beverly is from Detroit and went to Detroit Public Schools like Emily. She originally went to Michigan State University as a pre-med student but after taking a few elective drafting courses realized she wanted to pursue architecture instead. She decided to transfer to Lawrence Tech University in their professional practice architectural program to learn business skills as well as architectural skills. She got her Bachelor of Science in Architecture in 1985 and her Bachelor of Architecture in 1986. After school she went to work at Albert Kahn Associates, a well known firm in Detroit and worked towards her architectural license which she received in 1991. After working at a few other firms, she decided to open her own firm in 1993 called Hannah & Associates, Inc. Her firm was the first African-American licensed woman-owned firm in the state of Michigan. It is still one of only 12 firms in the US that is owned and operated by a black licensed female architect. Her firm provides architectural, inferior design, and construction related services. They have a wide range of project types: commercial, educational, governmental, healthcare, and even animal shelters. In 2013, her firm decided to partner with Neumann/Smith Architecture and are now called Hannah-Neumann/Smith. She is the managing partner.
Episode 73: Emily Helen Butterfield
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/emilyhelenbutterfield
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Dr Ornella Iuorio is a professor, researcher, and designer working at the intersection between Architecture and Structures. She studied architecture and civil engineering at the “University Federico II'' in Naples and “University Gabriele D’Annunzio” in Chieti – Pescara, she has MArch (hons) degree in Architecture and a Phd in Structural Engineering from Johns Hopkins. she is Professor of Architecture & Structures, Director of Cities, Infrastructure and Energy, and Program Leader in Architecture Engineering at the School of Civil Engineering in the University of Leeds. In 2022 the Women Engineering Society named her one of the top 50 Women in Engineering for her work and research in lightweight structures. Her research involves prefab and robotic assemblies and constructions. Also, she is leading the international Novavida project, which is a collaboration between academics and communities to reimagine post-disaster infrastructure development.
Episode 74: Maria Bortolotti Casoni
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/mariabortolotticasoni
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Renee would be the first African American female to graduate From Syracuse University in 1975! Renee is both an urban designer and a master planner. Besides her degree from SU, Renee has attended the AA in London and has a Master of Science in Urban/ Regional Planning from Columbia University.
She has served TEN mayors as the Urban Policy Advisor in major U.S. cities, like Washington, New York City, and Atlanta, to name a few. Most recently, in Birmingham, where she was the Director of Grants and Special Projects. Renee also served as Director of Master Planning for Birmingham’s award-winning Railroad Reservation Park and the innovative Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail.
Episode 75: Olive Frances Tjaden
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/olivefrancestjaden
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Linda is a curator and program manager on urban planning. She studied architectural history at the University of Amsterdam and was the chief curator at the Netherlands Architecture Institute from 2000-2011. She is also a core member of Stad-Forum, an independent research organization that advises the city of Amsterdam on urban development. In 2011 she founded Studio Linda Vlassenrood. According to her website Linda’s goal is to involve a broader group than just insiders in the development of cities and her approach is interdisciplinary. She facilitates discussion of complex urban issues in stimulating ways, organizes multi-year and shorter programs for cultural institutions, municipalities and commercial entities. She is currently researching and writing a book on Jakoba Mulder.
Episode 76: Jakoba Mulder
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Mary Beth Fisher is the Vice President of Business Development & Marketing at Wycoff Development & Construction. She has years of experience in residential and commercial real estate sales and development. Like Charlotte, she is not originally from Houston, she was born in Florida and raised in Georgia. She graduated with a Bachelor's in Education from the University of West Georgia. Later on, she moved with her husband to Louisiana and she began working in real estate. And after Louisiana, they arrived in Houston in 2018. And today she is excelling in Wycoff Development. In her own words, her passion is working with people who help others grow in their careers as well as personal development. Building long-lasting relationships that help build the city of Houston and surrounding areas is her ultimate goal!
Episode 77: Charlotte Marie Baldwin Allen
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/charlottemariebaldwinallen
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April Drake, is an architect based out of Arlington, VA. She is a Senior Project Architect at the firm HDR. At HDR, April works on educational, government, and commercial projects. On the firm's website they gave this stat, April “has designed more than 500,000 square feet of public and private sector space, including local and national projects.” April is very active in her local AIA chapter, she also has served at AIA NOVA (North Virginia) Woman in Architecture Committee.
Episode 78: Ethel Bailey Furman
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Taylor grew up in Southern California and was always interested in earthquakes, so she decided to study structural engineering. She got her BS in Civil & Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley and then went to UT Austin to get her masters in Structural Engineering. She now works at the firm Structural Focus where she works on seismic retrofits and historic renovations. She works on a variety of projects including commercial buildings and educational facilities. Some of her more notable projects are the Ole Hanson Beach Club, the Sony Pictures Akio Morita building, and the Scripps College New Residence Hall. She’s also part of her firm’s ‘Back 2 Business’ initiative which helps businesses in LA get back to working after a large earthquake.
Episode 79: Ruth Gordon Schnapp
Season 9: Inventors
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Nada is a Lebanese designer, who grew up in Japan and studied design at Rhode Island School of Design in the United States. Today she runs her design firm in Beirut, and similar to Sarah, Nada also has a store. See below links so you may shop her products and furniture today! Just like Sarah, Nada listens to her clients and creates pieces that are beyond form following function. They answer the client’s needs and resonate with the culture and emotions of the users. She’s impressive y’all. She has an experiential collaboration with Kohler and a designer for Design Miami, I’ll put a link to that on the show notes so y’all can learn all about it.
Episode 81: Sarah E. Goode
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Carmen Vann is the Regional Project Executive of BNB Builders, which is a construction firm that focuses on buildings related to the life sciences, based out of the San Diego Area. Read more about her work in the article mentioned in the episode: https://sdarchitecture.org/building-a-strong-foundation-for-women-in-construction-one-brick-at-a-time/
Episode 82: Anna Wagner Keichline
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/annawagnerkeichline
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Erin Bowles studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. She worked as an engineer for 6 years before deciding she wanted to get her law degree. She attended Wayne State University in Detroit to get her JD. Today she is a patent attorney and uses her engineering background to help people receive patents for their inventions
Episode 83: Alice H. Parker & Florence Parpart
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/alicehparkerflorenceparpart
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Chloe Vickery and Kate Blake are co-founders of the group Women in Fire Safety. This is a group that is based in London, England. Their goal is to: honor the outstanding achievements and contributions of all women within the fire safety community.
