Program Date: March 25, 2021

Organized by:
SAH_WiA_AG-Logo     AIA-Silicon-Valley logo

This panel, organized by the SAH Women in Architecture Affiliate Group (SAH WiA AG) and Women in Architecture (WIA) Committee of AIA Silicon Valley, which is a chapter of a national organization, The American Institute of Architects, considers the intersections of architectural research and practice to explore what historians, design professionals, and advocates can learn from one another as they shape histories and spaces that are more inclusive of women. From non-canonical subjects and research methods, to new modes of presenting findings and acting on them, panelists will discuss their investigations and the academic, professional, and advocacy fora that can support expanded methods of applying history to design.

Moderators:

  • Kathryn O'Rourke, Associate Professor of Art History, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, Member, SAH WiA Affiliate Group

  • Dasha Ortenberg, Assoc. AIA, Chair, Women in Architecture Committee, AIA Silicon Valley Chapter

Panelists:

  • Mani Ardalan Farhadi, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, Senior Facilities Planner at Stanford School of Medicine, CA, Women in Architecture (WIA) Committee, AIA Silicon Valley

  • Marta Gutman, Professor, City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

  • Min Kyung Lee, Assistant Professor, Growth and Structure of Cities Department, Bryn Mawr College, PA

Moderators

Kathryn O'Rourke

Kathryn O’Rourke
Associate Professor of Art History, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, Member, SAH WiA Affiliate Group

Kathryn O’Rourke, PhD is a historian of modern architecture and Associate Professor of Art History at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. She is the author of Modern Architecture in Mexico City: History, Representation, and the Shaping of a Capital (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016), which received the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award from the Society of Architectural Historians, and the editor of O’Neil Ford on Architecture (University of Texas Press, 2019). She is currently at work on a book manuscript, Archaism and Humanism in Modern Architecture. Professor O’Rourke has served as secretary of the Society of Architectural Historians and vice-chair of the State Board of Review of the Texas Historical Commission. She sits on the Visiting Committee on Latin American Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art, and is a founder and the president of Design|Forum, a San Antonio non-profit.

 

Dasha Ortenberg

Dasha Ortenberg
Assoc. AIA, Chair, Women in Architecture Committee, AIA Silicon Valley Chapter

Dasha Ortenberg has committed her career to using the built environment as a medium for unveiling and promoting stories of places and people, deeply problematic and beautiful. She holds degrees in art history and linguistics (UC Berkeley), and architecture (Harvard University). In her independent projects, pedagogical pursuits, and work for art and architectural practices she seeks to augment both organization and experimentation. She has contributed to, and lead projects locally, nationally, and internationally and is currently the chair of the Women in Architecture Committee (WIA) of the AIA Silicon Valley Chapter, and a Senior 3D Designer at the Exploratorium.

 

Panelists

Mani Ardalan Farhadi

Mani Ardalan Farhadi
Assoc. AIA, LEED AP, Senior Facilities Planner at Stanford School of Medicine, CA, Women in Architecture (WIA) Committee, AIA Silicon Valley

A creative leader, Mani Ardalan Farhadi’s experience spans thirty years of design programming and planning in education. Currently, her role is senior facilities planner at Stanford School of Medicine in OFPM (Office of Facilities Planning and Management). There, she combines her passion for learning with collaboration skills to conduct various feasibility studies and build consensus. Her professional degrees were obtained from Boston Architectural College and Wellesley College. Her formal education was supplemented with SCUP Planning Institute (Step III), Leadership Los Gatos, and LEED AP. Her speaking engagements include presentations at SCUP, EQXD, AIA, CCFC, CCLC, A4LE, SF Design Week and SPUR.

Mani’s leadership roles include former Board of Trustee (Los Gatos Union School District, CA), and Chair of Bond Oversight Committee, receiving ‘Citizen Architect’ award. Her intersectional advocacy is channeled through WIA (Women in Architecture) Silicon Valley, as Board member of NICA (Niosha International Conservatory of Arts), and as Co-Founder of BIBI (Banou’s in the Building Industry).

 

Marta Gutman

Marta Gutman
Professor, City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Prof. Marta Gutman, PhD, historian and licensed architect, teaches architectural and urban history at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York and at The Graduate Center/CUNY. She examines ordinary buildings and neighborhoods, the history of cities, and issues of gender, class, race and especially childhood as they play out in everyday spaces, public culture, and social life. She is the author of A City for Children: Women, Architecture, and the Charitable Landscapes of Oakland, 18501950 (University of Chicago Press, 2014), winner of the SAH Spiro Kostof Book Award in 2017. Her current book project is Just Space: Modern Architecture, Public Education, and School Desegregation in Postwar Urban America. Prof. Gutman is a founding editor of PLATFORM, the online forum for conversations about buildings, spaces, and landscapes, and is the president-elect of the Society for American City and Regional Planning History.

 

Min Kyung Lee

Min Kyung Lee
Assistant Professor, Growth and Structure of Cities Department, Bryn Mawr College, PA

Min Kyung Lee, PhD, is assistant professor in the Growth and Structure of Cities Department at Bryn Mawr College. Her current research addresses migration histories of the built environment, and is currently carrying out a project, Mapping Wigs and Plywood: Korean Migration and the African-American Urban Landscape. Drawing from material culture and feminist and race theories, this work investigates how economic policies of post-war Korea and Korean migration to the US intersected with and affected the development of African-American neighborhoods and communities. Her work has been supported by The Mellon Foundation, the Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschicte, The Getty Research Institute, The French Ministry of Education, and the Camargo Foundation. She serves on the editorial board of Oxford Bibliographies-Architecture, as a contributing editor for platformspace.net, and on committees of the Society of Architectural Historians and The Society of Architectural and Urban Historians—Asia.