16 Facts About Beverly Willis

Beverly Willis was an American architect who played a major role in the development of many architectural concepts and practices that influenced the design of American cities and architecture.

Beverly Willis was a co-founder of the National Building Museum, in Washington, DC, and founder of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, a non-profit organization working to change the culture for women in the building industry through research and education.

Beverly Willis was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, daughter of Margaret Elizabeth Porter, a nurse, and Ralph William Willis, an oil industry entrepreneur and an agriculturalist.

Beverly Willis then moved with her mother, now divorced, to Portland, Oregon, where Beverly Willis graduated from high school.

Beverly Willis studied engineering at Oregon State University from 1946 to 1948.

In Charlot's studio, Beverly Willis was introduced to the geometric and organic connections between art and nature, analyzing plants, buds, and flowers to discover nature's intrinsic geometry.

In 1956, Beverly Willis pioneered a technique for sand cast mural panels, including a panel used in the Shell Bar at the Royal Hawaiian Hilton.

The Shell Bar, designed by Beverly Willis, became a backdrop in the television series Hawaiian Eye.

In 1958, Beverly Willis opened a design office in San Francisco, California.

Beverly Willis's innovations were based on extensive research and the resulting architectural designs were developed from specific, often new, building functions, giving each building an individualized appearance.

In 1995, Beverly Willis founded the Architecture Research Institute to study the future development of global cities.

Beverly Willis' architecture is rooted in a humanistic design approach that is reflected in the individualistic, functional plans of her buildings.

Beverly Willis' work extends from the belief that design can influence human behavior and that the spatial concepts of form, function, proportion, texture, and color visually communicate with the senses.

Beverly Willis was the first woman to be president of the California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1979.

Beverly Willis died of complications from Parkinson's disease at her home in Branford, Connecticut, on October 1,2023, at the age of 95.

In 1995, Beverly Willis created the Architecture Research Institute as a think-tank to develop and advocate urban policies through interdisciplinary partnerships between academics, governments, corporations and the public.