Women have been designing, building, and making decisions about the worlds we have built for as long as we have been building it, but for too long, their leadership, innovation, and creativity has been underrepresented. Madame Architect was founded in 2018 to bring to light and celebrate all of the different professionals, who identify as women, that contribute to the built environment, and has since told the stories of more than 400 architects and designers – including Frida Escobedo, Neri Oxman, Dorte Mandrup, Deborah Berke, Odile Decq, and Pritzker Laureates Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara – as well as CEOs, publicists, journalists, business strategists, counsel, and more.
In this presentation, Julia Gamolina, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Madame Architect, will present Madame Architect’s inception from her own story in the field, its evolution and all of the voices and perspectives on the platform, and then will present a few case studies of multifaceted careers that are possible in this industry and beyond.
Dedicated to the built environment and to the empowerment, advancement, and visibility of the women who work in it, Julia Gamolina is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Madame Architect where she has published to date over 400 interviews with women who advance the practice of architecture. More of her writing has been featured in Fast Company, A Women’s Thing, Metropolis Magazine, Architizer, and the Architect's Newspaper.
Trained as an architect herself, Julia stays grounded in professional practice as an Associate Principal and Business Development Director at Ennead Architects, where she focuses on the educational, cultural, and healthcare markets. In the same vein, Julia is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute, teaching a graduate level Professional Practice Seminar on the history and the practices of the profession.
In 2021, Julia was named one of Apartment Therapy’s Design Changemakers and one of Commercial Observer's Top Young Professionals. In 2019, Julia received the Special Citation from AIANY for her work with Madame Architect. She has been featured in Architectural Record, Archinect, Architizer, and the Architect's Newspaper, and has served on juries for the 2019 World Architecture Festival and the DNA Paris Design Awards, as well as as a media critic for the AIA Dallas Built Design Awards.
Her speaking engagements include lectures at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, UPenn, Pratt, and Georgia Tech, and she has been a guest critic for design reviews at Cornell AAP, Columbia GSAPP, and the School of Visual Arts (SVA).
Julia received her Bachelor of Architecture at Cornell University, graduating with the Charles Goodwin Sands Memorial Medal for exceptional merit in the thesis of architecture. She is based in New York City. Follow Julia at @julia.gamolina.