Search

Editor' Note: - Mui Ho

50th Anniversary Symposium - Carol Mancke

50th Anniversary Gala - Gilda Puente-peters

50th Anniversary Travel - Marda Quon Stothers

Anniversary Exhibit - Darlene Jang

Retreat - 24-26 September 2021 - Leslie Golden

For our 30th and 40th Anniversaries, OWA sponsored several activities throughout the year responding to the wide interests of the membership, making sure all members could engage in one or more of the events. The planning for our 50th Anniversary in 2023 started at the end of last year. It is timely to devote this Jul/Aug Newsletter to inform the membership on what activities are being considered, who has signed on to lead these activities and their progress. As expected, and true to our OWA volunteer spirit, many of our members have already taken on the responsibility to be the lead person for the following celebration activities :

The travel - Betty Woo & Marda Quon
The exhibit - Darlene Jang + others
The symposium - Carol Mancke
The Bay to Breaker run - ?
The celebration party - Gilda Puenta-Peters & Leslie Golden
The 2023 retreat from 9/22 to 9/24 - Rachel Sloniki

In the mean time, members are encouraged to help out in one or more activities or to suggest new activity.

Planning has begun for our fiftieth year anniversary celebration which will include a number of events taking place over the course of 2023! As in past anniversary years, we plan to host a symposium, this time around the general topic of the future of shelter. The symposium is likely to be a one-day event, held on the UC Berkeley campus in April 2023. The preliminary planning team; led by Carol Mancke with Mui Ho, Rachel Slonicki, Leslie Moldow and Naomi Horowitz; has begun by exploring different ways of thinking about the topic. What are the consequences of housing truly becoming a right? What if we think of housing as health care? Or as a conduit for justice or reparations? What happens when we think of shelter as a living component of a local natural ecosystem: 'How can women architects and design professionals participate in shaping the future of of shelter through policy, financing mechanisms as well as the design of the physical built environment?’ If you are interested in joining the conversation and/or helping to develop the symposium, please contact Carol at carol@machinaloci.com.

1983 - 10th Anniversary - Women practice in architecture

On our first anniversary, OWA was still in its infancy, we were seeking ways to make our organization stronger yet still worrying about the survival of the organization. Speakers were invited to discuss the direction or small professional organization and how it help the practice of architecture, landscape architecture, planning and the education of young women in these fields. Mui Ho and her committee invited speakers from both academia and practice to get a balanced point of view. Speaker included both Mai Arbegast, Ann Markessen, Sara Boutelle, Dolores Hayden, Polly Cooper, Norma Wikler

Brochure: Prepared by Nancy Baker and Mui Ho in 1983 to highlight the work of two California Women Architects: Lutha Maria Riggs and Edla Muir.


1993 - 20th Anniversary - To celebrate OWA's success

A party to celebrate the vigor of the organization and friendship among members in the Brazilian Room, Tilden Park. The party started in the afternoon followed with a catered dinner in the evening.


2003 - 30th Anniversary - Toward an Engaged Architecture

Brought together historians, architects, planners, landscape architects, designers, and scholars to discuss how we can infuse architecture with a sense of urgency and social responsibility to engage urban citizenship on both local and global scales. Mui Ho, chair of the Symposium, promoted the idea of inviting speakers from outside California and, more importantly, that speakers be compensated. The speakers were Dolores Hayden from Yale University, Kathryn Anthony from the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana, Nasrine Seraji from Cornell University, Ananya Roy from the University of California, Berkeley, and Eleni Bastea from the University of New Mexico.

2013 - 40th Anniversary - Gender Matters

A Symposium to present various viewpoints concerning the intersection of women's issues and architecture. The one-day event featured 4 speakers and discussion, a catered lunch, an evening reception and a 40th Anniversary Exhibition of work by OWA members. Speakers were: Annemarie Adams, Eleni Bastea, Lori Brown, June Williamson, and discussants: Mary Hardy (moderator) , Allison Kwok (moderator), Mui Ho (Chair), Jennifer Wolch (Closing).

The OWADP 50TH Anniversary Gala committee lead by Gilda Puente-Peters and Leslie Golden had its initiation kick-off meeting. There are several venues that we have started look at, both in the East Bay and San Francisco, listed below:

East Bay:
· The Berkeley Women’s Club
· The Berkeley Museum of Art and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA)
· Lake Challet at Lake Merrit

San Francisco:
· San Francisco Yacht Club
· Salesforce Tower
· Hall in Presidio

If any of you have contacts at the San Francisco locations, please let us know at gilda@gppaarchitects.com or L-Golden@comcast.net
We are also looking for additional members to join this committee.

