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Cynthia Weese
Cofounder and principal, Weese Langley Weese, Chicago, Ill.

*1 p.m., May 10
Arkansas Union Ballroom

Cynthia Weese is a founding partner of Weese Langley Weese of Chicago and served as dean of the School of Architecture at Washington University from 1993 - 2005. After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from Washington University in St. Louis in the mid-60s, she opened a solo practice in a three-story townhouse near the north side of Chicago. Many of her early projects involved the restoration of homes in that neighborhood. She later joined a group of architects known as the "Chicago 7" who opposed the glass and steel, "less is more" ethos of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Weese was  a founding member of Chicago Women in Architecture and a founding member and former president of the Chicago Architectural Club. She worked at her brother-in-law's firm, Harry Weese and Associates, before forming Weese Langley Weese with her husband Ben in 1977. The couple's son Daniel is an associate in their firm. Weese Langley Weese works primarily with institutional and non-profit organizations on a wide variety of project types and sizes, including both new construction and adaptive reuse. Cynthia Weese's major projects include the F.W. Olin Classroom Building, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa; Art Institute of Chicago Kraft General Foods Education Center; Chicago City Day School, Chicago, Illinois; and numerous projects for A New Leaf flower store in Chicago.

As Dean of the School of Architecture at Washington University, she oversaw the development of the school's Sam Fox Arts Center. She has been active in the AIA at both local and national levels and has served on mayoral advisory committees in St. Louis and Chicago. She has also been a board member of the American Architectural Foundation, the Society of Architectural Historians and the National Institute of Architectural Education. Cynthia Weese has received numerous design awards, the AIA Illinois Excellence in Education Award and the Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal for Excellence in Architecture. Her teaching experience includes appointments at Miami University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Iowa State University, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Weese serves on the visiting committee of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture and is a member of Harvard Design Magazine's review board. She lectures widely nationally and internationally.