Altieri’s Women in Engineering group had the pleasure of hosting Barbara Campagna, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C as a guest speaker at our November meeting. We were delighted when Barbara agreed to join us to talk about her career and experiences in the A/E/C industry. When we read her blog post: Just Don’t Call Me a Woman Architect, we knew she would bring compelling stories and much for us to think and talk about. And we were right!
Barbara is the Principal and Owner of Barbara A. Campagna/Architecture + Planning, PLLC. Altieri has worked with her on the Brick House in New Canaan, Connecticut (at the time, she was the Chief Architect at the National Trust for Historic Preservation) and currently we are on Barbara’s design team for the Buffalo Central Terminal Historic Structures Report project.
It was so interesting to hear from Barbara about where her passion has led her throughout her career as well as the obstacles she overcame to get where she is today.
Sara Josephson, PE, LEED AP BD+C, Associate
Barbara’s inspiring presentation charted her successful career and many accomplishments. She honed in on the importance of the friends you make early in your career (they are your lifelong network) and volunteering and joining professional organizations (make contacts and practice for leadership). And most of all, Barbara emphasized trying new things to find what you love to do: “This can only make you better at your job!”
Excerpt from Just Don’t Call Me a Woman Architect:
“And one of the reasons I’ve never wanted to write or speak about being an architect who is a woman is that I don’t want to differentiate my gender. When I was preparing my fellowship application, I was at a dinner with a group of male architects who were all fellows and wanted to give me advice on my application. They wanted to hear my 30-word intro and every single one of them said, “You have to say – you are the best woman preservation architect in America.” I was flabbergasted. I said I absolutely would not say that. I am an architect. I asked them if they had written that they were the best man architects in their field? They all just looked at me, jaws dropped open. They were really shocked I’d even suggest that. But they didn’t see the correlation with what they were suggesting I write. Needless to say I did not use the word “woman” in my fellowship application anywhere.”
Click below to read the full post: