Events Events

Illinois Institute of Technology’s College of Architecture is excited to announce 1X1 CHICAGO: Celebrating Women in Architecture. This fall, we will celebrate our city’s women in architecture in a month-long exhibition and a series of weekly events in S. R. Crown Hall. The focus of the event will be hosting the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) Center’s “1x1 initiative,” whose mission is to collect and preserve one drawing by every female architect in the world. Activities will include exhibits featuring some of IIT’s trailblazing female architects as well as panel discussions looking both backward and forward at the empowerment of women in architecture in Chicago. All events will be free and open to the public.

Exhibit Opening

Welcome by Dean Reed Kroloff

Opening remarks by Paola Zellner, Director of International Archive of Women in Architecture and Associate Professor at Virginia Tech

Exhibition introduction by curator, Kristin Jones, Ph.D., IIT Alumna and Adjunct Professor, and founder of Studio Integra, Ltd.

Thursday, August 7, 2025, 6 p.m., S. R. Crown Hall, Center Core
Reception sponsored in part by AIA Chicago

Women’s Agency in Architecture as a Professional Powerhouse

Sponsored by Society of Architectural Historians | Society of Architectural Historians Women in Architecture Affiliate Group

Wednesday, August 13, 2025, 11 a.m., S. R. Crown Hall, Lower Level

Today written architectural histories lack consistency in scholarship and readings on the contribution of women to the built environment. Yet the discipline is transforming, broadening interest in illuminating historical truth of women’s achievements challenge previous assumptions created through incomplete records. Building upon the groundwork and celebrating five years of the Women in Architecture Affiliate Group of the Society of Architectural Historians, this conversation aims to explore women’s agency in architecture as a professional powerhouse beyond geographic or chronological boundaries, to illuminate what is of essence for the discipline today, argue about current evolution of gender studies on relevant subjects, uncover inspiring or curious settings, common and uncommon careers and discuss how women’s storytelling will enrich critical architectural histories. By emphasizing settings for women in architecture across borders, professional networks and practices that provide women with opportunities to prosper, compete with others, and to make architecture, this conversation is critical to bridging professional readings and creating a foundation for growth of women’s organizations and architectural practices.

Panelists: Anne Hill Bird, Mary Anne Hunting, Ph.D., Shelley E. Roff, Ph.D., Michelangelo Sabatino, Ph.D., Rebecca Siefert, Ph.D., Anna Sokolina, Ph.D., Margaret Birney Vickery, Ph.D., Yan Wencheng, Ph.D.

For more information visit: https://sahwomeninarchitectureaffiliategroup.sah.hcommons.org/?p=185

Back to the Future with Women In Architecture: Cautionary Tales, Crucial Conversations and Calls to Action

Sponsored by Chicago Women in Architecture

Wednesday, August 20, 2025, 6 p.m., S. R. Crown Hall, Lower Level
Reception begins at 5:30 p.m.

Join CWA and the IAWA 1x1CHI Initiative for a lively discussion about the past, present and future state of the architectural profession and the place of women in it! Our distinguished panel will share stories and insights drawing from multiple generations of experience as well as a variety of career paths with the Industry.

Panelists: Kristine Fallon, FAIA, Donna Robertson, FAIA, and Susan King FAIA, moderated by Veselka Ivanovic (iit BARCH ’16).

Registration required: https://cwarch.org/events/#!event/2025/8/20/back-to-the-future-with-women-in-architecture-cautionary-tales-crucial-conversations-and-calls-to-action

Three Female Graduate Students at Mies’s IIT

Sponsored by The Mies van der Rohe Society

Thursday, August 28, 2025, 6 p.m., S. R. Crown Hall, Lower Level

This research brings to light three architects: Vera Jansone, Gertrude Lempp (Peterhans) Kerbis, and Pao-Chi Chang—to showcase the important work done by the only female students who completed the IIT’s master’s thesis program under Mies’s directorship.

The presentation aims to recognize the work of these female students in the graduate program as part of the research process of Mies and to touch on the key contributions of each one to the field of architecture.

Lecturers: Zaida Garcia-Requejo, Ph.D., University of A Coruña and Kristin Jones, Ph.D., Illinois Institute of Technology (iit BARCH ‘95, PHD ’16)

Women in Design: Trivia and Networking Night

Sponsored jointly by NOMASiit, AIASiit and Arquitectos-iit with support from AIA Chicago

Wednesday, September 3, 2025, 6:30 p.m., S. R. Crown Hall, Lower Level

Everyone’s invited to test their knowledge on women designers alongside professional women architects who are actively shaping the world.

Exhibit Closing (last day)

Friday, September 5, 2025, 6 p.m.

Image credit: Collective Domesticity, Watercolor on Paper: Kerrie Mistry, AIA