Hayden has made innovative contributions to the understanding of the social importance of urban space and to the history of the built environment in the United States.

She also studied at Cambridge University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design where she obtained her professional degree in architecture.

[3] Since 1973, Hayden has held academic appointments at MIT, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Yale.

She founded a Los Angeles-based non-profit arts and humanities group called The Power of Place which was active from 1984 to 1991.

Under her direction, collaborative projects on an African American midwife's homestead, a Latina garment workers' union headquarters, and Japanese-American flower fields engaged citizens, historians, artists, and designers in examining and commemorating the working lives of ordinary citizens.