American architect and tireless advocate for gender equality Beverly Willis passed away on October 1, 2023, at the age of 95, as reported by The New York Times. Throughout her career, she was dedicated to breaking down barriers for women in a traditionally male-dominated profession. She ran an accomplished studio in San Francisco, having completed over 800 projects across the US, and established a Foundation for recognizing and promoting women in architecture. Across various programs and scales, her designs have gained national recognition for their humanistic concern for the occupant and for adapting historic buildings to modern purposes, a practice now known as adaptive reuse.
Born in 1928, in Tulsa, Okla., Willis started studying engineering at Oregon State University before transferring to the University of Hawaii, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in fine arts. Her professional career also began in Hawaii. She returned to San Francisco in 1958 to establish a design practice, focused mainly on office interiors. In 1965 she completed the Union Street Shops project, considered an early example of successful adaptive reuse.
Throughout the 1970s, she explored the potential of a new tool: computers. As her office led several large-scale residential projects, Willis worked with Eric Teicholz and Jochen Eigen to develop a program to analyze newly proposed developments, considering factors such as housing density, building types, and costs. The system is called Computerized Approach to Residential Land Analysis, or CARLA, and is now featured in MoMA’s exhibition “Emerging Ecologies: Architecture and the Rise of Environmentalism.”
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Website For Women Pioneers in ArchitectureI like the idea of the architect having broader knowledge. But then I’m also an advocate for an architect playing a leadership role in society at large, and I think we live in a bubble. I think it’s important to try to break out of that bubble. Architects should be reaching out in every way possible to the general public. Because right now the profession basically talks to themselves. - Beverly Willis in an interview for KCRW, 2017
In 1983, Willis completed one of her most recognized projects, the San Francisco Ballet Building. The building was the first in the United States designed exclusively for the use of a ballet company and school, thus the program had to be drafted from zero. The design is based on consultations with the dancers, which led to several adaptations, including the research of new lighting to avoid the flickering of fluorescent lights and the introduction of natural ventilation systems to eliminate the need for air conditioning. Willis's career transitioned from retail and housing design to encompass institutional, cultural, and government projects, urban planning, and consulting. In her 41 years of practice, she is recognized for designs that prioritize the occupants' well-being, foreshadowing early 21st-century architectural trends.
Can you name five female architects? - Beverly Willis
In the later part of her career, Willis shifted her focus to trying to change the male-dominated culture of architecture and the larger construction industry. Throughout her career, she often asked this question: ‘Can you name five female architects?’ observing that most could not name even a couple. In 2002, she established the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF) to promote the work done by female practitioners and make their contributions visible to a larger audience. Led by its first executive director, Wanda Bubriski, the institution made grants to historians and writers. Since 2008, it shifted its activity profile to a program-oriented one, supporting research and cultural projects. Among them is the website Pioneering Women of American Architecture, an initiative seeking to highlight important women in architecture.
At the beginning of the year, ArchDaily took a moment to look back at the architecture masters we have lost in the recent past, remembering the legacy of architects such as Pritzker Prize laureate and pioneer of the High-Tech Richard Rogers, Post-Modern icon Ricardo Bofill, the thoughtful Gyo Obata, advocate and innovator Doreen Adengo, and social housing pioneer Renée Gailhoustet.