Chloe began her journey in the fire safety industry in 2008. She’s had a chance to work for fire safety contactors, distributors and manufacturers, throughout many aspects of different projects. Today she specializes in fire risk assessment, tenant engagement and tailored fire safety solutions for both new build and existing properties, as the National Fire Risk Assessment Manager at JLA Group.
Kate was working in Finance until 2008 when she changed career paths and got into the Construction Industry. Eventually she landed on the manufacturing side of the Fire Safety Industry. She was inspired to join this field after having a daughter and wanting to show her that anything is possible, she wanted to do something about the lack of women involved in construction and fire safety.
In their own words the Women in Fire Safety group “ …strive to address the historical gender imbalance and champion for a more progressive industry. That is why, as an organization, our aim is to continuously motivate and promote women who exceptionally improve fire safety standards. Throughout our journey, we hope to also encourage the next generation to see fire safety as an astounding career opportunity by further highlighting how varied, inclusive, diverse and rewarding the industry is as a collective.”
Episode 84: Anna Connelly
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Rachel is the CEO and founder of the company Alpha Energy Management which is a commercial solar energy company, based out of San Francisco. Alpha Energy is one of the few companies that is woman-owned and Minority owned. Read the article mentioned in the episode here: https://www.ecowatch.com/women-in-solar.html
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Priti studied structural engineering and urban planning in India. Her dad was a structural engineer and inspired her to go into the profession. She worked as an engineer for 12 years both in India and the UK before deciding to get her doctorate from the University of Cambridge. At Cambridge she focused on infrastructure in the impoverished areas of both India and South Africa. Doing her doctorate made her realize she loved researching and how it can better inform design and therefore help resource-challenged communities. After her doctorate she began teaching at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction as an Associate Professor and leads the Engineering for International Development Research Centre there.
Episode 86: Sarah Guppy
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Malena Español is a mathematician originally from Argentina. She has a degree in Exact Sciences and Natural Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires and a doctorate from the University of Tuft in the Netherlands. Today she works as a Professor at the University of Arizona in the US. She is a Karen EDGE Fellow, which is a fellowship that supports the research of mid-career mathematicians who are members of an underrepresented group.
Dina Katabi is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and the director of the MIT Wireless Center. She’s a McArthur Grant Fellow, also known as the Genius Grant. Dina has bachelor's degree from the University of Damascus and a Master's and PhD in Computer Science from MIT. Dina is a director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and her research includes developing a wireless technology that can detect people through walls to be used by medical professionals to tell if people have fallen or need help. The technology also aims to measure cardiac rhythm and oxygen levels wirelessly, without having to put sensors in the body
Episode 87: Herta Ayrton
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Fei Fei is the co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, as well as the founder of “AI for All” - a non-profit “aimed to increase diversity in AI”. Originally from Beijing, China - Fei Fei has a degree from Princeton in physics and a Ph.D. in Computer science from California Institute of Technology. After graduating she taught engineering and computer science courses at the University of Illinois and Princeton before securing tenure at Stanford. Fei Fei’s focus is on cognitive and computational neuroscience and machine learning to improve AI image recognition ability.
Check out other amazing ladies in the article that was mentioned in this episode: https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Top-9-most-influential-women-in-technology_
Episode 88: Grace Hopper
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Susan is an electrical engineer who attended DeMontfort University in Leicester, England in 1976. By 1979 which would be the normal length for an undergraduate degree, she had gotten both her bachelors in science and her PhD in ‘Solid State Iconics’. After school she went to work at AT&T Bell Labs as Department Head of the Device Robotics Technology Research. It was here that she and her husband Gerardo Beni invented and named the electrowetting effect. After this, she moved into academia, teaching at UC Santa Barbara before becoming the founding Dean at UC Riverside’s College of Engineering in 1990. She is no longer the dean but continues to teach electrical engineering at UC Riverside. She also served as the Executive Director for the California Council on Science and Technology CCST for 23 years. The CCST is a non-profit that was designed as an advisor to the California state government on scientific and technological developments that could help inform policy related to those issues.
Episode 89: Edith Clarke
Season 10: Living Legends
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Ileana Vives Luque is an architect and preservation activist from Costa Rica. She graduated from the Universidad de Costa Rica or UCR. She is super special because she is a listener suggestion. Osman H. recommended her for this episode because she was his professor in architecture history class. He remembers she was a walking library. She would tell students exactly on which page of which book they should look up a specific architecture source material. She was one of his favorite professors because of how passionate she was about architecture history and the patrimony of Costa Rica.
Ileana strives to preserve the architectural history of her country. She is a contributing writer of the book History of Architecture in Costa Rica. This book is the culmination of a project that began in 1995, Ileana alongside her colleagues conducted research for two years and from 1997 to 1998 ran a traveling exposition of Costa Rican architecture from pre-columbian era to modernity. The book was published in 1998.
She has served as director of the Center of Investigation and Conservation of the Cultural Patrimony in Costa Rica. In 2013 she led an effort named “Let’s Save our Architecture History Patrimony” which was an open call to the public to suggest spaces which should be restored as necessary and protected as part of Costa Rica’s architectural legacy.
Episode 91: Yasmeen Lari
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Yutaka Sho is a Founder and Principal of the General Architecture Collaborative also known as GA Collaborative. This is a nonprofit design firm that focuses on creating inclusive projects that sustain communities and the environment. They work with individuals, organizations, and communities to create an equitable world through design, research, and advocacy. Yutaka is from Tokyo, Japan, she has a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Architecture from Harvard. And since 2008 she has been a studio professor at Syracuse University. Her research focuses on the roles of architecture and planning in development, humanitarian, in post-calamity contexts.
