Embrace Equity: Madame Architect on Stories and Lessons for a Way Forward

For the past five years, the digital magazine and media start-up Madame Architect has celebrated the extraordinary women that shaped our world. Its founder and Editor-in-Chief, Julia Gamolina, Assoc. AIA, designed a platform to break the architect’s mold and show young women entering the industry the myriad choices they have in crafting a dynamic, meaningful, and interesting career. To celebrate the International Women’s Day theme #EmbracyEquity, AIANY Women in Architecture is honored to have Julia Gamolina share with us the evolution of Madame Architect and the highlights of collective stories and lessons from Madame Architect’s 400+ interviews in providing a way forward to embracing equity in the practice of architecture and the allied industries.

Speaker:
Julia Gamolina, Assoc. AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Madame Architect; Associate Principal, Ennead

Moderator:
Vivian Lee, FAIA, Design Director, Gensler; Co-Chair, AIANY Women in Architecture Committee

About the Speakers:
Julia Gamolina is dedicated to the built environment and the visibility and advancement of the women who shape it. She is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Madame Architect, a digital magazine and media start-up that celebrates these extraordinary practitioners. Trained as an architect herself, Gamolina stays engaged in professional practice as an Associate Principal and Business Development Director at Ennead, where she focuses on the educational, cultural, and healthcare markets nationally. Gamolina is also a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute, teaching a graduate-level Professional Practice Seminar on the history and practices of the profession. In 2021, Gamolina was named one of Apartment Therapy’s Design Changemakers and one of Commercial Observer's Top Young Professionals. In 2019, she also received the Special Citation from AIANY for her work with Madame Architect. Her writing has been featured in Fast Company, A Women’s Thing, Metropolis Magazine, Architizer, and the Architect's Newspaper. Her speaking engagements include lectures at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, UPenn, Pratt, the IE School of Architecture and Design, Georgia Tech and more, as well as NeueHouse, the Center for Architecture, and the Architecture & Design Film Festival. She has served as a guest critic for design reviews at Cornell AAP, Columbia GSAPP, and the School of Visual Arts (SVA), and was the opening keynote speaker at AIA ‘22 in Chicago, interviewing AIA’s new CEO, Lakisha Woods. Gamolina 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 was born in Siberia and is based in New York City.