What does it take to make an icon? A sold-out crowd gathered at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, WI the evening of Thursday, July 17, 2025, to hear the answer. As part of its summer Speaker Series, the Yerkes Future Foundation hosted Jeanne Gang, MacArthur Fellow and award-winning architect, to talk about her work as one of the most influential architects in America today—which includes her work designing the Women’s Leadership Center at Williams Bay, currently under construction nearby.
“I feel so lucky being able to design that space,” said Gang. “It’s a building that will make a difference and a chance to create a place that really encourages ideas and fellowship and connection.”
Joining Gang on the stage was Ann M. Drake, President and Chair of the Women’s Leadership Center and the force behind its creation. Dennis Kois, Executive Director of the Yerkes Future Foundation, moderated the conversation.
The mission of the speaker series is to celebrate people “at the confluence of culture, art, and science,” according to the Yerkes Future Foundation. Called “the birthplace of astrophysics,” the observatory was a world leader in astronomical research at the beginning at the 20th century. The world’s largest refracting telescope was installed there in 1897 shortly after the observatory opened, and over the years notable astronomers such as Edwin Hubble, Nancy Grace Roman, Carl Sagan, and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar all worked at Yerkes. Even Einstein visited.
After years of dwindling use, though, the observatory closed in 2018. Since then both the building and the surrounding area have been transforming into a cultural campus committed to preserving and advancing the traditions of discovery, creativity, and natural beauty woven into the history of Williams Bay. From the late 1800s on, the community has been home to numerous camps dedicated to spiritual and physical renewal. One of those eventually became George Williams College, an institution of higher learning for young people studying to be human service professionals.
It was that tradition of service for positive change that inspired Drake to found the Women’s Leadership Center there, on law that had originally belonged to the Yerkes Observatory.
“I was at a point in my life when I wanted to take all the lessons I’d learned and resources I had and put them into supporting more women leaders to make a better world in more places,” Drake told the audience. “When I walked out on this property on the lake right in front of Yerkes, I said, ‘This is the place. I’m going to build a women’s leadership center here.’”
After years of planning and effort, the Center is scheduled to open in 2026.
Of their working partnership, Gang underlined that she and Drake shared a similar vision and values from Day One in designing the Center. Their priority was creating spaces that would encourage ideas and fellowship and connection among women leaders, but done in a way that would always honor the beauty of the site, and do it sustainably—with deep respect for and wise use of its natural resources.
Gang and the urban design firm she founded—Studio Gang—are known for drawing inspiration from ecological systems and for creating structures that connect people with their environment and each other. “I always say, ‘Start with what’s there,’ Gang told the audience, and Studio Gang’s designs for the Center do reflect themes from the surrounding woods, waters, and natural features of the property carved by glaciers eons ago.
The Center plans to offer tours of its iconic buildings and grounds once construction is complete. “We’re looking forward to sharing our incredible architecture and design with the community and others who will come to see it, because we think this is a special area,” said Drake. Gang agreed. “I really wish this place existed when I was growing up,” she said.