Gold Medal
11 2023 AIA 2023 Award Header

Noble — but not pres­ti­gious — projects are the foun­da­tion of the remark­able career built by Design Prin­ci­pal and Founder, Car­ol Ross Bar­ney, FAIA, Hon. ASLA. As the 2023 Gold Medal recip­i­ent, Car­ol took the stage at AIA Con­fer­ence on Archi­tec­ture in San Fran­cis­co as the first liv­ing woman to indi­vid­u­al­ly accept the award.

The Gold Medal hon­ors an indi­vid­ual whose sig­nif­i­cant body of work has had a last­ing influ­ence on the the­o­ry and prac­tice of archi­tec­ture. It is the archi­tec­ture pro­fes­sion’s high­est hon­or, award­ed annu­al­ly by Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Architects. 

One of the things that thrills me most about the Gold Medal is the recog­ni­tion of Chicago.

 Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, Hon. ASLA

Car­ol Ross Bar­ney, FAIA, Hon. ASLA has been in the van­guard of civic space design since found­ing Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects in 1981. With a career that spans fifty years, Car­ol has made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the built envi­ron­ment, the pro­fes­sion, and archi­tec­tur­al edu­ca­tion. From her ear­ly days in the Unit­ed States Peace Corps plan­ning Nation­al Parks in Cos­ta Rica to col­lab­o­ra­tions with pub­lic agen­cies design­ing civic spaces that are sus­tain­able, Car­ol has relent­less­ly advo­cat­ed that excel­lent design is a right, not a privilege.

Her body of work, being almost exclu­sive­ly in the pub­lic realm, rep­re­sents these aspi­ra­tions and occu­pies a unique place with­in the panora­ma of con­tem­po­rary architecture.

Carol’s projects vary in type and scale, but always uphold a deep com­mit­ment to the qual­i­ty of life. This com­mit­ment man­i­fests into spaces that enrich the met­ro­pol­i­tan expe­ri­ence; build­ings that are envi­ron­men­tal stew­ards, embody­ing and show­cas­ing sus­tain­abil­i­ty; and spaces that inspire young, curi­ous minds to learn, invent, and break boundaries.

9 2023 Gold Medal Chicago Architect Magazine new

“In April, Jen Masen­garb, Assoc. AIA, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor (AIA Chica­go), sat down for a con­ver­sa­tion with Car­ol Ross Bar­ney, FAIA, win­ner of the 2023 AIA Gold Medal. Bar­ney is the first liv­ing woman to win as an indi­vid­ual and only the sixth Chica­go archi­tect — the first in 60 years — to win the medal. It is the high­est annu­al achieve­ment award­ed by AIA. ”

Chica­go Archi­tect Magazine

“Car­ol Ross Bar­ney, FAIA, is the founder of her epony­mous, Chi­­ca­­­go-based firm Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects. She has won more than 200 awards over more than four decades of prac­tice, con­tin­u­ing the Windy City’s sto­ried her­itage of trail­blaz­ing archi­tects. Ross Bar­ney is just the sec­ond woman to be indi­vid­u­al­ly hon­ored with the AIA Gold Medal.” 

Archi­tect Mag­a­zine

 

2023 0601 Architect Gold Medal CRB 2 B

Read the Architect Magazine cover story

Car­ol speaks to a sold-out crowd at the Art Insti­tute of Chicago

City Coun­cil pro­claims Sep­tem­ber 14th, 2023 as Car­ol Ross Bar­ney Day in the City of Chicago.

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“A res­o­lu­tion adopt­ed by The City Coun­cil of the City of Chica­go, Illi­nois. Pre­sent­ed by Alder­man Bren­dan Reil­ly on Sep­tem­ber 14, 2023. 

