When Carol Ross Barney recently claimed one of architecture’s top awards, it was a towering achievement for someone who’s never designed a skyscraper.
The Chicago-based architect says winning the American Institute of Architecture’s gold medal for 2023 affirms the role of design in public spaces and low-rise buildings, her hometown’s key place in architecture and the progress women have made since her arrival in the male-dominated industry about five decades ago.
Though she’s never altered Chicago’s skyline, the AIA award recognizes the importance of projects such as the Riverwalk, the 1.25-mile linear park that's become a major city attraction, as well as infrastructure including Chicago Transit Authority train stations, low-rise buildings such as McDonald’s flagship operations and the federal offices in Oklahoma City that replaced the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building destroyed in a terrorist bombing in 1995.
“It’s a recognition that design matters everywhere,” Barney said of the award. “CTA stations, infrastructure, McDonald’s hamburger stands — everything needs responsible design.
“Design makes a difference in your daily life. The Riverwalk is a good example. The city really took the time to think it through. Look how it turned out. I’m not sure I expected it to be as beloved as it is.”
Starting Out
Barney, 73, grew up on Chicago’s North Side and later in the suburb of Northbrook, Illinois. Because of her father's work, she also spent part of her youth in Dusseldorf, Germany.
After architecture school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Peace Corps mission in Costa Rica, she worked for firms in Chicago before losing her job as part of a merger.
That led Barney to start her own firm in 1981.
“Some previous clients called me and still wanted to work with me, but I also learned that I’d have to contact clients too,” she said. “I had to go look for work, which they don’t teach you in architecture school.
“It’s not the projects that make you successful, it’s the relationships.”
The firm was built on early work for the U.S. Postal Service, Chicago Public Schools and eventually projects such as the one in the wake of tragedy in Oklahoma.
Barney said she attended a meeting of prospective architects for the Oklahoma City federal building commission because it was in a state she’d never visited.
“We were a longshot to win it,” Barney said. She came up with a U-shaped design that she said balanced workers’ desire for safety and the public’s need for government openness.
“If you’re going to make all government buildings into fortresses, what does that say about our democracy?” Barney said.
Today her firm, Ross Barney Architects, has about 35 architects.
Upcoming projects include the long-planned DuSable Park along Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. The park will be near two skyscrapers Related Midwest plans to build on the site where the 150-story Chicago Spire, designed by Santiago Calatrava, was once planned under a previous developer but never got built after stalling early in the Great Recession.
Women in Architecture
Barney said the former chief architect of the General Services Administration, Ed Feiner, told her that the Oklahoma City commission was the first of its kind awarded to a woman. Feiner, who Esquire once named “the most powerful architect in America,” died earlier this year at age 75.
That federal assignment and the AIA award are key moments in Barney's effort to help elevate women in the industry, she said. Excluding husband-and-wife teams, Barney was the first living woman to capture the AIA award.
Julia Morgan, a Bay Area architect who died in 1957, won the AIA’s 2014 gold medal.
“When I graduated in the 1970s, there were so very few women in architecture,” she said. “It’s really nice to see this award as another step in transforming the profession to being more equal for women.”
The AIA award comes not long after another Chicago-based architect, Jeanne Gang — known for public spaces and skyscrapers such as the 101-story St. Regis Chicago — won the Urban Land Institute’s top award, the 2022 ULI Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development.
“It’s cool, because if you ‘re walking the Riverwalk and you like it and if you see Jeanne’s buildings and you like them, you may not even know they’re designed by women,” Barney said. “And that’s a good thing. But when you design a building, someone is trusting you with millions of dollars that they’re investing. It’s important that women can be trusted and can compete for those projects.”
Chicago Pride
Barney was the first gold medal winner based in Chicago since Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1960.
That distinction was surprising to Barney, considering Chicago’s notable buildings, its major role in architecture and engineering and past resident stars including Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.
“Chicago sometimes doesn’t get as much recognition as it should,” Barney said.
“It’s been home to so many architecture giants. My office used to be Harry Weese’s office. He had a huge effect on architecture,” she said. Weese designed the network of Metro train stations in and around Washington, D.C., the River Cottages and Metropolitan Corrections Center in Chicago, and the First Baptist Church in Columbus, Indiana.
Barney has drawn up new Chicago train stations near the sprawling McCormick Place convention center and in the fast-growing Fulton Market district, while redesigning several other stations in the city. Also in Chicago, she designed an O’Hare International Airport terminal that connects air passengers to ground transportation and the Searle Visitor Center at Lincoln Park Zoo.
Her portfolio includes other government and public spaces throughout the country.
Corporate clients have included McDonald’s, for which she has designed flagship restaurants in Chicago’s River North and at Walt Disney Resort in Florida.
“I want to empower the people working on public spaces to speak up for design and be sure we’re always thinking hard about how the design fits in,” Barney said. “Design is improving all the time in terms of how it fits into a neighborhood and how it works. You should never look at infrastructure and say it doesn’t need any design.”
This story was updated on Dec. 29 to correct the spelling of the name Feiner in the third section.