post-modern movement. At Yale, Ms. Birkby was one of six women enrolled in the department of architecture, among a student body of approximately 200 men. Ms. Birky would later say the gender gap compelled her to "rise above the female role" to prove she was as "good or better than the men." Ms. Birkby achieved a Masters of Architecture at Yale University in 1966, after completing a course of training and study, including her thesis on a physical education complex on Hofstra University. On September 16, 1968, Ms. Birkby earned an architecture license in New York state. From 1966 to 1972, she was worked for the firm of Davis Brody and Associates, (later renamed Davis Brody Bond), during which time she contributed architecture services to many notable projects, including a new residential high-rise neighborhood on the Hudson River in Manhattan called Waterside Plaza, a Library complex at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus; New York City urban renewal projects in the South Bronx; Amethyst House, a women's residence commissioned by Bayley Seton Hospital, in Staten Island; and a recreational facility at Hampshire College. Between 1968 and 1973, Ms. Birkby taught architectural design as a member of the faculty of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture to hundreds of students, only a small number of whom were women. By that time, Ms. Birkby was a recognized architect but felt her professional life was discordant with the rest of her life. In 1973, Ms. Birkby came out publicly, resigned from her job at Davis Brody Associates, and traveled to Bien Hoa, Vietnam, with the firm Dober, Paddock, Upton and Associates, to work on a reconstruction plan for Thu Duc Polytechnic University. Upon returning to New York, Ms. Birkby opened her own private practice and taught architectural design at Pratt Institute School of Architecture from 1974 to 1978, New York Institute of Technology, and City College of New York. In 1973, Ms. Birkby co-edited a collection of essays, "Amazon expedition: A lesbian feminist anthology," which included radical feminist essays by Ti-Grace Atkinson, Esther Newton, and Bertha Harris, and that same year, she edited a compilation of participant statements at the October 14th World Fellowship in Kerhonkson, New York, entitled "Dealing With the Real World: 13 Papers by Feminist Entrepreneurs." In the late 1970s, Ms. Birkby worked at the architectural offices of Gary Scherquist and Roland Tso in California, and she taught architecture