Brigitte Peterhans, undated. © SOM.
Not a Woman Architect: The Life and Work of Brigitte Peterhans, a book by author David Fleener, presents the life story of an extraordinary woman in the world of corporate architecture during the Mad Men era of the 1950s to 1980s. Born in a small village in Germany, Brigitte Peterhans managed to come to the US to study with Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and then to work with Bruce Graham at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Her work during this time reflected the midcentury modernism of Mies and SOM. Later in her career, both towards the end of her time at SOM and then on her own after retiring from SOM, she developed her own individual style.
Significantly, Peterhans avoided any attempt to be either challenged or praised strictly as a woman architect, insisting that she was merely an architect. Yet she overcame the challenges of being a woman architect, and her spirit and determination left a lasting impression on her young colleagues. Brigitte Peterhans’s story therefore has the merit to inspire many more up-and-coming architects, both women and men.
During this program, author David Fleener as well as Sibylle Schlaich and Mike Schlaich shared presentations about different aspects of Peterhans’s career. Remarks by Richard F. Tomlinson, II followed the presentations. A selection of items from the SOM archive related to the work of Brigitte Peterhans were on view.
This program was supported by the Chicago Architecture Center.
→ Not a Woman Architect: The Life and Work of Brigitte Peterhans (DOM Publishers, 2025).
A limited number of copies were available for purchase during the event.
