Sabin

Rodriguez

Jenny Sabin, the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Assistant Professor of Architecture, and Susan T. Rodriguez ’81, B.Arch. ’82, are among five winners of Architectural Record’s 2016 Women in Architecture Awards, announced Sept. 20.

The annual awards are aimed at balancing gender disparity in the top tier of the profession. Although nearly half of architecture school graduates are women, currently they make up only 18 percent of licensed practitioners, according to a survey in the Los Angeles Times.

The awards honor achievements in categories including service as an activist, educator or mentor; leadership; and innovation.

Sabin received the Innovator Award, “for an architect who has made a mark in innovative design, materials or building type.” Rodriguez was honored with the Design Leader Award, given for significant built work and influence.

In conjunction with her teaching in the area of design and emerging technologies, Sabin directs a hybrid research and design unit, the Sabin Design Lab at Cornell, specializing in computational design, data visualization and digital fabrication; her Jenny Sabin Studio in Philadelphia practices in experimental architectural design. Her research, projects and teaching investigate the intersections of architecture and science, applying insights and theories from biology and mathematics to the design of material structures.

“These are also areas that have historically been underrepresented by women,” Sabin said, adding that honors such as the Innovator Award “send a strong positive message to our students and future leaders.”

Rodriguez is a founding partner and principal of Ennead Architects in New York City. Her work ranges from interiors to large-scale institutional and cultural buildings. She serves on the Cornell Board of Trustees and the College of Architecture, Art and Planning Advisory Council, and is a board member of the Architectural League of New York and Art Works Projects: For Human Rights.

Architectural Record’s annual Women in Architecture Forum and Awards program has recognized and promoted design leadership by women since 2014. Past honorees include Meejin Yoon, B.Arch. ’95, winner of the 2015 Leadership in Architectural Practice Award. She heads the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s architecture department.

The 2016 award winners will be honored at a symposium and reception Nov. 1 in New York, before the AR Innovation Conference.

Patti Witten is a writer for the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.