Women in ARCHITECTURE

Maya Lin Maya Ying Lin was a senior at the Yale School of Architecture, her design was chosen from among more than 1400 submissions, some by world renown architects. The choice was immediately controversial, not only because of the non-traditional design but because the designer was both a woman and an Asian-American. The design was called a "black gash of shame" and a "giant tombstone."

Vietnam Veterans Memorial The memorial is "a rift in the earth" (Lin) made of two black granite walls, each 246 feet long, angled at 125 degrees. One wall points to the Washington Monument, the other to the Lincoln Memorial. As a response to those who wanted a more traditional and heroic memorial, officials erected Frederick Hart's

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Wave Field, University of Michigan, North Campus This outdoor sculpture, made of earth and sod, is located on the University of Michigan campus. Unlike many examples of earthworks (or earth art) it is not hidden away at some inaccessible location. This 10,000 square foot work is comprised of a series of 50 grass "waves" in 8 rows.

Civil Rights Memorial The design of the Vietnam Memorial led to additional commissions for Lin, this work commissioned by the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery.

The circular fountain provides a timeline of important events in the civil rights movement, beginning in 1954 with the Brown vs. Board of Education decision and ending with Dr. King's 1968 assassination. It also records the names of 40 men, women, and children who lost their lives working for social justice. A thin pool of water flows over this circular "table," an effect that Lin hoped was soothing.

…Is the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize for Architecture in its 26 year history, and has defined a radically new approach to architecture by creating buildings with multiple perspective points and fragmented geometry to evoke the chaos of modern life. ZAHA HADID

London Aquatic Centre

She also designs shoes. Like many of the “starchitects” of our times, Zaha designs luxury products.

Contemporary Arts Center In Cincinnati, an 85,000 square foot building housing temporary exhibits of contemporary art

The restricted urban site, across the street from the Aronoff Center for the Arts by Cesar Pelli, demanded a corner building, made more interesting by the floating volumes and the glass wrapped around the front. Galleries are stacked four floors high with offices on the south side indicated by the blue glass curtain wall.

A tall atrium provides light in the center of the building with stairs/ramps forming a spine upward.

Zaha Hadidhas designed a prototype for a new hybrid: the Z car.

The sculptural prototype above is Zaha Hadid’s city car in SUV size, now showing at the Zaha Hadid: Architecture and Design, the first full scale show the architect’s work at the Design Museum in London.

Until recently Hadid was more famous not for the buildings she had built, but for the ones she had not built — preserved only in her famously vigorous, dramatic images.

The sculptural Cirrus 2008 is aesthetically dynamic and versatile in use: inviting people to sit, lie, lean, and play. It is made from Laminate by Formica in Polished finish and stained medium density fiberboard, and it stands approximately 96 x 96 x 96 inches.

Maggie's Cancer Caring Centers are a network of drop-in centers in Great Britain, which aim to help anyone who has been affected by cancer. They are not intended as a replacement for conventional cancer therapy, but as a caring environment that can provide support, information and practical advice. They are located nearby, but are separate from, existing NHS hospitals.

The Maggie's Centre is to be situated in the grounds of Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy. The architectural brief is to provide a centre for people with cancer, which is at once domestic in scale but unique in execution.

The building, with panoramic views to the sea and the skyline of Abu Dhabi, will be part of an inclining ensemble of institutions of the cultural district on Saadiyat Island that stretch from the Maritime Museum at its southern end to Contemporary Art Museum at the northern tip. The Performing Arts Centre in Abu Dhabi by Zaha Hadid

NORMA SKLAREK From New York City she graduated from Barnard College (part of Columbia University) with a degree in architecture in Sklarek became the first African-American woman to be licensed as an architect in the United States with certification in New York State in 1954 and in California in She was the first African-American woman director of architecture at Gruen and Associates in Los Angeles. In 1966, she was the first woman to be elected Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

Some twenty years later, in 1985, she became the first African-American woman architect to form her own architectural firm: Siegel, Sklarek, Diamond. At the time, this was the largest woman-owned and mostly woman-staffed architectural firm. Among Sklarek's designs are the City Hall in San Bernardino, California, the Fox Plaza in San Francisco, Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. From 1989 to 1992, Sklarek was a principal at The Jerde Partnership. Norma Sklarek

Among Sklarek's designs are the City Hall in San Bernardino, Fox Plaza in San Francisco, Terminal One at the Los Angeles International Airport and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Norma Sklarek