Episode 92: Yasmeen Lari, Part Two
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Iris is a Dutch Couture Fashion Designer. Like Iris Apfel, THIS Iris blends fashion with architecture and design. Iris has collaborated with several Dutch architects to create her high fashion designs. One architect in particular is THE Rem Koolhass, together they created 3d printed heels to mimic tree roots- an image shown below. Find out more about her work here and here.
Episode 93: Iris Apfel
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Fernanda is a Mexican architect originally from Mexico City. She studied at Universidad Iberoamericana and graduated in 1997 winning the award for best thesis. She also received a Masters from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona and a PhD in Architecture from the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid. Fernanda has focused on residential architecture including low-income housing. Her projects are often awarded by government agencies or local charities. Some are pro bono some are paid contracts. She has stated that low budget is pretty much the only thing that differentiates social housing from private housing. Her pro bono projects often don’t have money to pay consultants and are built by non-experts with community involvement. One of the other main focuses of her design is flexibility. You never know what the building will become or who will use it later. ‘They need to be projects that can take that level of unexpected’ she says. She has been researching Mexican housing architecture and written several books about it. She says ‘how do you define luxury and give the same privileges to all in low-income housing? Luxury is light, air, space. It is not about the expensive kitchen or imported woods. It is about understanding the quality of shade or a tree. And that can be accessible to all.’
Episode 94: Tonny Zwollo
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Kimberly is an electrical engineer who has worked in the biotech field working on vaccines, BUT, what she is probably most known for is for founding the organization called Black Girls Code. Started in 2011, Black Girls Code is a nonprofit organization that focuses on providing technology and computer programming education for African-American girls. Based out of San Francisco, the organization has a goal to teach one million black girls to code by 2040. They have trained thousands of little girls across fifteen chapters in the United States and around the globe.
Episode 95: Dr. Eleanor K. Baum
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Sara Topelson is a Polish-Mexican architect. She was born in Poland but her parents fled during the Nazi regime and landed in Mexico when Sara was three months old. Sara has degrees in architecture, architectural theory, and art history from top colleges in Mexico including UNAM. Together with her husband who is also an architect she runs the firm Grinberg & Topelson Architects. They’ve designed a large variety of projects from residential, to commercial, to educational, to cultural… the list goes on and on. She is a professor of history of art, architecture, and urban planning.
Sara is a member of the UIA, she became a council member the year the three of us were born, she was vice-president from 1993 to 1996 and that year she became the first woman to be president of the UIA a position she held until 1999.
Episode 96: Solange d'Herbez de la Tour
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/solangedherbezdelatour
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Nyasha is a self-proclaimed “Architivist” which she explains are “architectural professionals and enthusiasts driving economic environmental, and societal reform to foster positive changes in society and within the profession.” Currently based out of Toronto, Nyasha is an architect, business strategist, educator, speaker, and writer. Before living in Toronto, she lived in the Netherlands.
Episode 97: Dr. Sharon Sutton
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Majora is an urban revitalization strategist who was born the South Bronx in 1966. Initially, the Bronx was mostly populated by working class white families, then in the mid-20th century, black families began moving into the neighborhood, and ‘white flight’ happened. This meant that the neighborhood lost resources from banks and landlords. Growing up in this atmosphere inspired Majora to work to change it. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and went to Wesleyan University in 1984 for her Bachelors of Arts, and then NYU for a Masters in Arts in 1997. She then returned to the Bronx and worked at The POINT Community Development Corporation. She helped spearhead the Hunts Point Riverside park project. She went on to found Sustainable South Bronx, a non-profit organization that works to improve the environmental and economic state of the South Bronx. She also co-produced the radio show The Promised Land from 2008-2011 which won a Peabody Award. After leaving SSBx, she formed the Majora Carter Group LLC which is a consulting firm that looks at technology, environment, and business and how they come together.
Episode 98: Denise Scott Browntion
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Madelon is a dutch artist and a co-founder of Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Madelon was born in Bilthoven, Netherlands and attended Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. She also attended classes at St. Martin’s School of Art in London. In 1975, Madelon along with her husband Rem Koolhaas, and Elia and Zoe Zenghelis, founded the firm OMA. Madelon was the artist of the iconic cover image, Flagrant Delit, for the book Delirious New York. She created graphics and visuals for OMA in the early years of the firm. Many of her contributions have been overlooked, or reprinted without permission under the caption ‘commissioned by OMA’. In 2018, she was awarded the Ada Louise Huxtable prize, and during her acceptance speech she talked about the ‘women written out of the script’ and talked about the many years that her contributions (and Zoe’s) to OMA were overlooked.
Episode 99: Denise Scott Brown, Part 2
Season 11: Pairs & Duos
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Katharina Hoerath is the Architectural Director for Bond Collective and the Co-Director of K-Works Studio, a firm she runs with her friend Katie Donahue. She has a Bachelor of Art History and a Master of Architecture. As the Architectural Director at Bond Collective, she is responsible for the design and development of large co-working spaces in major US cities. At K-Works Studio, as quoted from their website, “she focuses on the tactile and tangible, material cycles, and aspects of time and geology at the scale of exhibitions, houses, and retail typologies.”
She’s also a professor y'all! Molding minds at Parsons New School of Design.
In January 2020 she won the Contract award for best large office space design, and a year later she was finalist for the Hospitality Award in the category for Hybrid spaces.
Episode 101: Liane Zimbler
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Anna and Sofia are the founders of Front Design, a design studio based out of Sweden. I have to say that they are a studio because their work is more than just light and furniture, it’s art! From the website, they described their work to be inspired by their “fascination with magic.” The two of them work together from start to finish, collaborating from initial ideas to the finished product. The work from Front Design, reminds us of Clara because you can see how they draw inspiration from nature. What Anna and Sofia are doing is making it modern and whimsy. They have lights in retailers all over, including Ikea.
