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Lori Brown, FAIA
Distinguished Professor

B.S. Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology; M.Arch Princeton University


Lori Brown has been teaching at the Syracuse University School of Architecture since 2001. Prior to teaching, Brown was working as an architect in New York City for several award-winning firms. Her work emerges from the belief that architecture can participate in and impact people’s everyday lives. At the intersections of architecture, art, geography, and women’s studies, her work exists within both the more traditional realm of architecture (through competition proposals and individual practice) and outside the traditional realm in our broader environments where architecture may not be immediately legible (social, political and institutional arenas where architects are not typically present).

Published in June 2013, Contested Space: Abortion Clinics, Women’s Shelters and Hospitals investigates how legislation affects politicized and securitized spaces. She is currently co-organizing a design action for Jackson Women’s Health Organization in Jackson, MS that will be taking place in 2014. In addition, she curated, organized and participated in Feminist Practices, an international group of women designers and architects whose work engages feminist methodologies which was published as an edited book, Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture by Ashgate in December 2011. In 2008 she was awarded the American Institute of Architects Diversity Best Practice Honorable Mention and a commendation for the Milka Bliznakov Prize for the Feminist Practices exhibition 2008.  In 2012, she co-launched with Nina Freedman, ArchiteXX, a women and architecture group in New York City. This group seeks to raise the awareness of women in architecture, create support and mentoring networks and create design actions broadening the exposure of architecture out in the world.

She has been awarded artist residencies at Macdowell, Jentel and Caldera and her work has been exhibited widely. She is a registered architect in the state of New York, a member of the American Institute of Architects and the American Association of University Women.

Lori Brown was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in February 2022. She is also the faculty representative to the University’s Board of Trustees. Brown is a registered architect in New York state.

Buildings and Projects

  • Design work for Humanitarian Respite Center, McAllen, TX, 2019
  • Design for Holy Family Birthing Center, Weslaco, TX, 2017
  • Design work for Huntsville, AL abortion clinic, 2016–present
  • Design for Jackson, MS abortion clinic, 2015–2017
  • Renovation for the Vera House Women’s Shelter, Syracuse, NY, completed 2012
  • Housing for single mothers recently released from incarceration; collaboration with local architect; Syracuse, NY 2006
  • Library of Feminism for the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, Syracuse, NY, 2005–present
  • Upstate University Hospital chapel renovation, Syracuse, NY, 2005–2006

Exhibitions

  • Making Home—Design Triennial, invited participant with Dr. Yashica Robinson and Patricia Cafferky, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY, November 2, 2024 - Summer 2025
  • Spatializing Reproductive Justice, curated and organized by Lori Brown, Lindsay Harkema, Bryony Roberts, Sadie Imae, and Natalya Dikhanov, City College, New York, NY, January 25–March 8, 2024

  • Now What? Advocacy, Activism + Alliances in American Architecture since 1968, curated and organized by Lori Brown, Sarah Rafson, and Andrea Merrett of ArchiteXX, Boston Society of Architects, Boston, MA, March 8, 2022–May 2023

    University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, February 4–April 29, 2022
  • Kennessaw State University, Kennessaw, GA, January 15–February 22, 2020
  • Bångska Våningen Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden, November 8–24, 2019 
  • Cornell University Architecture, Art, and Planning, Ithaca, NY, October 14–November 22, 2019
  • Pro-prosperity Project, Chicago, IL, September 13–October 2, 2019
  • University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, Buffalo, NY April 17–August 6, 2019
  • Hobart William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY, March 8–April 12, 2019
  • McGill University Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, Montreal, Quebec, February 12–March 1, 2019
  • California College of the Arts, Hubbell Street Galleries, San Francisco, CA, November 29–December 14, 2018
  • School of Architecture Woodbury University Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA, September 1–October 15, 2018
  • Robert H. Siegel Gallery Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, May 24–July 6, 2018
  • Invited contributor, Love in a Mist: The Politics of Fertility, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, curated by Malkit Shoshan, October 28–December 20, 2019
  • Private Choices Public Spaces, curated and organized by ArchiteXX, The Sheila C. Johnson Design Center Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries at Parson’s The New School for Design, NY, NY September 18–October 2, 2014
  • The Missing Library, DUMBO Arts Center (DAC), Brooklyn, NY, June 23–August 14, 2011, Annie Shaw, organizer
  • “feminist practices” curator, organizer and participant 2007–2009, exhibition traveled to: U. of MD, VA Tech, U. of Michigan, Temple, RISD, Wentworth Inst., Auburn, LSU, U. of Melbourne

