Carol Ross Barney

Through her firm Ross Barney Architects, Carol has designed numerous projects for which she has received several accolades. In 2005, Carol was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Award from the AIA for her distinguished portfolio of public buildings. One of her most recent projects, the expansion of the Chicago Riverwalk, received over seven different awards, including the 2017 Blue Ribbon Award – Friends of the Chicago River. For this project, along with her extensive accomplishments, Carol was awarded the AIA Chicago Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.

In 2001, construction began for the new Oklahoma City Federal Building, with Barney chosen as the lead designer for the replacement building for the Oklahoma City Federal Building following the terrorist bombing in 1995. The new Oklahoma City Federal Building had the design objective to create a space that was secure but open to reflect the United States democracy.

In 1981, Barney started a solo practice in Chicago. Her college classmate, James Jankowski, FAIA, joined her from 1982-2005 and from 1984-2006 the firm was Ross Barney + Jankowski. Barney was awarded the 1983 Francis J. Plym Traveling Fellowship from the University of Illinois. The fellowship funded travel for research and allowed her to study the post war planning and rebuilding of European cities during 1983–84.

Following Peace Corps service, Barney joined Holabird and Root in Chicago and met her mentor, John A. Holabird, FAIA. The work there ranged from the 1979 AIA Institute Honor Award-winning restoration of the Chicago Public Library and Cultural Center to improvements for the Chicago Main Post Office.

Barney has combined her own teaching with practice in 1976, when she taught at the University of Illinois Chicago. Since 1994, she has been adjunct Professor of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology where she teaches a popular advanced design studio and serves on the College of Architecture Board of Overseers.

In 1973, Carol was a founding member of Chicago Women in Architecture (CWA) and served as CWA's first president. In 1988, while serving in the national AIA Women in Architecture Committee, she was advisor for two related AIA Exhibitions “That Exceptional One” and “Many More”, ground breaking explorations about women architects. CWA brought Barney together with Natalie deBlois, FAIA of Skidmore Owings and Merrill, who remained a close friend until Natalie's death in 2013.

Carol Ross Barney FAIA (born 1949) is an American architect and the founder and Design Principal of Ross Barney Architects. She is the 2023 winner of the AIA Gold Medal. She became the first woman to design a federal building when commissioned as architect for the Oklahoma City Federal Building, which replaced the bombed Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Ross Barney's other projects include the JRC Synagogue (LEED Platinum), James I Swenson Civil Engineering Building, (LEED Gold) the CTA Morgan Street Station, and the Chicago Riverwalk.

Carol Ross Barney was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 12, 1949. She began her education in the Chicago Public Schools. In 1958, her father, an accountant and management consultant, was relocated to Düsseldorf in the British sector of West Germany. Returning to the Chicago area for high school, Carol was educated at the all-girls Catholic school, Regina Dominican, in Wilmette. She enrolled in the Architecture program at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign receiving a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1971. She returned and completed her Master's of Architecture in 1984.