Don't tear down female architects

Denise Scott Brown in Las Vegas around 1966. She co-wrote the seminal book "Learning from Las Vegas."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor's note: Marika Shioiri-Clark is the principal of SOSHL Studio, an international design consultancy, based in Cleveland. John Cary is the founder of PublicInterestDesign.org, a website focused on design and social change based in Brooklyn, New York.

(CNN) -- An online campaign has started to right a 22-year-old wrong committed against legendary architect Denise Scott Brown. She and Robert Venturi, her partner and husband, have designed iconic buildings together for 40 years -- yet she was excluded when Venturi was awarded the highest honor in architecture in 1991, the Pritzker Prize.

The cause has created an unusual outcry across the architecture profession. Started by two young women active in the Women In Design club at Harvard University, the Change.org campaign has generated more than 11,000 signatures, nine of whom are Pritzker winners. It's a worthy cause, and reflects the dismissive attitude toward women in architecture even today.

Architect Zaha Hadid, one of only two women who have won the Pritzer Prize, stands in front of the Riverside Museum she designed for Glasgow, Scotland.

Endowed by the Pritzker Family, the $100,000 prize has twice been awarded to pairs of architects, both times at the request of the individual to whom the award was originally intended to go. With only one exception, however, female partners have consistently been overlooked. Just last year, Chinese architect Wang Shu was honored without his partner and wife, Lu Wenyu. Only two women have won the Pritzker Prize in its 34 year history.

Since 1991, Venturi has repeatedly insisted that Scott Brown was an equal collaborator and should share the honor with him. It's not a hard case to make: Scott Brown co-wrote the highly influential book "Learning from Las Vegas" in 1972, and has been widely known and appreciated in the field.

Scott Brown described Venturi as being "as brave as you could possibly expect him to be" in his support. Still, they decided "we could not afford to pass up the Pritzker Prize for the sake of our fledgling firm." She is calling for a ceremony to recognize her contributions to the firm's work, which includes the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery in London and the Vanna Venturi house.

Marika Shioiri-Clark

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Don't tear down female architects