Girls Build! Day 2025 event program
Saturday, September 6, 2025
10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Chicago Architecture Center
111 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago
Saturday, September 6, 2025
10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Chicago Architecture Center
111 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago
Girls Build! Day is the CAC’s annual festival celebrating girls as design leaders. This free event showcases the civic power of architecture, construction, engineering and design, through hands-on activities, walking tours, panel discussion and engagement with professionals. The theme of Girls Build! Day is Design Our Future, highlighting the role of the built environment in shaping our social, cultural and economic lives, and the civic responsibility of design professionals.
View activity stations
WHERE ARE THE WOMEN?
Data tells us that women are entering college and graduating with degrees in architecture, engineering and urban planning at nearly the same pace as their male counterparts—but their presence in these fields greatly declines a few years into their careers.
In fact, only 1 in 4 of all working architects and designers in the U.S. is a woman, and only 3 in 20 licensed American Institute of Architects (AIA) members are women.
At the CAC, we recognize the factors that can affect these numbers and we’re committed to introducing girls to architecture and design at an early age, to help close the gender gap.
The partner organizations you will engage with during Girls Build! Day are committed to educating and empowering students like you. Programs like Girls Build! are important to not only give girls opportunities to build design skills, but to also help them gain the confidence to find a seat at the table in their chosen professions.
Angela Esposito CAC Vice President of Learning
Today's Activity Stations
- CAC Walking Tours
Sign-up is required for walking tours, please inquire at the Walking Tours station.
- Brainstorm to model floating eco-park designs using Legos. (with Urban Rivers)
- Engineer a marble roller coaster. (with Turner Construction)
- Shake table and hands-on activities to demonstrate structural soundness. (with Structural Engineers Association of Illinois)
- Electrical activity. Learn to read and draw blueprints and electrical mockup. (with Professional Women in Construction Chicago)
- Constructing bird houses. (with Orren Pickell Building Group)
- Design your dream house. (with JGMA)
- Discover the world of beavers. (with the Illinois Master Naturalist program)
- Design your own facade. (with Goettsch Partners Women's Group)
- Future Facades. Use custom rubber stamps to design a house with your own mix of materials, plants, and creative elements! (with Future Firm)
- Start Making a Scene. Bring your imagination to life through quick design exercises that explore placemaking and intentional design. (with Bit Space + MKSK)
- Build a pavilion model. Learn about pavilions, then design your own model using chipboard, colorful paper, and tape. (with AIA Chicago)
- LEGO design challenges.
Support
All Girls Build! programs are free for families, as the CAC strives to represent the diversity of Chicago through everything we do. Donate today to cover some or all of a program fee.
CAC's Girls Build! is a part of the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Youth Learning Programs.
Thank you to today's partners
AIA Chicago fosters design excellence and champions members by celebrating impact, promoting learning, and advocating for an equitable, sustainable, and thriving architectural community and the places it shapes.
Bit Space is Chicago's premier youth maker lab, specializing in bringing kids' ideas to life. We offer engaging programs, where young minds can explore the worlds of design and fabrication.
- Join us for our annual community fort building project at the Ravenswood Art Walk September 13th and 14th.
Future Firm is an ideas-driven building and design research practice. We are architects for changemakers.
The Goettsch Partners Women's Group was founded in 2019 with the mission of creating a community for the women architects at GP and connecting with the larger community of women leaders in the industry. The group aims to support the women within the office as they progress through their careers and to increase the number of women in the profession. We are very grateful to our male colleagues for their support and recognize that it takes everyone to create an equitable workplace.
Illinois Extension - Master Naturalist Program The Illinois Master Naturalist program educates and trains volunteers who support the conservation, management, and interpretation of Cook County's natural resources through stewardship, community science, and nature-based education.
- Fridays in the Field at Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center - September 12th from 10am to Noon. Hummingbird Migration Program
JGMA is a progressive architecture and design practice committed to active community involvement and the enrichment of peoples’ lives through the attentive and dynamic organization of space and materiality. We understand that quality design has a unique ability to influence civic life and transform communities.
Orren Pickell Building Group We Design, Build, Remodel and Maintain Award-Winning Luxury Custom Homes in the Chicagoland area, Southern Wisconsin, and Harbor Country Michigan.
Professional Women in Construction Chicago. We support, advance, and connect women and promote diversity within the architecture, engineering, construction and related industries.
Structural Engineers Association of Illinois Professional membership organization championing excellence for structural engineers in Illinois.
Turner Construction Our vision is to be the highest value provider of global construction services and technical expertise. We plan and deliver building projects of all types and sizes—schools and hospitals, stadiums and museums, airports, data centers, offices and more—throughout North America and in 30 countries around the world.
Urban Rivers transforms urban waterways into wildlife sanctuaries, creating new and meaningful ways for citydwellers of all backgrounds to connect with nature.
- Wild Mile Workshops! Every Thursday evening in September, 6pm - 8pm.
AIA Chicago
Bit Space + MKSK
Future Firm
Goettsch Partners Women's Group
Illinois Master Naturalist
JGMA
Learn More >Orren Pickell Building Group
Professional Women in Construction – Chicago Chapter
Structural Engineers Association of Illinois
Turner Construction
Urban Rivers
Enjoyed Girls Build! Day? Here's what's coming up at the CAC, join us!
Upcoming Youth & Teen programs
Youth, Family and Educator programs are announced throughout the year. Sign up for our newsletter to be first to hear.
About our keynote speaker
2024 AIA President, Kimberly N. Dowdell, AIA, NOMAC, is a licensed architect and speaker on leadership, diversity and urban futures. As a former president of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), she boosted opportunities for women and people of color in building professions and raised NOMA’s profile. Kimberly’s mission is to improve people’s lives, by design.
