Saturday, November 10, 2007















Jane Weinzapfel, FAIA

On November 9, 2007, I was able to attend a lecture and a conversation with Jane Weinzapfel. What an amazing lady. Truly inspirational. Below is a little biography of her. I will upload the lecture in the days to come.

Jane Weinzapfel was raised in Tucson, Arizona. She received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arizona's School of Architecture. After graduating, she moved to the Boston area where she developed her career as an architect. In 1994, she was elected to the College of Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 2002 she was a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome.
After many years working with a large architecture and planning group, Jane began independent practice in 1980, and in 1982 she and Andrea Leers founded Leers Weinzapfel Associates in Boston, Massachusetts. Work of the firm has received national and regional awards including the Gateway Building/Chiller Plant at the University of Pennsylvania, and the MBTA Operations Control Center of Boston.
She taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture and Planning from 1974 to 1976. She taught as a Visiting Critic at the University of Arizona School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in 1996 and 1999 and serves on the School's Advisory Board. She has been a juror and speaker at numerous universities in the United States and abroad. She is on the Board of Overseers for the Boston Architectural Center.
Jane has special expertise in transportation, and urban infrastructure. She has been an active member of the Women's Transportation Seminar for many years and served as a former Director. She served on the Mayor's Transportation Advisory Commission for the City of Boston, and the Mayor's Task Force on Government Center Plaza. She was twice a Director and was on the Executive Committee of the Boston Society of Architects and is the current Vice President/President Elect for the Chapter. She serves as speaker and juror for the American Institute of Architects' international, national and regional Design Awards Programs. She served on the Editorial Board of Architecture Boston Magazine and an Advisory Board for the Harvard Design Magazine. - http://www.designingtomorrowsarchitect.org/weinzapfel.cfm

Most recently her firm received the National AIA Firm of the Year. It is the FIRST WOMEN FIRM that has received this honor. Yes, "we" still have a long ways to go until we break this "glass ceiling."