Better late...

London-based, Baghdad-born Zaha Hadid has three F words working against her as an architect: she's female, she's a foreigner, and the buildings she designs are fantastical. All of which for many years trapped Hadid beneath architecture's glass ceiling, the big emblematic projects she put in for going to the head boys of the profession. But Hadid, 52, now employs more than 40 architects in her studio in a converted London school, and none has time to doodle: she has projects underway in Germany, Spain, Italy, the United States, Abu Dhabi, Singapore ...

Surrounded by young men in T...