Phyllis Birkby was a lesbian feminist architect, educator, organizer, and more. A new exhibition at Center for Architecture in New York speaks to Birkby’s multihyphenate practice. Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture opened this week. It traces Birkby’s life, work, and networks, including her circle of friends, lovers, and collaborators; delving into how she remade architectural practice, domesticity, and the broader built environment. Stephen Vider and M.C. Overholt curated the show. Marissa Martonyi was the graphic designer, and Xiaoxiao Guo delivered the exhibition design. Curators credited Birkby with “pushing design professionals and the public to imagine a built environment beyond the confines of existing male-dominated forms.” Portrait of Birkby (Courtesy Center for Architecture) “Through tracing Birkby’s life, activism, and architectural work, the exhibition works to raise awareness about the 1970s lesbian feminist movement and its investment in reconceptualizing a more inclusive and just built environment,” Overholt said. “For architects today,” Overholt added, “Fantasizing Design offers Birkby’s idea of fantasy as an engine of design—one that continues to inspire creativity in the service of marginalized communities.” Birkby and friends (Courtesy Center for Architecture) Birkby helped stage feminist building occupations. She also cofounded the Women’s School of Planning and Architecture (WSPA), together with Katrin Adam, Ellen Perry Berkeley, and others. At the Women’s School, Birkby and her comrades hosted groundbreaking workshops that encouraged women to reimagine the spaces around them and draw their own “fantasy environments.” There were a total of five WSPA sessions between 1975 and 1981. They traveled to different colleges: St. Joseph’s College in Biddeford, Maine, (1975); Stephenson College in Santa Cruz, California, (1976); Roger Williams College in Bristol, Rhode Island, (1978); Regis College in Denver, Colorado, (1979); and a weekend symposium in Washington, D.C., in 1981. Archival drawings, videos, and installation art by LJ Roberts, Audrey Tseng de Melo Fischer, Chong Gu, and Marissa Martonyi delve into this history, as well as contemporary issues. Drawings by Birkby are on view (Courtesy Center for Architecture) “Birkby’s immense archive is a crucial lens on lesbian life and activism in the 1960s and 70s, at turns playful, moving, and deeply inspiring,” Vider said in a statement. “While her professional aspirations were often constrained by the limits placed on women in architecture, the spaces she designed and built speak to her desire to push past the limits of conventional architecture, placing the needs of women, queer people, the elderly, and people with disabilities at the center.” Birkby illustrated portrait (Courtesy Center for Architecture) Vider continued: “This was all informed, first and foremost, by her fantasy architecture project. At a moment of ongoing housing crisis and gentrification, Birkby’s work calls on all of us to reimagine how the spaces and places we call home can best serve the needs and dreams of our communities.” Fantasizing Design is open through September 2.