The Gold Medal is the highest honor from the Washington, D.C.-based AIA, “recognizing individuals whose work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture,” it says.
In 1981 Barney founded Ross Barney Architects, an architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning studio. Among her best-known works: Chicago’s revamped Riverwalk, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza at State Street and Wabash Avenue; McDonald’s flagship restaurant at Clark and Ontario streets; the Searle Visitor Center at the Lincoln Park Zoo; and the multimodal terminal at O’Hare International Airport.
She was the first woman commissioned to design a federal building: the structure in Oklahoma City that replaced the Murrah Federal Building after it was destroyed in a 1995 terrorist bombing.
Read More: Carol Ross Barney wins American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal