Archinect - News

San Francisco's new Presidio Tunnel Tops project could serve as a case study for women in project management and construction roles

2022-09-07T18:53:00-04:00

By any count, Presidio Tunnel Tops had an unusual number of women in construction and project leadership. They say there are good reasons for that.

Led by Kerry Huang of James Corner Field Operations, the recently-opened new addition to San Francisco’s public parks portfolio was in the works for the better part of 30 years before being completed in July.

As Landscape Architecture Magazine highlights, the number of women employed in leadership positions was uncommon and created an atmosphere that could serve as a case study for an industry that is (to its considerable detriment) sadly still beset by systemic occupational challenges and a prevailing misogynistic work culture.

“We’ve all worked so harmoniously together,” Rania Rayes, a senior project manager for the Presidio Tunnel Trust, said of the benefits of working on such a diverse site. “Having many women on the team may make that possible. We’re very patient, we have some great communication skills…. I just think that these are attributes that a lot of women have, and they want to be team players.”

Amid labor shortages in construction, new reports expose failures in diversity and inclusion

2021-12-10T13:31:00-05:00

The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) has invited construction companies around the world to support a new charter committed to improving diversity within the global construction sector. The move comes amid multiple reports finding that female, BIPOC, and young employees are significantly underrepresented in construction occupations.

The CIOB’s charter contains five actions for signatories to implement, including highlighting the benefits of diversity and inclusion at a senior leadership level, creating targets to address under-representation and pay disparities, and publishing reports on an annual basis detailing the company’s diversity metrics and plans for the future.

The decision to create the charter was driven by findings from a CIOB report, which noted that women make up just 12.3% of the US construction workforce, with BIPOC individuals comprising between 5% and 7% of the workforce, ...

New AIA report investigates bias in the architecture profession

2021-12-08T17:29:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects has partnered with the University of California Hastings College of the Law to release a new report that details the impacts of bias in architecture.

The study covers the experiences, perceptions, and opinions of women, people of color, and other historically underrepresented demographic groups in the field. It examines how bias plays out in architecture, how it impacts workplace processes, and how it affects outcome measures. As stated in the institute's announcement: “AIA’s goal in conducting the study is to build awareness in firms of bias to help architects recognize and address issues that may be occurring in firms.”

The report also offers strategies and resources that can help firms address bias in the workplace. These tools, as detailed by the AIA, are the same ones that businesses use to solve any major problem: evidence, goals, and metrics. Specifically, the AIA calls on the implementation of “Bias Interrupters,” which are adjustments ...

Former students complain of racism and sexism at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture

2021-06-02T11:47:00-04:00

21 former students of UCL (University College London) have voiced complaints over alleged sexism and racism at the Bartlett School of Architecture. The complaints, first reported by The Guardian, stretch back over a decade. The ex-students' complaints include inappropriate comments on race and appearance, which they describe as “systemic” within the school.

The stories of the 21 ex-students were compiled into a dossier by former student Eleni Kyriacou and shared with the Guardian, who subsequently spoke to several recent graduates. Stories told by the graduates include one who said staff were “damaging primarily female students.” The graduate, of south Asian descent, claims that a staff member told a fellow student he could not tell that the graduate was “brown” as “she acted and spoke like a white person.”

Previously on Archinect: NOMA leadership echoes the need to 'fight all systems of bias, oppression, and prejudice' following the guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial

Another st...

Learning from the female architects behind Africa's tallest building

2019-08-12T16:00:00-04:00

Co-Arc International Architects director Catharine Atkins and architect Malika Walele are the leading women behind the 55-story building on Maude Street, which was designed by Co-Arc’s emeritus partner, Francois Pienaar.

In Sandton, Johannesburg stands the Leonardo, Africa's tallest building. Designed by the team of Co-Arc International Architects, the building stands at 55-stories tall and is set to be completed this year.

Besides the record-breaking height of the building, there's another aspect to this project that has made headlines: The design team behind the project is predominantly female-led. However, according to the Co-Arc team, this detail went unnoticed until a recent progress photo of the project emerged.

Co-Arc International Architects’ Director Catharine Atkins and professional architect Malika Walele are supported by Salome Daley, Janel Venter, Megan Holman, Angela Barnard, Keitsitse Losaba, Antonella Giuricich, Rachel Zwane and Mitchell Gibbon. Image courtesy of Co-Arc International Architects' Director Catharine Atkins.

According to TimesLIVE writer Alex Patrick, "The thought of an all-woman architect team doesn't sound groundbreaking until you consider only 21-percent of South Af...

Peter Marino, accused of racial discrimination and sexism, countersues over alleged homophobic slurs

2016-07-27T13:23:00-04:00

Peter Marino, the leather-clad architect best known for his collaborations with fashion labels, was sued last year for racial discrimination by a former employee. Now, he's accusing the employee of making homophobic slurs, according to a report by the New York Post.

Deirdre O'Brien worked for Marino for 14 years before, allegedly, being fired after complaining when Marino called her a "c--t." He's also been accused of using the n-word.

