Association for Women in Architecture + Design

The Association for Women in Architecture + Design is a nonprofit professional association based in Los Angeles, California. The organization aims to support women working in the fields of architecture and design through educational programming, networking, and mentoring. The history the association dates back to a Alpha Alpha Gamma, a collegiate organization established at Washington University in St. Louis.

Alpha Alpha Gamma
In 1915 four female architect students from Washington University in St. Louis were rejected from the male architectural fraternity. These women, Helen Milius, Henrietta May Steinmesch, Jane Pelton, and Angela Burdeau created an architectural sorority called La Confrerie Alongine. La Confrerie Alongine later became Alpha Alpha Gamma. The four found started other chapters of Alpha Alpha Gamma. On January 28, 1922, Alpha Alpha Gamma became an official national sorority supporting female architectural students.

Association of Women in Architecture
In 1934, practicing women architects formed the Association of Women in Architecture. One of its founders was Dimity Reed. Alpha Alpha Gamma became its affiliate organization for architectural students. In 1948, the association became the Association for Women in Architecture and Allied Arts. This name change helped support women in the fields of architecture, interior design, and engineering and artists of various principles.

By 1950, there were around twenty professional and student chapters across the United States. The association published a newsletter called Keystone and held a national annual convention. Because of the pressure, the organization precipitated to a re-organization, leading the national organization to dissolve in 1964. Though both student and professional chapters continued to operate as location organizations in universities and cities across the United States.

Association for Women in Architecture + Design
The Los Angeles chapter soon became the sole survivor of AWA, calling itself AWA-LA. In 1975, AWA-LA expanded its membership to include others interested in supporting women. This expansion in membership included men, thus the "of women" portion of the name was changed to "for women" to represent the introduction of men into the organization with the ideal to support women in the profession.

In 2012, AWA-LA changed its name to the Association for Women in Architecture + Design to support architects, contractors, interior designers, engineers, urban planners, designers, and artists in similar fields and students of these fields. The Association for Women in Architecture + Design is a not-for-profit organization.

The organization's archives are held at the University Libraries at Virginia Tech in the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA).

Collegiate chapters
The collegiate chapters of Alpha Alpha Gamma included:

Notable members

 * Georgia Louise Harris Brown, architect
 * Jeanine Centuori, architect
 * Rose Connor, architect
 * Wanda Dalla Costa, architect and professor
 * Katherine Diamond, architect
 * Elsa Leviseur, landscape architect
 * Eleanor Pepper, interior designer
 * Dimity Reed, architect and academic
 * Norma Sklarek, architect
 * Henrietta May Steinmesch, architect and association co-founder
 * Virginia Tanzmann, architect
 * Silja Tillner, architect
 * Liane Zimbler, architect