For our 50th Anniversary Travel, Betty and I and others are thinking about another cruise starting in a city that may have an architectural event, or design interest. Cruises are inexpensive for a comprehensive package ($100/day) and allow tailoring and privacy.
There is a conference "Sustainable Future - Leave no one Behind" organized by UIA world congress in July 2-6, 2023 in Copenhagen. Can we be a delegation to influence others during our 50th year? Gilda said after our visit to Ecuador, the local AIA started a women's group. Let's not underestimate our influence or our accomplishments.

For our 30th Anniversary in 2003, I volunteered to plan a group trip. Over the years many OWA friends have traveled together, visiting London, Peru, China and Czechoslovakia. Gilda suggested a trip to Ecuador and eleven of us went on a very intimate trip meeting in Quito, touring colonial architecture, addressing their national AIA with three lectures, k dancing in solstice festival, hiking a volcano to a glacier, retreating to hot springs and shopping the Otavalo indigenous market. Some went to the Galapagos.

For our 40th Anniversary in 2013 Betty Woo found a Mediterranean Cruise on an Italian line MSC that launched from Venice. We arrived to catch the international Exhibit, the Venice Biennale initiated in 1895. This trip included friends and spouses and we were 25. The cruise was $700 for 7 days. Our ports were Bari, Olympia, Izmir, Istanbul and Dubrovnik back to Venice. Various members organized port tours and there were before and after side trips. It was much easier to organize and we enjoyed our partners.

50 years wow. If you have not traveled with us you will love being with like minded seasoned architectural oriented travelers. Please contact me or Betty to give us your ideas and interest.

Marda - marda@quonstothers.com or Betty - bettywoo@thewoos.mnet

OWA Exhibit for 50th Anniversary April 2023

Exhibition ideas to coincide with the Symposium concept:
An Exhibition idea can be considered to run concurrently with the OWA Symposium to be scheduled for April 2021.

1 An Exhibition can be linked to an OWA website. A format can be developed and limited to 1-5 pages of OWA Women Architects and Designed Professionals. Works can feature works achieved individually or from their work place. Published project works and/or written works can also be featured. A link can be given at the Symposium and announced on the OWA website, AIASF and AIAEB website and more.

2 Option: This 50th Anniversary website exhibition can be a 2D exhibition to be hung at the Symposium venue e.g. Wurster Hall gallery or Lobby walls during the Symposium and announced in the program. It is suggested to be formatted as (1) one vertical board 24”x36”.

3 Option: After the Symposium, OWA can seek to travel the 2D exhibition boards to other venues e.g. AIA East Bay, AIA San Francisco, AIA San Mateo, AIA National Conference, etc.

We would like to form a committee to look further into this Exhibition concept and develop the details for the website and 2D boards. For interest to join Exhibition committee, contact: Darlene Jang Architect djang@barcelonjang.com

Kathryn Anthony was one of our Symposium speakers for our 30th Anniversary. We are so happy to learn that she has received a very high honor - the 2021 AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion.

"I’ve made it my life’s work to stand up for those who had been invisible for too long, advocating on behalf of people who have been left out and left behind.”

The American Institute of Architects and the Association of the Collegiate Schools of Architecture named Kathryn Anthony as the 2021 recipient of the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education, the highest honor given to an educator in architecture. Since 1976, AIA and ACSA have been conferring this award on individuals for their demonstrated dedication to the education of and their influence on architecture students.

Anthony earned a B.A. in psychology and a Ph.D. in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. With a career in academia spanning four decades, the ACSA Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has pioneered research on gender and race in contemporary architecture. Anthony, the longest serving female faculty member at UIUC School of Architecture, has lectured worldwide and testified before the U.S. Congress in support of H.R. 4869, the Bipartisan Restroom Gender Parity in Federal Buildings Act. By teaching courses that bridge architecture, business, and psychology, Anthony challenges her students to examine connections between design and the communities it impacts, equipping budding designers “with the tools to [become] more effective leaders in the profession and to become more influential citizens whose work can have a significant impact on society,” as she noted in a 2018 interview with ARCHITECT.

Books by Kathryn Anthony