In 1974, a group of female archi­tects gath­ered in a col­league’s office, con­nect­ed by a com­mon expe­ri­ence of seri­ous work­place chal­lenges. They sat on tables and on the floor and talked about how to start orga­niz­ing. That col­league was Gertrude Lempp Ker­bis, who, after more than a decade of pro­duc­ing award-win­ning projects with large archi­tec­ture firms, opened her own prac­tice in 1967 in response to dis­crim­i­na­to­ry prac­tices. While this deci­sion elim­i­nat­ed some frus­tra­tions, anoth­er set of issues quick­ly arose. In a con­text where female archi­tects were rarely hired or pro­mot­ed, Ker­bis strug­gled to obtain the clients and projects she desired and deserved. Fueled by a need to con­nect with oth­ers expe­ri­enc­ing sim­i­lar issues, she ​“sent out a lit­tle note*” to all the women archi­tects she knew — an invi­ta­tion to come to her small office on Michi­gan Avenue. More than 20 women turned out for this first meet­ing of Chica­go Women in Archi­tec­ture (CWA).

*From Gertrude Lempp Ker­bis’s oral his­to­ry, as recalled in Susan King’s 2021 Mas Con­text arti­cle ​“Only Girl Archi­tect Lonely

This gath­er­ing of tal­ent­ed and moti­vat­ed women formed the foun­da­tion of a robust advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tion that is still going strong today. The Chica­go Archi­tec­ture Cen­ter is proud to part­ner with CWA to cel­e­brate its past 50 years, rec­og­niz­ing chal­lenges women con­tin­ue to face in the field along with sig­nif­i­cant gains they have made. CWA has sus­tained and grown over the years, out­last­ing many sim­i­lar groups through­out the coun­try. This is due in part to the group’s will­ing­ness to push bound­aries while fos­ter­ing a sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ty and advo­cat­ing for women in the pro­fes­sion. This exhi­bi­tion cel­e­brates the work and impact of CWA lead­ers and mem­bers over the years through imagery, pho­tographs, oral his­to­ries and built projects around the world.

Client: Chica­go Archi­tec­ture Cen­ter
Pro­gram: Tem­po­rary Exhibition

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Part­ners:
Chica­go Archi­tec­ture Cen­ter (Cura­tion, Fab­ri­ca­tion)
Chica­go Women in Archi­tec­ture
Wink Design (Exhi­bi­tion Graph­ics, Graph­ic Design)
School of the Art Insti­tute of Chicago

Pho­tog­ra­phy: 
Pho­tos cour­tesy of the Chica­go Archi­tec­ture Cen­ter / © Tone Stock­en­strom
Pho­tos cour­tesy of Chica­go Women in Archi­tec­ture / © Sam Baker