Women in Design 2018 - 14
14
Dina Griffin
President
Interactive Design Architects, Chicago
In her Chicago South Side high school, Dina Griffin had to
choose between a home economics or an industrial education
course. A tomboy who wanted nothing to do with domestic
matters, she chose the latter, knowing there was a risk she'd have
to "get dirty" with carpentry, mechanics, or welding, she says.
Griffin was thrilled to learn the theme was architecture, a subject
that set her professional career in motion.
Before transferring to the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign, where she was eager to study architecture, Griffin
was faced with adversity at another school. She was sitting in her
engineering class during the first week as the only woman and
person of color when, in the midst of explaining requirements,
the teacher blurted out: "Dina, that doesn't apply to you. You have
to come up with a different major." She was shocked. "He had
nothing to gauge my success," she says, but the experience only
motivated her.
It was her professor, Arthur Kaha, who made a lasting,
positive impact on Griffin's college years. Surrounded by peers
who she thought drew a lot better than she could, and who had
more advanced visual communication skills in comparison to
hers, she announced she was going to transfer into engineering
or law. But Kaha told her to give the architecture program
more time before walking away. "He said, 'Let us focus on your
weaknesses and you focus on your strengths,'" she recalls.
Today, Griffin is president of Chicago firm Interactive Design
Architects (IDEA), a position she's held since 1999. The prolific
practice has worked on a number of historic, cultural, federal,
educational, and library projects-one of the most significant
being the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, designed
in partnership with Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Completed
in 2009, it was part of what put IDEA in the spotlight for
collaborating on larger, civic-minded buildings.
One such notable partnership is the Barack Obama
Presidential Center, slated to open in late 2021, for which IDEA is
working as associate architect to New York-based Tod Williams
Billie Tsien Architects. "Having this center located on the South
Side fuels Obama's legacy," Griffin says. "It aims to educate
and train future global leaders, to connect, engage, and make a
difference in their communities."
Another forthcoming project that personally resonates with
Griffin is the new 8,200-square-foot home of the Bruce D. Nesbitt
African American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign-where Griffin, thankfully, once had the
gumption to stick with architecture.
The Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, a
collaboration with Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Women in Design 2018
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Women in Design 2018
Contents
Women in Design 2018 - Intro
Women in Design 2018 - Cover1
Women in Design 2018 - Cover2
Women in Design 2018 - Contents
Women in Design 2018 - 2
Women in Design 2018 - 3
Women in Design 2018 - 4
Women in Design 2018 - 5
Women in Design 2018 - 6
Women in Design 2018 - 7
Women in Design 2018 - 8
Women in Design 2018 - 9
Women in Design 2018 - 10
Women in Design 2018 - 11
Women in Design 2018 - 12
Women in Design 2018 - 13
Women in Design 2018 - 14
Women in Design 2018 - 15
Women in Design 2018 - 16
Women in Design 2018 - 17
Women in Design 2018 - 18
Women in Design 2018 - 19
Women in Design 2018 - 20
Women in Design 2018 - 21
Women in Design 2018 - 22
Women in Design 2018 - 23
Women in Design 2018 - 24
Women in Design 2018 - 25
Women in Design 2018 - 26
Women in Design 2018 - 27
Women in Design 2018 - 28
Women in Design 2018 - 29
Women in Design 2018 - 30
Women in Design 2018 - 31
Women in Design 2018 - 32
Women in Design 2018 - Cover3
Women in Design 2018 - Cover4
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