Carol Ross Barney

Carol Ross Barney, FAIA, has been in the forefront of civic design since founding Ross Barney Architects in 1981. Her career as an architect, urbanist, mentor, and educator, has relentlessly advocated that excellent design is a right, not a privilege. Carol’s projects vary in type and scale, but are deeply committed to the role architecture plays in life quality, including projects that enrich the metropolitan experience; to buildings that show their sustainability in an overtly compelling way; to spaces that inspire young children. She served as a volunteer in the U.S. Peace Corps, planning national parks in Costa Rica. She teaches an advanced Design Studio at IIT and serves on their Board of Overseers. Carol’s work has been honored with over 100 major design awards, including six national AIA Institute Honor Awards, over 40 AIA Chicago Awards, two AIA (COTE) Top Ten Project Awards, and the AIA Chicago Lifetime Achievement Award, AIA Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture and the AIA Illinois Gold Medal. She was named a “Gamechanger” by Metropolis magazine in 2018. Carol has been working along Chicago’s Rivers including the design of the Chicago Riverwalk and studies on all one-hundred-and-fifty-miles of riverfront across the city. Notable projects include the McDonalds’ Chicago Flagship, CTA Cermak-McCormick Place Station, JRC Synagogue, UMD Swenson Civil Engineering Building, and the Oklahoma City Federal Building.