In response, Marino has accused O'Brien called a male co-worker a "big homo" and sent "explicit pornographic images" from her work email address.

For more on Marino, check out past Archinect coverage:

How sexist is architecture? Female architects share their experiences

2016-04-13T12:54:00-04:00

After Ms. Hadid died on March 31 at 65, The New York Times, in an informal online questionnaire, asked female architects among its readers to talk candidly about their experiences in the profession: the progress they’ve made and the obstacles they still face on construction sites and in client meetings. Below are edited excerpts from a few of some 200 responses we received.

Architecture, already a tough field, can be even more challenging if you happen to be female. As Christine Matheu from Bloomington, Indiana recalls in this article, “There was a time when women were not allowed to be members of the Century Club. About that same time, as a young architect trying to survive, I was doing exhibition design and had been hired by an N.Y.C. art collector to do an installation of Piranesi prints for the Century Club. When the club learned that I was a woman architect, I was not allowed to install the exhibit. I, like many other women architects, found it much easier and less humiliating to just strike out on my own. I have been in my own practice now for 20 years.”

Also, a lifetime pro tip: STOP CALLING WOMEN OVER 18 GIRLS. Thanks!

Are virtual reality systems sexist?

2015-12-30T14:20:00-05:00

That headline paraphrases the research question of Danah Boyd, who, as a computer science student in 2000, wrote her bachelor thesis on whether VR systems were being designed in such a way to defer to, biologically, the male gaze. The research is in no way definitive, but probes an essential question as VR technologies become more ubiquitous and technologically advanced, and for our understanding of "inclusive" programming in design.

Boyd revisited her research in a 2014 Quartz article, on the occasion of Facebook acquiring Oculus Rift (signaling a huge move for VR research and commercialization). In the article, she outlines how human sight is heavily influenced by a person's sex. More sex hormones hang out on the retina than anywhere else (other than the gonads) on the human body. And so depending on your sex chromosome, you'll get more of a certain set of hormones – and the balance of those hormones affect how we see.

Depth perception in human vision is rendered, biologically, in t...

Fun game: spot the double-standards in this Zaha-bashing piece!

2015-08-06T15:49:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid is the most famous woman architect in the world. Would women or, indeed, architecture, be better off without her pushily hard-won, global celebrity? [...] Hadid began a global strut in billowing drapery by Prada or Issey Miyake. She became the champion of an architecture that was more about personal ‘vision’ than public utility. [...] From the air, Hadid’s 2022 World Cup stadium with its almond-shaped opening and labial folds looks bogglingly like giant pudenda.

Sure, roasting starchitects is fun, and – at its best – can volley constructive criticism towards those architects most visible in the public eye as "Architects", ideally improving the profession at large. And then there's a piece like The Heckler's, which discredits any otherwise pointed jabs at Zaha by wrapping them in sexist stereotypes. See if you can spot them all!

U of M architecture dean encourages minority high school students to storm barriers in a field dominated by white males

2014-11-17T13:29:00-05:00

Monica Ponce de Leon, a leading American architect proud of being a Hispanic woman in a field long dominated by white men, wants to change the face of her profession. [...] agreed to conduct a class earlier that day for juniors from John Hay High School - the vast majority of whom were black. Ponce de Leon, dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Planning [...], wanted to inspire the students to enter a field in which the vast majority of practitioners don't look like them.

How Women Are Climbing Architecture's Career Ladder

2014-03-17T13:48:00-04:00

In 1980, when Marsha Maytum was a fledgling designer at the San Francisco architecture firm EHDD, the majority of women on construction sites were centerfolds. [...] Nearly 35 years later, progress has been measurable but mixed. Women make up 25 percent of architecture staff in the U.S., though they now earn 42 percent of the architecture degrees.

Sexism in architecture: Remember what Kathryn Findlay said? 'Women, don't be put off by the aggression of men'

2014-02-10T13:46:00-05:00

Only just over 20 per cent of architects are women, according to the most recent statistics, with only 14 per cent working as directors or partners of practises – and those who do enter the profession can be given a rough ride. [...] According to AJ: "Two thirds of women have suffered sexual discrimination at work, an eight-point increase since the survey began in 2011." Wow. An increase, just when you’d hope things would be getting better.

Sexism means women still can’t break the glass ceiling in architecture

2014-01-13T13:46:00-05:00

Sexism is alive and well in architecture, according to research showing that two-thirds of female architects believe the construction industry hasn’t fully accepted the authority of women. The annual Women in Architecture survey, conducted by Architects’ Journal, found evidence of widespread discrimination and unequal pay in the profession.

Denise Scott Brown discusses her "unusual situation"

2013-04-05T16:30:00-04:00

Naturally, there were some projects that Bob worked on more and others that I worked on more. Sometimes our collaboration was more close than others. But I think our best projects were when we worked together. I remember so many real tousles—and those were the projects that worked out best.

The co-founder of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates (now VSBA) talks to ARCHITECT about a petition to put her name on the 1991 Pritzer Architecture Prize, about sexism in architecture, and about her career in design.

h/t Ana María León