WHERE­AS, Archi­tect Car­ol Ross Bar­ney has been at the fore­front of con­tem­po­rary civic space design since the found­ing of Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects in 1981 in Chica­go, IL; and 

WHERE­AS, Car­ol grad­u­at­ed from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Illi­nois School of Archi­tec­ture in 1971, receiv­ing her Bach­e­lor’s degree in Archi­tec­ture; and 

WHERE­AS, Car­ol has been a tire­less advo­cate for great design as a right, not a priv­i­lege, and that cities every­where should embrace it to fur­ther equi­ty and qual­i­ty of life aims; and 

WHERE­AS, Car­ol’s archi­tec­tur­al and plan­ning con­tri­bu­tions have left an indeli­ble mark from Cos­ta Rica to Okla­homa City to Chica­go, and through every con­ceiv­able type of inter­ven­tion — includ­ing the design of parks, gov­ern­ment build­ings, schools, libraries, flag­ship retail build­ings, and CTA sta­tions; and 

WHERE­AS, Car­ol became the first woman to design a fed­er­al build­ing when com­mis­sioned in 1997 as lead archi­tect for the new Okla­homa City Fed­er­al Build­ing, which replaced the bombed Alfred B. Mur­rah Fed­er­al Build­ing; and 

WHERE­AS, Car­ol’s vision for and 20-year invest­ment in improv­ing and extend­ing the Chica­go River­walk, com­plet­ed in 2016, helped trans­form a for­lorn water­front into a great pub­lic space and a recre­ation­al asset for mil­lions to enjoy annu­al­ly; and 

WHERE­AS, In addi­tion to her com­mit­ment to enrich­ing the urban expe­ri­ence, Car­ol has long show­cased envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty in her build­ings to inspire oth­ers to live respon­si­bly and break bound­aries in their own ways; and 

WHERE­AS, through­out her career, Car­ol has sought to advance oppor­tu­ni­ties for female archi­tects, co-found­ing Chica­go Women in Archi­tec­ture in 1971 to unite against the numer­ous chal­lenges to women in the pro­fes­sion, which per­sist to a some­what less degree today; and 

WHERE­AS, Car­ol con­tin­u­al­ly teach­es, men­tors, and empow­ers young archi­tects to con­tribute their ideas and designs to progress the pro­fes­sion; and 

WHERE­AS, Car­ol was award­ed the 2023 Gold Medal from the Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects, the most pres­ti­gious nation­al hon­or an archi­tect can receive for their influ­ence on the pro­fes­sion; and 

WHERE­AS, Car­ol is the first liv­ing woman to sole­ly receive the AIA Gold Medal and the first Chica­go archi­tect to win since Lud­wig Mies Van Der Rohe in 1960; now, therefore, 

BE IT RESOLVED, That we, The May­or and the mem­bers of the City Coun­cil of the City of Chica­go do here­by pro­claim Wednes­day, Sep­tem­ber 14th, 2023 as Car­ol Ross Bar­ney Day in the City of Chica­go in recog­ni­tion of Car­ol’s near­ly 50 years of inspir­ing ser­vices to her pro­fes­sion and to the vital­i­ty of our city, and 

BE IT FUR­THER RESOLVED, That a suit­able copy of this res­o­lu­tion be pre­sent­ed to Car­ol Ross Bar­ney and her lov­ing family.

Signed,
Bran­don John­son, May­or
Andrea M. Valen­cia, City Clerk”

An unri­valed archi­tect for the peo­ple, Bar­ney exudes design excel­lence, social respon­si­bil­i­ty, and gen­eros­i­ty. Through­out all of her work, she has endeav­ored to make the world a bet­ter place.

 2023 AIA Gold Medal Press Release

Phi­los­o­phy
The work of Car­ol exudes a lack of pre­tense about often for­got­ten build­ings and infra­struc­ture, the lifeblood of our cities, to be unit­ed through design.

To date she has real­ized a remark­able suc­ces­sion of com­pelling projects. Each takes on a honed process of giv­ing voice to all mem­bers of a com­mu­ni­ty. It is the abil­i­ty to lis­ten with inten­tion to the his­to­ry, con­text, and aspi­ra­tions of a com­mu­ni­ty first, and then respond. It is a sto­ry, told through design, about fair­ness, equi­ty, and inspiration. 

By cre­at­ing a place for peo­ple and ideas to come togeth­er, archi­tec­ture becomes a medi­um for expe­ri­ences to be shared and mem­o­ries to be made.

