First-year architecture studio at UB changing narrative on women in architecture

Piper Morgan didn’t know it at first, but she helped make history this fall when she enrolled in the first-year studio in the School of Architecture and Planning.

For the first time in the school’s more than 50-year history, ARC 101, which serves as the entry point for the architecture program, has more females than males, helping UB reinforce a trend that’s been happening in architecture schools across the U.S.

Out of the 127 first-year students in the ARC 101 studio, 64 are female. And of the 140 total students in the studio, 75 — or 53.6% — are female. It’s the highest number of female architecture students in the first-year undergraduate class, and the first time at UB that women outnumber men.

“The School of Architecture and Planning truly values bringing unique perspectives and innovative solutions to the design world so that we may challenge conventions and work to reshape our environments,” says Julia Czerniak, the school’s dean. “I’m proud that our mission of fostering diversity in our academic community is coming to fruition as we welcome a record number of female architecture students into our program.”

Morgan, a first-year architecture student from Rochester, is thrilled to be a member of such an historic class.

“Being a part of the first class to have a majority female class is extremely inspiring and monumental. Having more women in this predominantly male field brings so many amazing opportunities,” says Morgan, whose interest in the field began in high school and further bloomed during an architecture tour of Chicago, where she became inspired by the St. Regis Chicago, the former Wanda Vista Tower; designed by Jeanne Gang, it’s the third-tallest building in the world designed by a woman architect.

“I believe this can be such an uplifting group of women, encouraging each other’s ideas and projects will bring us closer together and help each other learn,” she says.

ARC 101’s diversity goes beyond gender: 39% of the studio are first-generation students, and 36% identify with a racial/ethnic background considered underrepresented in higher education. These statistics all align with one of the Department of Architecture’s primary missions: to improve the diversity of the architecture profession and associated fields, says department chair Korydon Smith.

“This all begins with affordable access to education, hands-on advising and inclusive teaching,” says Smith. “We have emphasized a comprehensive approach to supporting all of our students from admissions to the first year, to graduation and entry into the profession.”

The department has also hired seven full-time female faculty members since 2020, Smith notes, which further complements the department’s long-standing faculty work in inclusive design and social justice.

This includes research and writings on gender in architecture by Despina Stratigakos, a professor who has written books such as “Where Are the Women Architects?” and “A Women’s Berlin: Building the Modern City.”

Stratigakos also collaborated with Kelly Hayes McAlonie, a registered architect and director of campus planning at UB, on Mattel’s Architect Barbie, which was featured in the hit movie.

Stratigakos has been developing new models for researching the history of women in architecture. She points out there is a much richer history than we might expect of successful female practitioners.

In the past decade, a spate of new architectural history books focused on women’s contributions has emerged. But the next critical step, she says, is for such scholarship to enter the curriculum of architecture schools.

“As our students become more diverse, they will also demand more diversity in how we represent the field, which more accurately reflects past and present worlds of architecture,” Stratigakos says.

Hayes McAlonie’s work has honored and recognized the accomplishments of major female figures in the profession, such as Louise Blanchard Bethune, America’s first professional female architect, about whom Hayes McAlonie wrote the book, “Louise Blanchard Bethune: Every Woman Her Own Architect” by SUNY Press.

Hayes McAlonie is delighted that the school has reached this milestone in enrollment. “Women have been studying/practicing architecture for almost 150 years, yet the profession has been ambivalent about their contributions until approximately the last 15 years,” she says. “Our profession needs the best and most diverse talent to address our planet’s significant problems.”     

Lydie T. Rock Numa, an architecture major from Endicott, N.Y., is also happy to be part of a class that’s changing the narrative on women in architecture at UB.

“To me, being a part of the first ARC 101 class to be majority female means that architecture is no longer viewed as a generally male profession,” says Numa. She became interested in architecture around third grade, when she discovered a “fascination with the process in which a plane of leveled dirt would become a commercial building or a place that people could call home.”

She notes that the few architects the class has studied so far have all been male. But there are women who played an important role in the careers of these men, such as Marion Mahony Griffin, who Numa points out was the first employee at Frank Lloyd Wright’s firm and the person who produced most of Wright’s drawings and renderings.

“There could have been many more women in architecture, but chances are that they were either sidelined or discouraged from attempting to start a career in a male-dominated field,” she says.

Morgan, the first-year architecture major from Rochester, hopes this year’s ARC 101 students make even more history once they finish school.

“Once this generation gets out into the workforce, I believe many of these intelligent women will inspire younger girls, as architect Jeanne Gang did for me,” she says. “Her story and work, specifically the Vista Tower in Chicago, drive my work efforts daily to one day reach her achievements.”