Episode 102: Clara Driscoll
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Anne grew up between Europe and the US. She went to undergrad at Wellesley College in Massachusetts to study art history, but took some architecture courses at MIT while she was there. She then went to UC Berkeley for a Masters in Architecture. A few years after school she opened up her own firm Fougeron Architecture in San Francisco. Anne’s firm does a variety of residential projects, both single family and multi-family. She has a real heart for designing low-income housing in particular and her firm also does a lot of work with Planned Parenthood clinics as well. From what I have read, her projects tend to focus on natural light and how that interacts with the space, exploring new building materials, and clever uses of structure in a project that can become ornamental.
Episode 103: Gertrude Comfort Morrow
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/gertrudecomfortmorrow
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Katie Donahue, is an award winning registered architect in the United States, working on projects at various scales. She is the Co-Director of K-Works Studio, which she runs with past caryatid Katharina Horath! As a firm K-Works Studio focuses on residential design, architectural installations and sustainability. As paraphrased from their website, Katie is particularly interested in exploring how design solutions address issues of culture, environment and neighborhoods and the ways place-making affects the vitality of cities.
She is also a consultant at Handel Architects in New York and Denver. And most importantly for today's episode, Katie is the business partner of the Caryatid for Liane Zimbler's episode, and as we've mentioned Liane was a business partner of Ada's so this felt like a good fit. Katie's got degrees on degrees. Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and architecture degrees from Cornell University and University of Colorado. She's also professor, teaching design, representation, drawing and rendering at the University of Colorado-Denver and Parsons School of Design.
Episode 104: Ada Gomperz
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We have a duo in the house because that’s what this season is all about. Plus they have a cool story. So Lindsey grew up in a couple of different places - she mentions, Colorado, Arizona, and Michigan - eventually leading her to get a bachelor's at Arizona State University and a master’s at Columbia. Jean grew up mostly in Philly but spent most of her time in Seoul, South Korea. She studied at UVA and then at Yale. They started collaborating and working together on a project while at Studio Gang. Lindsey would eventually move on from Studio Gang, but they got together during the pandemic to start their firm Mattaforma. They do a lot of work in research on materiality with a focus on ethical practice. They quote “invest in research on contextual technical, historic, and cultural material values.”
Episode 105: Mary Nevan Gannon & Alice J. Hands
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/marynevangannonandalicehands
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Natalye Appel is an architect in Houston. She got her Bachelors of Architecture from Rice University and her Masters of Architecture from University of Pennsylvania. In 1987 she opened her own firm in Houston. In 2000 she was made a fellow in the AIA. The firm Natalye Appel and Associates works on a wide variety of project types: civic, institutional, commercial, and residential. In 2005, Stephanie Millet joined the firm and she became a partner at the firm in 2010. Stephanie has a B Arch from Cal Poly and a M Arch from Rice University.
Episode 106: Isabel Roberts & Ida Annah Ryan
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/isabelrobertsidaannahryan
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Estelle is half Ghanaian, born and raised in the UK, and holds a BA in Fashion from Central Saint Martins. Now she is based in New York where she has her firm Dream Awake which is a full-service interior Architecture and Experiential Design Studio. She also has a clothing brand, named "Noah" that was originally started with her husband but was relaunched in 2015 as a joint partnership. A true collaboration between wife and husband, the Husband does the clothes, and Estelle creates these “spatial experiences of the brand’s retail spaces.”
Episode 107: Loja Saarinen
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Ada Tolla, co-founder of the firm Lot-Ek with Giuseppe Lignano, merges architecture with art, focusing on sustainability and material reuse. Ada and Giuseppe met in Naples, Italy, and have worked together since 1993. Their projects often involve upcycling. For example, they transformed a 40-foot shipping containers into livable spaces. Their motto, "We start with the things we find," reflects their creative process. Ada is also a professor, her resume includes Syracuse University and Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture. She continues exploring innovative design and material experimentation through her work and teachings.
Episode 108: Lilian Swann Saarinen
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/lilianswannsaarinen
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Eva is a German-born Nigerian designer. She now lives in London and was originally a journalist, but pivoted into interior design and textile design. She founded her own interiors company Eva Sonaike in 2009. The company’s ethos is ‘Bringing Color to Life’. She takes inspiration from growing up in Germany, and the european mid-century influences along with her home country of Nigeria and different African textiles and colors to create her textile designs. Each collection she creates has a narrative. She said in 2023 ‘Kano, my most recent collection is named after a city in northern Nigeria in Kano State, formerly a trans-Saharan trade route, which is a city of kings and queens. I envisaged a story – using textiles. I always start with the colors, which take a long time because I want them to translate the story accurately. Then I design and create the overall package.’
Episode 109: Ruth Adler Schnee
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elizabeth is a registered Landscape Architect, Principal, and Founder of EKLA PPLC, a firm based in New York. She is considered to be an expert in green infrastructure, landscape restoration, resilience design, and cultural site development and management. Some of her work includes writing specifications for the protection of restoration of heritage trees and living landmarks. These specifications are included in the National Register of His
Episode 110: Ellen Biddle Shipman
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Raha Ashrafi and Marziah Zad, co-founders of ASHRAFI & ZAD DESIGN, are impressive architects with strong international credentials. Raha, who holds a Master's in Architecture from the University of Melbourne and studied sustainable design in Germany, is noted for her work at United Design Architects, including the upcoming Hamadean Chamber of Commerce project, which draws on Persian geometric principles. Marziah, with a Bachelor's from the University of Tehran and an MArch from IAAC, is also an educator at her alma mater and other universities.
Similar to Anne, geometry and rationality in architecture is a driving force of Ashrafi & Zad Design. Their firm leverages advanced design and technology to create inclusive built environments that empower communities and honor individual stories and identities.
Episode 111: Anne Tyng Part One
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Ingrid Schaffner is a curator, writer, educator, and art critic. She was born in Pittsburgh, and grew up in Los Gatos, California. Her higher education resume includes Mount Holyoke College, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program, Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellow, and a master’s degree in art history from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. She's seriously a powerhouse, and she shines bright when she is putting the spotlight on overlooked artists and architects. For 15 years, from 2000 to 2015 she was in charge of the exhibition program at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). She was also the editor of Anne's book: Inhabiting Geometry. She continues to highlight Anne whenever she can. In March of 2020 she was part of a panel event at a conference in Princeton University called Anne Tyng: Ordered Randomness.