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Chicago Public Schools Competition 2001

Edu­ca­tor and Men­tor
Car­ol’s com­mit­ment to edu­ca­tion has embed­ded a gen­er­a­tion of archi­tects with her phi­los­o­phy of design­ing for peo­ple while dri­ving the impor­tance of adapt­ing sus­tain­able systems.

Research top­ics have been inter­re­lat­ed to active explo­rations; water trans­porta­tion, equi­table mixed-used devel­op­ments, mate­r­i­al inno­va­tions such as heavy tim­ber, and float­ing mar­kets. Her pop­u­lar design stu­dio at IIT has gar­nered inter­est from a wide cross sec­tion of stu­dents in Archi­tec­ture, Urban­ism, & Land­scape Architecture.

Select­ed Teach­ing Expe­ri­ence:
Adjunct Pro­fes­sor, IIT, 1993-present
Pel­li Dis­tin­guished Lec­tur­er, UIUC, 2022
Bruce Goff Chair of Cre­ative Archi­tec­ture, OU, 2002
Adjunct Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of Archi­tec­ture, UIC, 1976 – 1978

Equi­ty in Prac­tice and Design
At the fore­front for equi­ty in the archi­tec­tur­al pro­fes­sion, Car­ol has long sought to move beyond her gen­der as a con­tribut­ing fac­tor or hin­drance to suc­cess. But it’s not enough just to blaze the trail, Car­ol con­tin­u­al­ly teach­es, men­tors, and empow­ers young archi­tects to con­tribute their ideas and designs to progress the pro­fes­sion. Her focus on social jus­tice and pub­lic good has attract­ed a ded­i­cat­ed group of archi­tects to her studio.

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Carol Ross Barney 8 BW

Envi­ron­men­tal Stew­ard­ship
Car­ol has a deep com­mit­ment to sus­tain­able design, whether or not a project pur­sues indus­try Cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. Pair­ing envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship, ener­gy per­for­mance and design excel­lence is the chal­lenge. Her build­ing designs take these con­tra­dic­to­ry ideas and put them in harmony.

Ross Bar­ney Archi­tects has been a leader of sus­tain­able design strate­gies, long before it was fash­ion­able, inte­grat­ing a belief in plan­e­tary stew­ard­ship. We know that mak­ing build­ings sus­tain­able for the envi­ron­ment, the com­mu­ni­ty, our clients, and the world is the sin­gle exis­ten­tial chal­lenge of our time.

Design­ing Democ­ra­cy 
Car­ol believes that excel­lent design is a human right. Archi­tec­ture must be wel­com­ing and inclu­sive; invit­ing all com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to come togeth­er. Good design is demo­c­ra­t­ic, pro­tect­ing and cre­at­ing healthy and sus­tain­able envi­ron­ments for the earth’s people.

Chicago Riverwalk 21

Chicago Riverwalk Chicago, Illinois

Oklahoma City Federal Building 20

Oklahoma City Federal Building Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Lincoln Park Zoo Visitor Center 01

Lincoln Park Zoo Visitor Center Chicago, Illinois

Infra­struc­ture of Hope
Typ­i­cal­ly, design­ing infra­struc­ture is not even con­sid­ered archi­tec­ture. Infra­struc­ture plays a vital role in the con­nec­tiv­i­ty and effi­cien­cy of our cities. And its design con­tributes to the qual­i­ty of urban life.

With a grow­ing port­fo­lio of projects sit­u­at­ed on these ​“fringes of archi­tec­ture”, Car­ol has con­tin­ued to tack­le increas­ing­ly com­plex cul­tur­al, social, and spa­tial chal­lenges; trans­form­ing every­day moments into design opportunities.

