Architectural Record today announced the five winners of its first annual Women in Architecture Awards, recognizing the design leadership of American women architects.
 
The new awards program acknowledges the increasingly visible role of women in the profession; encourages firms to promote women architects and their work; and provides an opportunity for those in the field—honorees, firm leaders and other practitioners—to come together to celebrate women’s design achievements at an event hosted by the magazine, the Women in Architecture Forum and Awards.
 
The forum and luncheon will be held October 10 at McGraw Hill Construction headquarters in New York City, following the magazine’s Innovation Conference on October 9.
 
“We aim to honor and celebrate women, and to advance the conversation about their role in the field,” said Cathleen McGuigan, the editor-in-chief of Architectural Record. “Though women now make up 43 percent of the architecture students in the U.S., they account for only 21 percent of licensed architects in firms. Only 17 percent of partners and principals of firms are women. But the good news is that there's a growing contingent of women designers whose architecture is having a profound impact on the built environment. Our first Women in Architecture Awards honor five outstanding practitioners whose work helps to open doors to the future.”
 

2014’s five winners include:

 

•    Design Leader, honoring an architect with significant built work and influence: Merrill Elam of Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, Atlanta, GA

•    New Generation Leader, honoring an architect who is rising in the profession: Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang, Chicago, IL

•    Innovator, honoring an architect who has made a mark in innovative design, materials or building type: Sheila Kennedy of Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Boston, MA

•    Activist, honoring an architect who has used her skills to design for social change, effect the public realm or perform pro bono work: Erinn McGurn of SCALEAfrica, New York, NY

•    Educator, honoring a professional who has helped the advancement of women: Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, former dean of the University of Miami’s School of Architecture, Miami, FL

Winners were selected by an independent panel of judges including Blair Kamin, the architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune; Rosalie Genevro, the executive director of The Architectural League of New York; Sarah Williams Goldhagen, the architecture critic of The New Republic; Jill Lerner, a principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox; Mary McLeod, a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation; and Mark Regulinski, a managing director at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Sponsors of the 2014 Women in Architecture Awards include Presenting Partner Autodesk, and Supporting Sponsors Bespoke and reThink Wood.