A short article by Aaron Betsky entitled “Death of the Stararchitect” published by Designer popped up in my inbox last month. Betsky was not sure if this death was an advantage. If it holds true that “starchitecture” has died, I would respond by saying, “About time!”
As a female designer who started operating in the late 1990s, I discovered this cult of male genius infuriating. The design and coordination of big jobs is extremely intricate, and to not acknowledge the long hours (for little pay) put in by the personnel is elitist and wrong. It is particularly incorrect in 2026, when the expense of education and housing have actually escalated while architecture salaries have not. National treasure Denise Scott-Brown really put it finest in a 1989 essay in the book Architecture: A Location for Women, “The galaxy, which sees the firm as a pyramid with a designer on top, has little to do with today’s complicated relations in architecture and building. But, as sexism specifies me as a scribe, typist, and photographer to my spouse, so the galaxy specifies our partners as ‘second bananas’ and our staff as pencils.”
Two years after her words were released, the Pritzker Prize, for now architecture’s most prominent award, was offered to her male partner at Venturi Scott Brown Associates, Robert Venturi, but not to her. The much-maligned act clearly demonstrates that starchitecture– and architecture in general– was a young boy’s club. In 2012, the Pritzker Prize was granted to Wang Shu, the male creator of Amateur Architecture but not his female cofounder Lu Wenyu. This once again showed us that ladies are unwanted. In fact, in 47 years of recognition, just one lady– Zaha Hadid– has ever won the award as a solo female architect.
Stararchitects ‚ and designers in general, have an awful history of exploiting employees. Wage theft was common practice in the 1990s, with interns and junior staff members expected to work well into the night free of charge. (At my office, we were likewise needed to prepare and serve starters at the personal parties of the founders in their home– overdue!) In addition, prestigious workplaces were infamous for paying salaries greatly below industry standards, which implied that just the rich could manage to operate in these workplaces. Wage theft does not simply affect the people operating in a particular office; it acts as a down pressure across the entire industry, decreasing earnings across the occupation. The imbalance between the expense of education versus expected wage is likely a contributing factor to the appallingly low varieties of minorities and people of color in architecture.