Episode 112: Anne Tyng Part Two
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Jing Liu is an architect based in Brooklyn with her partner and husband Florian Idenburg together they have the firm SO-IL. They do work all over the world, they’ve done projects on cultural campuses. One project that they did was the museum at the University of California, Davis Campus on their website they described it as an “open-ended relationship between the visitor and the site at the outset”.
Read more about her firm and the article mentioned on the show here.
Episode 113: Alison Smithson
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Dr. Jane Chumley Ammons is an industrial engineer famous for her research on supply chain engineering and the recycling of industrial goods. She is professor emerita at Georgia Tech where she was the chair of the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. She was also president of the Institute of Industrial Engineers.
In 2014 Jane became the second woman to win the Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Industrial Engineering Award. It is the highest and most esteemed honor one can get from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. It is given to people who distinguish themselves through contributions to mankind. Jane is an extremely accomplished pioneering leader in the field of industrial and systems engineering. She also supports educational opportunities for underrepresented people. An example of this was her participation as a member of the Technical Committee for Uganda: Millennium Science Initiative Project co-financed by the World Bank.
Episode 114: Lillian Gilbreth
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Wambui is a Kenyan landscape designer. She grew up living all over the world, in Kenya, Costa Rica, and various places in Europe because her mom was a diplomat. She loved the landscape when they were back at their farm in Kenya’s Rift Valley. She said ‘I was surrounded by what felt like a never-ending landscape: the sky was so wide, the stars so abundant, and animals roamed freely. I felt so connected there.’ After her daughter was born, she left her consultancy job and reignited her love of landscape. She then attended and graduated from the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture. After that, she had the opportunity to work on the estates of Martha Stewart and David Letterman. Her childhood traveling the world influences her designs and her planting choices. She says ‘I try to tap into the zeitgeist of a place. I observe the lushness of plants, listen to the music, see how people talk, interact, and maneuver through the natural world. Landscape is not just a thing to be looked at, but a place to live.’
Episode 115: Florence Yoch
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Laura Otero Pedraza is the creator and owner of ateliermadera a design firm based out of Bolivia. Just like Teresa, her interest in design and creation is highly rooted in nature and historical context. Even the location of her studio reflects her ethos, she practices inside a home built in the 1920s in the middle of nature surrounded by monkeys, sloths, and countless birds. She grew up in Bolivia, studied architecture in the University Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina and did an internship in South Africa. It was there where she felt she started to really see and feel the soul in things, in people, in nature, and in context. Today her work spans from architectural installations, to furniture creations inspired by local methods and nature. One can’t help but notice the parallels between Laura and Teresa in how both being architects from Bolivia they draw from and highlight culture in their work even though they have different ways of expressing and materializing that interest.
Episode 116: Teresa Gisbert
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Nellie is Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s second daughter. Nellie studied architecture at Cooper Union, has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California Santa Cruz, and a Masters from California College of Fine Arts. Like Barbara, Nellie has collaborated with a few designers herself but some of her most known collaborations were with her mama Bobbie. Her most recent one is from just last year in 2023. She actually did two exhibitions with her mother there is the 2023 exhibition that I mentioned, SUPER-SILLY-US: Barbara Stauffacher Solomon & Nellie King Solomon(2023) at MarinMOCA in Hamilton, CA, Art, Earth and Sky (2023) at SMoCA Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, BEYOND: Works by Nellie King Solomon and Barbara Stauffacher Solomon (2021) at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art SMOCA.
Episode 117: Barbara Stauffacher Solomon
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/barbarastauffachersolomon
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Yongming is a Chinese poet and essayist. She was born in 1955 in Chengdu, China during the Mao era. During the Cultural Revolution, she was forced to move to the countryside and do manual labor for two years as a teenager. After her mandatory labor, she went to the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and graduated in 1980. She went to work as an engineer at the Physics Research Institute but quit in 1986 to pursue a full-time career in poetry. She had been writing poetry before quitting her job and started getting published in 1981. From 1984-1986, she published a collection of 19 linked poems called ‘Woman’. Her poetry focuses on reshaping the concepts of gender and femininity. Particularly as it relates to Chinese culture. Some of her other notable works are ‘Jing’an Village, Plain Songs in the Dark Night, The Most Tactful Words, and Roaming the Fuchun Mountains with Huang Gongwang.’
Episode 118: Lin Huiyin
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Lu Wenyu is a Chinese architect and professor. She and her husband Wang Shu met while studying architecture at the Nanjing Institute of Technology and founded Amateur Architecture Studio in 1997. The firm focuses on natural materials in their work like wood, stone, and mud. Wenyu also teaches at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. She has said that they named their office Amateur Architecture because they were trying to fight against the ‘professional, soulless architecture’ that was being done in China. One article said ‘her techniques are rooted in Chinese tradition but she insists that historical knowledge should be a springboard for her students, and herself, to explore new and inventive ideas.’ The studio won the Pritzker Prize in 2012 for their projects.
Episode 119: Lin Huiyin, Part 2
Season 12: Government & Urban Planning
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Norman-Rosedam made history as the first Black woman to be licensed as a building official and to lead a building department in Connecticut and throughout New England.
Her career has been extensive, beginning as a commissioner on the Zoning Board of Appeals and later working as a construction inspector and senior site superintendent for the city of Stamford, Connecticut. She now serves as the Building Official for Guilford, Connecticut, where she oversees planning, directing, and managing building inspection activities—similar to the role once held by Virginia Andreescu.
In addition to her primary role, Norman-Rosedam holds multiple certifications, including Certified Residential Building Inspector, Real Estate Salesperson, State Home Improvement Contractor, and Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting Contractor. Coming from a family of builders, she is a third-generation contractor and site supervisor, following in the footsteps of her father, who owns Rose Construction Company
Episode 121: Virginia Andrescu Haret
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/virginiaandreescuharet
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Regina is the Director of the Affordable Housing Research and Technology Division in the Office of Policy Development and Research at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development aka HUD. Her department conducts studies and provides research assistance on issues related to building codes, standards, and technologies; land use planning and housing issues related to “green” construction and energy efficiency, and so much more. Be sure to check out our Charette interview with Regina where we discuss her work and initiatives.