Grants and Awards

  • Graham Foundation, grant awarded to ArchiteXX, July 2023
  • IAWA Milka Bliznakov Research Prize, with Karen Burns, awarded June 2023
  • Emerging Voices 2021, Architectural League of New York
  • National Endowments for the Arts, grant awarded to ArchiteXX, January 2020
  • Graham Foundation, grant awarded to ArchiteXX, September 2019
  • New York State Council for the Arts, grant awarded to ArchiteXX, August 2018
  • New York State Council for the Arts, Architecture + Design, October 2017
  • Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, Tribune Awarded to ArchiteXX, February 2017
  • Grant from the Abortion Conversation Project, 2014
  • Mary Lily Travel Grant to Duke University’s Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture Library Archives, 2010
  • Milka Bliznakov Prize Commendation for feminist practices exhibition, 2008
  • American Institute of Architects Diversity Best Practice Honorable Mention, 2008
  • Syracuse University Chancellor’s Award for Public Service, March 2006 in collaboration with Alison Mountz for our class, ‘boundaries in syracuse: gender architecture geography’
  • AIA Central New York Merit Award, Unbuilt Project for the Upstate University Hospital Chapel renovation, October 2005
  • Residencies at MacDowell Colony, Jentel, and Caldera, 2004

Lectures and Papers

Selected lectures, conference and events

  • Invited panelist, “Designing Gender Inclusive Spaces,” Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, in conjunction with Designing Peace Exhibition, with Chelina Odbert, Kounkuey Design Intiative, and Seb Choe, moderated by Cynthia E. Smith, JSA/MIX Design, New York, NY, May 24, 2023
  • Invited keynote speaker, KPF International Women’s Day, “WOMEN: Architecture, Advocacy and Activism,” online, March 8, 2023
  • Invited workshop leader, “Architects As Changemakers: A Workshop with Despina Stratigakos and Lori A. Brown FAIA,” Organized by Perkins Eastman and Women in Design, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, February 24, 2023
  • Invited panelist and moderator, “The Women Who Changed Architecture”: Panel Discussion and book event with Lori A. Brown FAIA, Doris Cole FAIA, J. Yolande Daniels, and Juliet Chun AIA, Boston Society of Architecture, Boston, MA, October 25, 2022
  • Invited participant, “A room of one’s own. Women in Architecture,” Danish Architecture Center, Copenhagen, Denmark, October 7, 2022
  • Invited lecture, “All environments are not just,” Boston Architectural College, “Just Environments” lecture series, Boston, MA, October 5, 2022
  • Invited speaker, AIA Women’s Leadership Summit, San Jose, CA, September 28, 2022
  • Invited speaker, “Praxes of Care” Lecture Series, University at Waterloo School of Architecture, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, September 22, 2022

  • Invited lecture, Emerging Voices 2021, The Architectural League of New York, April 1, 2021, https://archleague.org/article/studio-zewde-and-lori-a-brown/

  • Society of Architectural Historians Annual Conference, Panel co-organized with Andrea Merrett, “Advocacy, Activism and Alliances in American Architecture Since 1968, April 14–18, 2020, Montreal, Quebec

