Phyllis Birkby (1932–1994) was an architect, co-founder of the Women’s School of Planning and Architecture, and a key member of the 1970s and ’80s lesbian feminist movement. In 1973, she initiated a groundbreaking research project, asking women and members of her lesbian community to break with patriarchal norms of design and draw their “fantasy environments”—the imaginative homes, shared spaces, and cities they’d like to inhabit. In her professional practice, she was not only a...