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Nithya was born in Kerala, India, and moved to the US with her family when she was 6. She got a Bachelor’s in Political Theory from Harvard. After she graduated, she moved to India and was working in Delhi when she heard about the Yamuna Pushta eviction which evicted and demolished a large area of slums along the Yamuna River. She was shocked by how little coverage this was given and the disparity between how poor and rich residents were treated in urban planning. She worked for an NGO after that and eventually decided to go back to school and get her Masters of Urban Planning from MIT. After getting her degree, she returned to India, this time in Chennai, and founded Transparent Chennai, an organization started “to empower residents by providing them useful, easy-to-understand information that can better highlight citizen needs, shed light on government performance, and improve their lives in the city, one issue at a time,” (including issues like access to running water and sanitation services). She has since returned to the states and while living in LA started a homelessness non-profit before being elected to the LA City Council in 2020. She is still on the city council today.
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In 1990, the Carlos Díaz Vélez Foundation was established in accordance with the wishes outlined in Mathilde Díaz Vélez’s will. Deeply committed to the advancement of agricultural and livestock education in Argentina, she donated three of her estates—Patina, Tita, and Rincón de Quequén—for this purpose. The foundation was named after her father, reflecting her desire to honor his legacy. The inaugural Board of Directors was led by Enrique Woodrow Álvarez de Toledo and included Inés Álvarez de Toledo and attorney María Videla Escalada.
The foundation continues to uphold Mathilde’s vision by providing community classes, university scholarships, and educational programs for school children—initiatives that reflect her belief in accessible learning and rural development.
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Farah is a Senior Sustainable Design Project Manager at NYC School Construction Authority (SCA). Based in NYC, she specializes in building energy-efficient and green building technical standards. Before working with the School Construction Authority, Farah worked as a building energy code official at the New York City Department of Buildings. In addition to this, Farah also contributes her expertise as a green-building journalist for national publications.
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Helle was born in Denmark and decided to study architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. While she was studying, she realized that she appreciated larger scale projects within architecture and switched her focus to urban planning where she studied under Jan Gehl. After she graduated, she went to the University of Washington in Seattle to get a Masters in Architecture. In 2000, she and her former professor Jan Gehl founded Gehl, a global urban strategy and design consultancy. Their mission was to cultivate robust methodologies anchoring urban research on solid ground, transcending political biases and subjective viewpoints. Over the years Gehl has won many awards for their work making cities more livable and sustainable. When talking about how she sees success for Gehl, Helle said: succeeding is about making cities for people. That has been our purpose all through these twenty years and that still remains our purpose today, even though we have shifted from focusing on delivering a paradigm shift within planning to now focusing on the outcome and making sure that cities are in fact more equitable, healthy, and sustainable places for all. If we can help make sure that more projects and more cities are delivering places where people thrive and can live a high quality of life, while having access to opportunities, protecting natural resources and balancing growth - that would define success as a company.
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Elisa Maceratini is the president and co-founder of Interazioni Urbane, an Italian NGO composed of architects, facilitators, and social innovators committed to urban renewal, social inclusion, and participatory planning in under-resourced areas.
An architect and urban planner with a PhD in Urban Renewal from the University of Sapienza in Rome, Elisa specializes in slum upgrading, regional planning, and community-driven design. She has worked in around 20 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America as an international consultant for a range of agencies and governments.
Widely respected for leading projects and educational initiatives on sustainable urban strategies, Elisa was honored in 2015 by then-President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, for her outstanding contributions to Italian society, especially in the social and professional advancement of women.
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Melissa R. Daniel is a Facilities Project Manager in Maryland and is the creator/ host of the Architecture is Political (AIP) podcast, where Black and Brown folks discuss architecture. She received the 2022 AIA Whitney M Young Award and the 2018 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Associates Award. Melissa serves as past Chair for AIA Housing and Community Development Knowledge Community and as a Steering Committee Member to the DC Legacy Project, Barry Farm-Hillsdale. She is also the founder and host of the Architecture is Political podcast, “where Brown and Black folks have conversations about Architecture.”
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May was born in Cairo, Egypt and got a degree in architectural engineering from Ain Shams University in Cairo. She then got a Masters in History of Islamic Art, Architecture, and Archaeology at University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). THEN she got a PhD in archaeology from SOAS. In 2011 she founded Megawra, an architectural practice. In 2012, the company partnered with the Built Environment Collective (BEC), an NGO specializing in place-based cultural and urban development, to become Megawra-BEC. The company works as both an architectural firm and an NGO to focus on sustainable and socially-responsible heritage restoration in Cairo. Megawra-BEC also runs a program called Athar Lina, which focuses on the neighborhood of al-Khalifa in Cairo on heritage conservation and adaptive reuse. This program partners with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Season 13: All Things Residential
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Satoko Shinohara is a Japanese architect, educator, and researcher celebrated for her socially driven approach to housing design. A graduate of Japan Women’s University, she earned her master’s in 1983 and later founded Spatial Design Studio (SDS). Since 1996, she has also served as a professor, becoming president of her alma mater in 2020, where she advanced inclusive policies and renamed the Faculty of Home Economics to the Faculty of Human Sciences and Design. Her architectural work, including SHAREyaraicho and SHAREtenjincho, pioneers “share house” models that foster community through shared living spaces and public engagement.
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Hatsue Yamada, born in 1930, is a pioneering Japanese architect and designer who came of age during World War II. She discovered her passion for design while studying in the Life and Arts department at Japan Women’s College, using drawing to stay grounded during times of postwar hardship. After graduating in 1954, she worked at Azusa Design Office, creating furniture for major clients like Japan Airlines. Her architectural work, including the Two-Story House in Kamakura and the Tsumagoi Residence, blends traditional Japanese design with modern elements. Yamada later turned to public service, writing, and teaching at Showa University in Tokyo. In 2003, she published The Science of Family Living Space: Thinking with the Mind-Body. As of recent accounts, she remains active in Kamakura, contributing to citizen-led urban planning initiatives well into her 90s.
