The Story of Architect Barbie and Why She Matters

When UB’s Kelly Hayes McAlonie and Despina Stratigakos collaborated with Mattel in 2011 to create and launch Architect Barbie, they had no idea the architecture debates the doll would provoke. Barbie became a lightning rod for a needed conversation about the status of women in the profession. Twelve years later, Architect Barbie has a cameo role in the Barbie movie, the cultural phenomenon that has the world talking about women and power. Kelly and Despina reflect on the history of Architect Barbie, the status of women in architecture, and where we go from here.

About Kelly Hayes McAlonie and Despina Stratigakos
Kelly Hayes McAlonie, FAIA, LEED AP is the Director of Campus Planning at the University at Buffalo. Her work involves overseeing the implementation of the university’s Comprehensive Master Plan and the strategic planning for UB’s three campus environments. Kelly has dedicated her career to educational architecture and educating the public. In 2011, Kelly and colleague Despina Stratigakos collaborated with Mattel on the design and launch of Barbie I Can Be…Architect. She has spent the past 20 years researching the life and career of Louise Blanchard Bethune, FAIA, the first professional woman architect. Kelly has written and presented widely on her and recently released her biography, Louise Blanchard Bethune, Every Woman Her Own Architect.

Kelly has also been very active in the American Institute of Architects, serving as the 2008 President of AIA Buffalo/WNY, the 2012 President of AIANYS, and the 2016-2019 Regional Representative of the AIA National Strategic Council. She is currently serving a three-year term on the National Architectural Accrediting Board, as Treasurer. She also serves on the Steering Committee for the Trailblazing Women of Western New York, an initiative of the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women to place monuments to women in our public realm.

Despina Stratigakos is a writer, historian, and professor. Her research explores how power and ideology function in architecture, whether in the creation of domestic spaces or of world empires. She is the author of four books. Hitler’s Northern Utopia: Building the New Order in Occupied Norway (2020), winner of the Society of Architectural Historians 2022 Spiro Kostof Book Prize, examines how Nazi architects and planners envisioned and began to construct a model “Aryan” society in Norway during World War II. Where Are the Women Architects? (2016), confronts the challenges women face in the architectural profession. Hitler at Home (2015) investigates the architectural and ideological construction of the Führer’s domesticity. A Women’s Berlin: Building the Modern City (2008), which traces the history of a forgotten female metropolis, won the 2009 German Studies Association DAAD Book Prize. Stratigakos has served as UB Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence and on the Board of Directors of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House, Society of Architectural Historians, International Archive of Women in Architecture, and Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. She also participated on Buffalo’s municipal task force for Diversity in Architecture and was a founding member of the Architecture and Design Academy, an initiative of the Buffalo Public Schools to encourage design literacy and academic excellence. She received her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College and taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan before joining the Department of Architecture at the University at Buffalo. During the 2016-17 academic year, she was in residence as a member of the Institute for Advance Study in Princeton.