Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture traces the life, work, and networks of lesbian feminist architect Phyllis Birkby (1932–1994), who inspired design professionals and the public to imagine a built environment beyond the confines of existing male-dominated forms. Inspired by the women’s movement and gay liberation, she joined one of the first lesbian feminist consciousness-raising groups, staged a feminist building occupation, and cofounded the Women’s School of Planning and Architecture. Her most groundbreaking intervention, however, was the series of workshops she began encouraging women to imagine and draw their “fantasy environments”—the home and community spaces they would like to inhabit. Fantasizing Design takes Birkby and her circle of friends, lovers, and collaborators as a lens on the broader ways feminists and lesbian feminists have worked to remake architectural practice, domestic space, and the broader built environment through rare archival materials from Birkby's extensive personal and professional archive at the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History at Smith College.

Stephen Vider is associate professor of history and codirector of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Bryn Mawr College. He was previously associate professor of history and founding director of the Public History Initiative at Cornell University. His first book, The Queerness of Home: Gender, Sexuality, and the Politics of Domesticity (University of Chicago Press, 2021), received honorable mention for the American Studies Association’s 2022 John Hope Franklin Prize for best book in American studies and was one of six finalists for the Huntington Library’s 2023 Shapiro Prize for outstanding first scholarly monograph in American history. In 2017, he curated the exhibition AIDS at Home: Art and Everyday Activism for the Museum of the City of New York. He was also cocurator of the exhibition Gay Gotham: Art and Underground Culture in New York (Museum of the City of New York, 2016–17) and coauthor of the accompanying book. Vider is cocurator for the exhibition.

M.C. Overholt is a PhD candidate in the history and theory of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design and a graduate of the Master of Environmental Design (MED) program at Yale University School of Architecture. Her scholarly work—which can be found in venues including Public Culture, Platform, and the forthcoming collection In the Daylight of our Existence: Architectural History and the Promise of Queer Theory(edited by S.E. Eisterer)—uses queer and feminist of color frameworks of analysis to reread interlocking histories of architecture and the sciences. She is a visiting assistant professor at the Pratt Institute and a coeditor for Perspecta 57, the oldest student-edited architectural journal in the United States. Overholt is cocurator for the exhibition.

Marissa Martonyi is a freelance graphic and exhibition designer and design director at the Museum of the City of New York. At the Museum of the City of New York, she has designed exhibitions including AIDS at Home: Art and Everyday Activism (2017); New York, New Music: 1980–1986 (2022); and Food in New York: Bigger than the Plate (2023). She was previously graphic designer and art director of the Wildlife Conservation Society and has taught courses in spatial graphics at Parsons School of Design. Martonyi is graphic and exhibition designer for Fantasizing Design.

Jesse Lazar has served as executive director of the Center for Architecture since September 2023. Prior to his appointment as executive director, Lazar served as deputy director and managed all fundraising and development activities for the Center for Architecture, along with the organization’s communications and marketing team and the Center for Architecture exhibitions, programs and education teams. Lazar holds an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Katie Mullen directs the Center for Architecture’s (CFA) curatorial work and exhibition production, including designer and vendor coordination. She also directs Archtober, engaging and managing the festival’s partners, running the marketing and public programs, and managing all logistical support staff. Exhibitions Mullen has directed include Cairo Modern, Reset: Towards a New Commons, and CFA Lab: Seeking Refuge and Making Home in NYC. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in urban studies from Vassar College. Mullen is manager of production and public programs for Fantasizing Design.

Meghan Edwards oversees the Center for Architecture’s network of websites, digital projects, social media, and email marketing. Previously, she was site editor at Interior Design magazine and has over a decade of experience in design journalism and digital media. Edwards earned a bachelor’s degree in the history of art and architecture from Brown University.

The Center for Architecture (CFA) is the leading cultural venue for architecture and the built environment in New York City, informed by the complexity of the city's urban fabric and in dialogue with the global community. CFA was founded in 1966 by, and shares a home with, the American Institute of Architects New York, and has the unique advantage of drawing upon the ideas and experiences of practicing architects and designers to produce thought-provoking exhibitions, informative public programs and quality design education experiences for K–12 students and families. CFA’s mission is to educate a broad audience about the built environment and the value of architectural and design practice in urban life. We engage professional and general audiences in contemporary and wide-ranging topics through a year-round calendar of free exhibitions, public programs, K–12 education programs, and special events, with the goal of making the world of architecture, art, and design accessible to all. CFA serves an annual audience of 70,000 in-person visitors, and offers an array of virtual exhibitions, education programs, and other online resources.