For the fourth year, Architectural Record is honoring five American architects with its Women in Architecture awards. These design leaders have each helped to highlight the impact that women make on the profession. This year’s winners will be honored at a reception in New York on Wednesday, October 25. “These awards allow us to recognize women pushing the boundaries of innovation and creativity in design,” says RECORD editor in chief Cathleen McGuigan.

The jury that selected this year’s honorees included Jill Lerner of KPF, Tomas Rossant of Ennead, Mimi Hoang of nArchitects, critic Christopher Hawthorne, and Rosalie Genevro, executive director of the Architectural League.

The winners are:

  • Marion Weiss, Design Leader: A founding partner of WEISS/MANFREDI, Weiss received her M.Arch. from Yale University and is a tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She has received numerous honors, such as an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award and the New York AIA Gold Medal.
     
  • Elizabeth Whittaker, New Generation Leader: Whittaker founded Merge Architects in Boston in 2003, a few years after graduating with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). She was included in RECORD's 2014 Design Vanguard issue, and is an associate professor at the GSD.
     
  • Billie Faircloth, Innovator: As a practitioner, educator, and partner at KieranTimberlake, Faircloth uses multidisciplinary research and technology to inform design. She lectures at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design and the GSD.
     
  • Sarah Whiting, Educator: Whiting has served as the dean of Rice University School of Architecture since 2010 and is a founding partner of WW Architecture. She received her M.Arch. from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in architectural history, theory, and criticism from MIT.
     
  • Deanna Van Buren, Activist: The cofounder and design director of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, Van Buren works to address the root causes of mass incarceration through the built environment. She received her M. Arch. from Columbia University and was a Loeb Fellow at the GSD.