KEYNOTE SPEAKER Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, HASLA A Woman of Vision and Resolve BY FRAN PRUYN Carol Ross Barney is the AIA National’s 2023 Gold Medal Winner. She is also the Keynote Speaker for the 2023 AIA Utah Fall Conference. We chatted with her about her career, about women in architecture, what led to her success and the primary points of her address. The following are excerpts from our conversation. You decided to become an architect when you were in high school, right? Yes, I went to a Catholic girl’s high school, and I think I was the first architect that they had ever had. I loved making things for as long as I can remember. And I believe, personally, that everybody should leave the planet a better place. There were a whole lot of jobs that didn’t have that potential. I didn’t know any architects. I just sort of, in my little high school mind, decided that this was really a good fit — that I could save the world and make things better. Who inspired you? Some of the politicians and figures of the time: Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was elected in 1960. So, I was in seventh grade, and he just set a whole new idea about who Americans were and what they could be. That was definitely inspiring to me. I have a really strong interest in social justice. As for buildings, I was inspired by a lot of the modernists. I didn’t know what I was looking at particularly, but I am in Chicago, and so I watched some really amazing buildings go up, even in my youth. I was always inspired by the ambition of the modernist period buildings. These buildings were using new materials and daylight, and they were just so transparent and beautiful. As I started practicing architecture, working for Holabird and Root, my first boss was John Holabird. He was a true mentor. He didn’t necessarily give me things, but you could tell that he thought I could do it. 14 REFLEXION
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