The AIA Women’s Leadership Summit (WLS) returned to its birthplace in Boston last week and PAYETTE hosted one of a dozen Happy Hours held at various architectural firms around the city. As the professional home of the late Sho-Ping Chin, FAIA, and a founder of WLS, we were especially excited to welcome the conference attendees to our design studio.
© Photography by Jonah Prada, PAYETTE
Over 60 individuals came to our office to enjoy good food and a lively atmosphere. One of the evening’s special moments was recognizing all of the WLS co-founders. Sho-Ping Chin (represented by her sister Annping Chin), Carole Wedge, Carol Burns, Jeanne Lukenda, Heather Taylor and Leila Kamal were recognized for taking the BSA’s Women Principals Group national in 2009. Sho-Ping would have been thrilled that the conference has expanded from 150 individuals the first year to over 1000 attendees today.
Several of the recipients of the Sho-Ping Scholarship were in attendance and spoke about the profound impact that WLS had on their individual professional and leadership journeys.
The 2025 OpenLAB Boston studio work will be exhibited at Virginia Tech Monday, March 2nd through Wednesday, March 4th.
Please join us for the following events on Monday, March 2nd:
11:00am - Lecture with Parke MacDowell
1:00pm Lobby talk with Kevin Sullivan
This year’s studio identifies seven sites along the frayed edges of Boston’s Greenway. The Greenway is a one-mile-long linear park running through the heart of the city, reconnecting downtown Boston with its waterfront. Many of the parcels along its edges remain undeveloped and present mute, blank facades to the public realm. Addressing and repairing these edges through acts of infilling, layering, grafting, framing, and placemaking is the core focus of the studio—SUTURE.