  • Invited participant, roundtable discussion for #Urbanismbeyondcorona, with Fionn Byrne, James Graham, Joyce Hwang, Nicholas Pevzner, Roger Sherman, and Marina Otero Verzier, California College of the Arts, November 16, 2020
  • Invited participant, “InterAction / FAction panel for Bracket 4 [Takes Action] Bracket Architecture, Environment, Digital Culture, moderated by Neeraj Bhatia and Mason White, October 7, 2020
  • A live co-reading of Provisions with Elke Krasny and Carol Anne Hilton, and hosted by Critical Distance, The Site Magazine: Provisions: Observing and Archiving COVID-19, July 22, 2020, https://www.thesitemagazine.com/lori-brown
  • Invited online lecture, “Birthing, Borders, and Bodies,” A Quarantine Marathon: Dialogues with Dust, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, April 2, 2020
  • Invited lecture, “What responsibility do architects have to create a more just world?” Iowa State University, Ames, IA, February 5, 2020
  • ArchiteXX Women are Everywhere 1min student film NYC premiere screening, Cinepolis Chelsea NYC, October 20, 2020
  • Invited lecture, Situating Architecture series Bartlett School of Architecture UCL Faculty of the Built Environment, London, England, October 7, 2019 
  • Invited lecture, “Between the Academy + Activism,” ETH Department of Architecture, Zürich, Switzerland, December 13, 2018
  • Paper presented with Karen Burns, “Writing Transnational Histories of Women in Architecture, 1960–2015,” The World of Architecture History Conference, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, London, England, November 2–4, 2018
  • Invited lecture, “ArchiteXX,” KTH School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Stockholm, Sweden, October 31, 2018
  • Invited lecture and workshop, “Architectural Actions,“ OTH, Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg Fakultät Architektur, Regensburg, Germany, October 30, 2018
  • Invited lecture, “ArchiteXX,” California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA, October 15, 2018
  • Invited lecture, “Changing tactics / Tactics for change,” Northeastern School of Architecture, Boston, MA, September 27, 2018
  • Invited lecture, Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies lecture series, Blacksburg, VA, February 7, 2018
  • Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women Shelters and Hospitals book talk, Columbia University GSAPP Studio X New York, NY February 26, 2014
  • Moderator, Feminism and Architecture: Intergenerational Conversations at Parsons The New School, co-sponsored by the Architectural League of New York, NYC, March 18, 2014
  • Symposium co-organizer and speaker, “Transections: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Design Between Science and the Humanities,” Syracuse University School of Architecture, April 1, 2014
  • Invited speaker, Building Talent: Women, Patronage, and Mentoring symposium at University at Buffalo’s Gender Institute, October 22, 2013
  • Keynote speaker, Transform: Changing Architecture’s Future organized by Parlour, Melbourne, Australia, May 30, 2013
  • Invited speaker, “Disciplining Identities,” University of Melbourne Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, May 28, 2013
  • Invited Hillier Memorial Lecture, Cornell University Department of Design and Environmental Analysis, May 1, 2013
  • Invited speaker, 40th Anniversary Symposium for Organization of Women Architects and Design Professionals, Berkeley, CA, April 13, 2013
  • Concluding speaker, 2012 Martell Symposium Beyond Patronage Reconsidering Models of Practice, University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, Buffalo, NY, October 17, 2012
  • Invited lecture, “feminist practices,” Louisiana State University College of Art and Design, Baton Rouge, LA, 2009
  • Invited lecture, “Politicizing the Female Body:  Examining the Space of Abortion Clinics” F. Ross Johnson-Connaught Distinguished Speaker Series, Centre for the Study of the US University of Toronto, Toronto, ON 2009

Publications

Books

  • The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture, editors Lori Brown and Karen Burns, 2024
  • Birthing, Borders, and Bodies, tbd
  • Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women Shelters and Hospitals, Ashgate, June 2013
  • Published in paperbook, Routledge, October 2016
  • Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture, editor, Ashgate, December 2011
  • Published in paperback, Routledge, October 2016

