Studio Gang and Lincoln Road Enterprises Unveil Design for Women's Leadership Center

"Our design for the Women's Leadership Center responds to the natural beauty and ecology around it, including views to the surrounding oak savanna and nearby Geneva Lake. The roof design delivers light deep into the interior spaces like the gaps in the tree canopy," said Jeanne Gang, Founding Partner of Studio Gang. "The different spaces create unique opportunities for gathering, reflection, and experiencing nature." 

"I like to say, 'tomorrow starts here' because we believe the Center can be the place where conversations happen that change the world," said Ann Drake, Founder and Chair of the Women's Leadership Center and President and Founder of Lincoln Road Enterprises. "It's where women leaders will come to generate new insights, new possibilities, new learnings, and new perspectives on complex issues. By supporting talented women leaders to do that, I believe we will make a better future for everyone."

Located 90 miles from Chicago, Geneva Lake has long been a popular retreat for city-dwellers looking to connect with nature. The area also has an interesting history of scientific research and discovery, with the renowned Yerkes Observatory located just to the northwest of the Center's site. Responding to this natural and intellectual context, the Center will establish a new cultural campus and become part of the area's longstanding history as a place for communing with nature and groundbreaking ideas.

The architecture draws from the ecology of the site—a densely canopied oak forest—to create a refreshing and inspiring environment for sharing, problem-solving, dialogue, and supporting personal growth. The design's form and geometry merge with the organic elements of the site through gently curved spaces punctuated with large windows that offer views to the lake and forest, creating inviting areas for convening, dining, and quiet work. It also features skylit spaces that infuse the Center with additional natural light, mimicking the phenomenon known as "crown shyness," where gaps naturally form between tree canopies and allow sunlight to reach the forest floor. Materials and finishes, such as white oak wood harvested on-site and natural Wisconsin stone, reflect the tones and textures of the forest while reinforcing the buildings' visual lightness and warmth.

Situated on an 8.6-acre site on the edges of Geneva Lake, the Center is comprised of three buildings that host different scales of gathering while sharing a biodiverse landscape and network of accessible paths that encourage guests to interact with each other and the environment. The largest building, the Lodge, invites visitors to gather, dine, and socialize in its spacious multipurpose room and two outdoor terraces where they can come together under towering oak trees. The Council, the second largest building, features meeting rooms and conference spaces arrayed around a landscaped courtyard. Designed for smaller, more intimate gatherings, the Cabin offers accommodation for visiting experts.

The Center uses several strategies to minimize the building's operational and embodied carbon footprint as well as its impact on the environment around it. The design maintains as much of the site's natural topography as possible by preserving trees and maintaining existing drainage flows. The buildings promote passive cooling by being lifted above the ground at select points and sited to capture prevailing winds off the lake. Other sustainable design features include spaces that support cross-ventilation, materials sourced from the surrounding forest, and the use of mass timber and low-carbon concrete. The Center is targeting LEED Gold.

About Studio Gang
Founded and led by MacArthur Fellow Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang is an architecture and urban design practice based in Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and Paris. Driven by an ethos of "actionable idealism", the Studio uses an iterative, research-based design process to create places that build stronger relationships among people, communities, and the natural world.
Studio Gang's diverse portfolio ranges from cultural centers to strategic framework plans to high-rise towers. Notable among these are the reimagined Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock; the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, which the New York Times called "a poetic, joyful, theatrical work of public architecture."

In addition, Studio Gang is currently designing civic, cultural, and educational projects across Europe and the Americas, including the new United States Embassy in Brasília; a sustainability commons for Stanford University in Palo Alto; and an expansion of the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock.

Regularly named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Architecture Companies, Studio Gang has been internationally honored, published, and exhibited. Jeanne Gang's most recent book, The Art of Architectural Grafting, which provides a new framework for bringing new life to older structures, was released last year in both English and French editions.

About Lincoln Road Enterprises
Lincoln Road Enterprises is a transformative organization dedicated to elevating women's leadership by supporting new talent, improving systems, and encouraging bold ideas. To exponentially impact women's leadership and create a future in which women are at the forefront of advancing and improving the world we live in, Lincoln Road's initiatives foster women's contributions in public and private enterprise, global supply chain, engineering and technology, infrastructure and design, and space and astrophysics.

For more information: lincoln-road.com.

About the Women's Leadership Center at Williams Bay
Located on the stunning shores of Geneva Lake in southeastern Wisconsin, the Women's Leadership Center will convene leaders in a unique meeting place designed to foster high levels of creativity and collaboration, where accomplished women will come together to incubate fresh approaches to complex challenges. When it opens in 2026, the Center will be a place where conversations happen that could change the world.

For more information: womensleadershipcenter.org.

Media Contacts:

Jennifer Nix
EVP, Marketing, Communications and Strategy at Lincoln Road Enterprises
[email protected] 

Jill Mediatore
PR Manager, Studio Gang
[email protected]

SOURCE Lincoln Road Enterprises