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Catherine, originally from South Central Los Angeles, is an architect whose work bridges design, community advocacy, and policy. With a strong background in community organizing and housing justice, she leads her own studio dedicated to creating affordable housing and public spaces that serve neighborhoods often excluded from development. Her practice is grounded in the belief that design can be a catalyst for social, economic, and physical change, particularly in historically marginalized communities.
Beyond her studio work, Catherine collaborates with tenant unions, grassroots organizers, and policy advocates across Southern California to advance equitable housing initiatives. She is also deeply involved with Design As Protest, a national collective that challenges the design and architecture industries to confront their role in systemic harm to Black communities and to pursue practices that prioritize justice and accountability.
Equally committed to education, Catherine mentors the next generation of designers through teaching, workshops, summer programs, and portfolio reviews. By helping young people see the potential of architecture as a tool for change, she encourages them to envision—and build—healthier, more equitable communities.
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Jill is a residential architect who grew up in Wisconsin, and spent her childhood visiting her grandparents log cabin lake house. She got a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography from Cornell and then received a Masters in Architecture from the GSD at Harvard. In 1994 she started her own firm Jill Neubauer Architects. The firm is based in Falmouth, Massachusetts and their work is primarily residential with projects in Cape Cod, the South Shore, Boston, the Catskills, the Green Mountains, and Wisconsin. Their projects include renovating historic homes, new modern houses, additions, and remodels. In 2024, Jill brought Kelly Ennis Connellan on as a partner in the firm which was renamed Neubauer Ennis Architects. Their website says ‘Neubauer Ennis believes every building matters and that architecture matters to the family, the street, the community, and the region. The buildings we design emerge from our client’s family stories and the unique landscapes they are sited in.’
Episode 134: Lois Lilley Howe
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Item descriptionChandra is an architect and developer who founded coG Studio in 2011 after leaving corporate practice. Drawing on her global experience with large-scale projects, she now leads a firm that designs everything from luxury homes and multi-family housing to retail, offices, and community hubs—completing over 845 housing units nationwide with a focus on people-first design and community engagement.
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Tatiana Bilbao was born in Mexico and apparently there are a lot of architects in her family including her grandfather. So she was exposed and interested in the profession from a very young age. She studied at Universidad Iberoamericana and got her Bachelors of Architecture and Urbanism in 1996 and in 1998 her thesis was awarded Best Architecture Thesis of the Year. After graduation she worked for the city on urban planning and housing developments. In 1999 she started Laboratiorio de la Ciudad de Mexico with Fernando Romero. Their work was mainly high-end homes. Then in 2004, Tatiana went off on her own to form Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, an urban think-tank. The firm focuses on sustainable design and also does a lot of affordable housing projects. Her firm has been focusing on creating an affordable housing prototype. They researched and interviewed future inhabitants of these housing units to find out what they wanted and needed in a space. Then they came up with a design that can adapt as needed to geographic, social, or cultural conditions. The prototype has a base layout with a cinderblock core, and then low-cost materials are used around that and can be added on to as needed. Their site says ‘The project’s objective is providing every Mexican family the possibility to have access to an intelligently designed affordable solution for a house.’
Episode 136: Verna Cook Salomonsky Shipman
https://www.shebuildspodcast.com/episodes/vernacooksalomonskyshipman
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Juliet Serem is a Kenyan American architect and the owner of Studio Boma in Houston. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Interior Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Architecture from the University of Maryland. Her career spans projects in renovation, education, and commercial design, and she now focuses on residential architecture and commercial interior remodels. Passionate about supporting women in the profession, she served as Chair of the Women in Architecture Committee in Houston. Juliet also designed the home where she lives with her family and pursues painting alongside her architectural work. She is recognized as a talented professional, a supportive leader, and a vibrant presence in her community.
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Mariam Kamara, a Nigerien architect and founder of Atelier Masomi, is known for designing culturally grounded, climate-responsive spaces that address overlooked communities. Originally trained in computer science, she later turned to architecture, gaining international recognition for her thesis on women and public space in Niger. Her work ranges from reimagining urban growth in Niamey to developing affordable, energy-efficient housing, often using local materials and traditional techniques in innovative ways. She has also co-founded a Seattle-based design collective, contributed to major urban projects in West Africa, and currently teaches urban studies at Brown University.
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Trattie Davies attended Yale University for undergrad and received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture degree in 1994. After graduating she taught photography at a high school in Vermont before going to New York City and working at an architecture firm. She then decided to go to grad school and went back to Yale to get her M. Arch in 2004. Her final semester, she had Frank Gehry as her professor, and after graduation she went to work for Gehry Partners in LA. She also was an artist in residence at Cité International des Arts in Paris and a teaching fellow at the Fontainebleau Schools of Music and Fine Arts. In 2009, she and Jonathan Toews started Davies Toews in New York City. Their firm does residential, commercial, and institutional projects and focuses on practice through building with an emphasis on design exploration and scale diversity. In addition to her firm, Trattie also is a Senior Critic at the Yale School of Architecture.Item description
Episode 139: Judith Chaffee
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Alice is Ghanaian and studied at Nottingham University and then studied architecture at The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at the University College London. After graduating she went on to work at Foster and Partners in London for six years. She then went to work for Adjaye Associates in London and was there for 9 years before helping launch the Ghana office for Adjaye Associates in 2012. In 2015, Alice founded MUSTARD, a boutique firm that focuses on developing contemporary architecture suited to the sub-Saharan African climate. Their project types include residential, commercial, and cultural. She also had an installation at the 2021 London Design Biennale. In addition to MUSTARD, Alice is also a founder of Architects Africa which is a collaboration of three different African firms to create a pan-African practice. I also found an article about the house Alice designed for herself in Accra, which is really stunning. It reminded me of how Judith designed her office and studio space and how she focused on vernacular architecture for Tucson just like Alice is doing in Ghana.
