Rebecca Barnes: You are today one of Boston's leading architects; it seems unnecessary to point out that you are also one of Boston's leading female professionals. But you started out in a time when women architects were a rarity. It must have been daunting. Whatever gave you the drive to pursue this field?
Joan Goody: My upbringing was a little unusual for someone of my generation. I was brought up in Brooklyn, the only child of an engineer-father who assumed I would be interested in how things were made and taught me accordingly. Even at a young age, I was designing houses. The elementary school I went to was "progressive" � for example, we didn't have home economics, we had shop.
A longer version of this interview appeared in the January/ February 2006 issue of ArchitectureBoston. This abbreviated version is reprinted with permission of the publisher, the Boston Society of Architects.
Federal Courthouse, Wheeling, West Virginia, by Goody Clancy.