Railyard Park 31

Railyard Park Rogers, Arkansas

Cermak Mc Cormick Place Station 13

CTA Cermak McCormick Place Station Chicago, Illinois

Morgan Station CTA 5

CTA Morgan Street Station Chicago, Illinois

3 ORD Multi Modal Terminal Ross Barney Architects Kendall Mc Caugherty c Hall Merrick 1217 021

O’Hare International Airport Multi Modal Terminal Chicago, Illinois

OSU Chiller Ross Barney Arch Brad Feinknopf Photo 9835 01 SNOW

The Ohio State University South Campus Chiller Plant Columbus, Ohio

Repair­ing the World

Carol’s embrace of sus­tain­abil­i­ty is inspired by her ser­vice with the U.S. Peace Corps for the Nation­al Parks of Cos­ta Rica where she worked on the restora­tion of nat­ur­al ecologies.

With a remark­able suc­ces­sion of projects at all scales and uses, and whether or not it received a LEED cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, each project embeds sus­tain­able prin­ci­ples. It is this eth­i­cal belief that a project should improve the world and teach the com­mu­ni­ty about envi­ron­men­tal stewardship.

Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation 33

Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation Synagogue Evanston, IL

Ross Barney 09 Swenson Civil Engineering

UMD Swenson Civil Engineering Building Duluth, Minnesota

Mc Donalds Chicago Flagship 30

McDonald’s Global Flagship Chicago Chicago, Illinois

About the Gold Medal
The Gold Medal hon­ors an indi­vid­ual whose sig­nif­i­cant body of work has had a last­ing influ­ence on the the­o­ry and prac­tice of architecture.

Jury:
Nathaniel Hud­son, AIA, Chair, For­m­Grey Stu­dio, Reno, Nev.
Joseph Ben­jamin, AIA, Lake | Fla­to, San Anto­nio
Arathi P. Gow­da, AIA, ZGF Archi­tects, Wash­ing­ton, D.C.
Anne Hicks Har­ney, FAIA, Long Green Specs, Man­asquan, N.J.
Jaime Tor­res Car­mona, AIA, Canopy/​architecture + design, Chica­go
Andrew Tyley, RIAI, RSHP for­mer­ly Rogers Stirk Har­bour + Part­ners, Lon­don, Unit­ed King­dom
Melodie Yashar, ICON, Austin, Texas

From the Press:
Arch­Dai­ly: ​“An Unri­valed Archi­tect for the Peo­ple”, Car­ol Ross Bar­ney Receives the 2023 AIA Gold Medal
Archi­tect Mag­a­zine: Car­ol Ross Bar­ney Wins 2023 AIA Gold Medal
The Archi­tec­t’s News­pa­per: AIA awards 2023 Gold Medal to Car­ol Ross Bar­ney
Archi­tec­tur­al Record: Car­ol Ross Bar­ney Wins the 2023 AIA Gold Medal
Archi­tec­tur­al Record DESIGN:ED Pod­cast: Con­ver­sa­tions with Lead­ing Pro­fes­sion­als — Car­ol Ross Bar­ney
Chica­go Sun-Times: River­walk design­er brings home the gold, wins architecture’s high­est award
City­Lab: Con­struc­tion Paper: Car­ol Ross Bar­ney Wins US Architecture’s High­est Hon­or
Dai­ly Her­ald: ​‘An unri­valed archi­tect for the peo­ple’: For­mer North Shore res­i­dent wins AIA’s high­est hon­or
Dezeen: ​“Unri­valed archi­tect for the peo­ple” Car­ol Ross Bar­ney wins 2023 AIA Gold Medal
ENR Mid­west: Five Min­utes with Car­ol Ross Bar­ney
IIT COA News: Fac­ul­ty Mem­ber Car­ol Ross Bar­ney wins Pres­ti­gious AIA Gold Medal
Office Insight: AIA Gold Medal to Car­ol Ross Bar­ney for archi­tec­ture ​“that bet­ters dai­ly life“
The Plan: AIA Gold Medal 2023 to Car­ol Ross Bar­ney
WTTW: Chica­go Archi­tect Behind River­walk, CTA Sta­tions and Eye-Catch­ing McDon­alds Designs Award­ed Pres­ti­gious Medal (Video Interview)

For addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:
Lau­ra Saviano, Mar­ket­ing Prin­ci­pal
las@r‑barc.com

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