Episode 140: Judith Chafee
Season 15: Collective Impact
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Julia is an architect, writer, and advocate best known for founding Madame Architect, a platform that highlights women shaping the architecture and design industry. She created it after noticing that many talented women in architecture weren’t receiving the visibility or recognition they deserved. What started as an interview series and Instagram account grew into a respected platform focused on career conversations, leadership, and representation in AEC.
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Item descriCheryl McAfee is an architect, business leader, and advocate who broke barriers throughout her career. In 1990, she became the first woman licensed to practice architecture in Kansas and later helped lead the design and construction of all 33 venues for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. A longtime member of NOMA, she made history in 1995 as the organization’s first female president, paving the way for future generations of women architects.
Roberta Washington is an architect, historian, and advocate whose career has combined design, scholarship, and leadership. After earning architecture degrees from Howard University and Columbia University, she worked on housing and hospital projects in Mozambique before founding Roberta Washington Architects in 1983, one of the few U.S. architecture firms led by an African American woman at the time. In 1997, she became NOMA’s second female president and continues to support the organization through leadership and service.ption
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Melvalean McLemore is the 16th black woman to become a licensed architect in the state of Texas, co-founder of the NOMA National HBCU Professional Development Program where they connect large firms with HBCU architecture students seeking mentorship and networking opportunities. She has served as President of AIA Houston and on NCARB’s Continuing Education Committee, and won so many awards; AIA Houston 2023 Ben Brewer Young Architect Award and AIA National 2024 Young Architect Award to name a few. She is a contributor of the book and project Letters to Miss 1000.
Letters to Ms. 1000: Words of Wisdom from African American Women Architects is a book and mentoring project that shares the stories and career advice to empower current and future Black women in architecture. The initiative actively works toward the goal of having 1,000 licensed Black women architects in the United States
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Yẹmí is an architect in the UK who went to Kingston University in London for undergrad, grad, and post grad degrees in architecture. After graduating she worked in several different roles: Architect, Contract Administrator, Major Projects Manager, and Construction Design and Quality Manager. She says that all of these roles tied back to housing, and really emphasized her focus on social housing. She eventually moved into the public sector and has worked for several London boroughs including as the Head of Meridian Water - Development for the Enfield Council. This is a huge regeneration project aiming to provide 10,000 homes and 6,000 jobs for locals. She now works for the London Borough of Ealing as the Acting Assistant Director of Housing Regeneration. In addition to her job, Yẹmí is a RIBA member and has served on the Education Committee. She is also currently a Non-Executive Board Member of Women’s Pioneer Housing. She is also a co-founder of Paradigm Network. Paradigm is an AEC professional network to promote Black and Asian representation within the Built Environment.
Episode 154: Gertrude Leverkus
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Corrin Wendell is an urban planner, educator, and passionate advocate for getting young people involved in shaping their communities. Trained in both architecture and city planning at The Ohio State University, she spent more than 20 years working across urban design, land-use planning, community development, zoning, and public engagement before founding Youth Engagement Planning (YEP!). numerous awards for leadership, education, and public service within the planning profession. Youth Engagement Planning (or YEP!) got its start in 2006 as a graduate school project. Corrin Wendell and Monica Tibbits-Nutt were tasked with creating a "Planners' Day in School" curriculum to introduce K–12 students to the world of urban planning. What began as a simple educational resource quickly evolved into a national nonprofit dedicated to helping young people understand how cities are shaped and empowering them to have a say in the future of their communities.
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Rita Brown is the President and CEO of BCC, a company that provides structural and miscellaneous steel and consulting for steel related projects in Birmingham Michigan.
She is also the Transportation Commissioner for the State of Michigan, and the 2025-2026 President of the (NAWIC).
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Carole is a nationally respected architect, firm leader, and longtime advocate for the profession. Throughout her career, she has served in numerous leadership roles, including with the AIA, the Boston Architectural College, the Large Firm Roundtable, and the AIA Foundation. A familiar face at the AIA Women's Leadership Summit, Carole has both shaped and witnessed many of the organization's defining moments. In 2024, she was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), continuing her commitment to advancing the profession on a national scale.
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Yvette is a civil engineer. She has a BS in civil engineering and an MS in Chemistry from Southern University and A&M College, a Graduate Certificate in Educational Research Methodology from University Illinois Chicago, and a PhD in Engineering and Applied Science from University of New Orleans. She is a registered Professional Engineer in Louisiana and a program evaluator for the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET. She said that she knew very early on that she wanted to teach engineering. She’s been working in engineering education and research for over 25 years. She is the founder and lead consultant of the Pearson Evaluation and Education Research Group (PEER) which aims to advance fairness, access, and opportunity for all in STEM education and practice. She was also an Associate Dean in the Brown School of Engineering at Rice University in Houston and is now the Associate Dean at UT Dallas. She is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and was the inaugural Chair of ASCE’s Members of Society Advancing an Inclusive Culture (MOSAIC), an advisory council on DEI. She helped spearhead ASCE’s Code of Ethics to include DEI as the Vice Chair of the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. Yvette is also a podcast host for Engineering Change which hopes to ‘re-imagine who we see as engineers and what we see as engineering; de-siloing our approach to academic programs, research, and problem-solving; and fine-tuning organizational conditions so people with different backgrounds and perspectives can contribute fully to outcomes that serve all of society.’
Episode 158: Elsie Eaves & SWE
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Janeen is the CEO of the NSBE or the National Society of Black Engineers. She is from Newark, New Jersey originally and got a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University. In 2002 she went to work for General Electric and in 2016 took over the Women in Technology programs at the company. She decided she wanted to stay in technology rather than design engineering because she feels that ‘without a doubt, the next way the world will be changed from a justice perspective is through technology.’ So she went to work for Wikipedia as their COO. In 2021, she was asked to become the CEO of the National Society of Black Engineers. This was right as the organization was about to celebrate its 50th anniversary. NSBE’s mission is ‘to increase the number of culturally responsible black engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and positively impact the community.’
Episode 159: Ruth Shafer & SWE