Selected essays and book chapters

  • Lori A. Brown, J. Shoshanna Ehrlich, and Nicole Guidotti-Hernández,”No Refuge(es) here: Jane Doe and the Contested Right to ‘Abortion on Demand,” Feminist Legal Studies, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-022-09502-9
  • “Field Notes on Design Activism 4,” Places Journal, November 10, 2022, https://placesjournal.org/article/field-notes-on-design-activism-4
  • “Borders, Birthing and Bodies: American Crossings” in “On Collaborations: Feminist Architectural Histories of Migration,” Aggregate, Guest editors Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi and Rachel Lee, November 16, 2022, http://we-aggregate.org/piece/birthing-borders-and-bodies-american-crossings
  • Invited essayist, “Designing for a Better World,” The Groundbreakers: Women Who Changed Architecture, Princeton Architectural Press, 2022
  • “Like Some Kind of Legal Houdini”: Abortion Access and the State in Garza, The Avery Review, October 2021, https://averyreview.com/issues/54/legal-houdini
  • Lori A. Brown and Karen Burns, “Telling Transnational Histories of Women in Architecture, 1960-2015,” in EAHN European Architecture History Network, Special Issue Architectural Historiography and Fourth Wave Feminism, Guest Editors Lucía C. Pérez-Moreno, Torsten Lange, and Claire Jamieson, 2020
  • Lori Brown, Sarah Rafson, Andrea J. Merrett & Roberta Washington, “Call to Action: ArchiteXX, Now What?!, and Creating New Futures,” Journal of Architectural Education, 74:2, 166-169, September 2020
  • “Transformational Slowness,” The Site Magazine: Provisions: Observing and Archiving COVID-19, June 2, 2020, https://www.thesitemagazine.com/lori-brown
  • “Field Notes on a Pandemic Teaching 4”, Places Journal, April 21, 2020, https://placesjournal.org/article/field-notes-on-pandemic-teaching-4/
  • “Spaces of Conflict,” Bracket Architecture, Environment, Digital Culture, Takes Action, edited by Neeraj Bhatia and Mason White, June 2020
  • “Status Quo,” Women [R]Build: Stories, Polemics, Futures, edited by Franca Trubiano, Ramona Adlakha, and Ramune Bartuskait, ORO Editions/AR+D, 2019
  • “Don’t Mess with Texas: Abortion policy Texas Style,” Abortion Across Borders Transnational Travel and Access to Abortion Services, edited by Christabelle Sethna and Gayle Davis, John Hopkins University Press, 2019
  • “E pluribus unum — Out of Many, One,” Architect Magazine, September 12, 2018, https://www.architectmagazine.com/practice/lori-brown-e-pluribus-unum-out-of-many-one_o
  • “Fluids and Fluidity,” Seventeen,” Harvard Design Magazine #44, 2017
  • Invited exhibition essayist, “Women Architects and Architectural Activism,” Frau Architekt, DA, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt-am-Main, 2017
  • “Subverting a Promise: Anti- Abortion Policies and Activism in Canada and the United States,” co-authored with Shoshanna Ehrich and Colleen MacQuarrie, Canadian Abortion Politics: Twenty-Five Years After Morgentaler, edited by Tracy Penny Light and Shannon Stettner, University British Columbia Press, 2017
  • “Moving Beyond Patronage,” Beyond Patronage, edited by Joyce Hwang and Martha Bohm, Actar, 2015

  • Lori Brown, “Disciplining Identities Part 1 + 2,” Parlour, August 24, 2014

Mainstream media

Reviews of Lori Brown’s work

Administration and Service

  • Invited Board member, TRIA, International Journal of the Planning Department at the University of Naples, 2021-present
  • Invited Editorial Advisory Board, Bloomsbury Architecture Library, 2019-present
  • Co-founder and leader, ArchiteXX, women in architecture organization, New York, NY, 2012 – present
  • Faculty advisor, Women in Design
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