What style building do you live in? Is it a skyscraper, a Victorian home, or a modern building? In Architecture: Cool Women Who Design Structures, readers ages 9 to 12 examine the stories of women who are today designing the houses, schools, museums, and public spaces where we spend our time.
Architecture is the planning, designing, and construction of buildings and other structures. It's architects who figure out what style of building fits best in a certain space, what the structure should look like, how it needs to be built to withstand the environment, and what materials best suit the needs of the people who are using the structure. Art, engineering, science, technology-architecture involves all these disciplines, and more!
Architecture: Cool Women Who Design Structures examines the history of architecture and the journey of three women who are working as architects today. Patricia Galván works in commercial and interior architecture and is the chairwoman for the American Institute of Architects' Women in Architecture committee. Farida Abu-Bakare was born in Qatar and raised in Canada. Today, she is an architect who designs science labs for universities and other institutions. Maia Small works as an architect and urban designer at the City of San Francisco Planning Department. She has also taught architecture at Harvard University, Rhode Island School of Design, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Sidebars on important female architects throughout history, quotes, and essential questions for readers are included throughout the text in order to encourage critical thinking and self-drawn conclusions. The book also includes a timeline, glossary, and further resources for readers to further investigate the topic.

Are you creative? Do you like solving problems? Architecture combines art and science - not only do you have to understand physics and engineering, but you get to design beautiful buildings. Or bridges... While the young women agree that the jobs they do are fun and challenging, they say that they are treated differently than men in the same position. They tend to be cut off when talking, or their proposals may not be taken seriously by their male colleagues. Still, they can't think of more fulfilling work. Their advice: study hard and try to get a mentor when you head into the working world.

. Introduction: Building Our World

. Chapter One: A History of Architecture

. Chapter Two: Patricia Galván

. Chapter Three: Farida Abu-Bakare

. Chapter Four: Maia Small

. Timeline

. Essential Questions

. Glossary

. Resources

. Index