Noel Phyllis Birkby (December 6, 1932 – April 13, 1994[1]) was an American architect, feminist, filmmaker, teacher, and founder of the Women's School of Planning and Architecture.

[7] 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 East 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.

[16] Birkby described her methods of teaching in terms of "environmental activism" or the integration of environmentalism and architecture in a manner in which she learned at Yale University from Professor Serge Chermayeff, the author of several books, including Community and Privacy with Christopher Alexander (1964) and The Shape of Community with Alexander Tzonis (1971).

Birkby taught her students practical techniques, such as a "bug listing" to denote the frustrating aspects of an environment, and also conceptual strategies like fantasy projection to encourage a thorough investigation into the social implications of form and design.

[18] However, eventually she and Sidney Abbott, Kate Millett, Alma Routsong, and Artemis March were among the members of CR One, the first lesbian-feminist consciousness-raising group.

[20] Birkby also began documenting the women's movement in film, photography, oral history, and collected posters, manifestos, clippings, and memorabilia.

In 1973, Birkby began to explore feminist theory in the context of contemporary architecture and teaching practices, and for example, she led a series of "environmental fantasy" workshops throughout the country, and Europe, to encourage women to imagine "their ideal living environment by abandoning all constraints and preconceptions."

In a 1981 article for Ms. Magazine, Birky wrote, "I am troubled that no matter how much rhetoric is expounded about equal rights and the full humanity of women, if the physical world we build does not reflect this, we speak in empty phrases.

In 1974, The New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable published the American Institute of Architects (AIA)'s "appalling" statistics on national membership: 24,000 men and 300 women.

By then, Birkby had become active in the feminist movement, defining herself as a lesbian, and joined "CR One," a Consciousness raising group composed of dynamic and radical theorists and writers, such as Kate Millett, Sidney Abbott, Barbara Love and Alma Routsong.

A firebrand advocate, Edelman challenged the 1974 AIA national convention with the objectionable fact that women had only represented 1.2 percent of American registered architects.

"[27] Founded in 1974, the Women's School of Planning and Architecture (WSPA) was established as a private, non-profit corporation, to provide an alternative, active learning experiences for women in the environmental and design fields, including architecture, planning, urban design, housing, neighborhood development, and construction, and co-founders Katrin Adam, Noel Phyllis Birkby, Ellen Perry Berkeley, Bobbie Sue Hood, Marie Kennedy, Joan Forrester Sprague, and Leslie Kanes Weisman endeavored to organize women to focus on "shared common goals and interest not being met within the existing professional contexts."

Birkby described WSPA in the essay entitled "Herspace" (1981), published in the Heresies issue "Making Room: Women and Architecture.

Charlotte Bunch and Sandra Pollack (Trumansburg, New York: The Crossing Press), authored by Leslie Kanes Weisman, describes the Women's School of Planning and Architecture as an ideal product of its time for "the consciousness-raising task of defining problems.

A memorial and exhibit of her work was organized by OLGAD members and held at Kate Millett's loft in New York City, attended by most of the seminal East Coast lesbian feminists.

The films also documented Birkby's architecture, personal life, and travel, are included in her collections at Smith College.

[34] While living in New York in the 1950s and 1960s, Birkby had relationships with various artists and writers, including Yvonne Jacquette, Bertha Harris, Alberta Ming-Chi Wang, Louise Fishman, and Frederica Leser.