In 1996, Lyudmila Bakayutova, Director of the St. Petersburg office of FAF, convened a small group of women architects in St. Petersburg to gather ideas for a current project. The women found their cooperation and networking so useful that they decided to continue to meet and to formalize their group as an officially registered organization with the Russian Government. Since that time, the Women Architects Circle (WAC) has met 2-3 times per month at the FAF offices in St. Petersburg, bringing in outside experts to discuss issues relevant to running an architecture business, developing collaborative relationships with counterparts in Finland and elsewhere in Europe, working together on design projects, and generally providing support to one another in a field that has not traditionally been well-represented by women.

In the fall of 2000, FAF brought six of these talented architects to the United States for a program of training and professional exchanges. The purpose of the American study tour was to help the six St. Petersburg women develop their leadership skills in order to build a professional association of women in the arts similar to the "Chicago Women in Architecture", a group that they met with and can relate to in the future as a sister organization. They will enlarge their current group to form a new association called Women in the Arts Business Council (WABC).

The architects concluded a successful and useful meeting at the General Services Administration in Washington, DC

The women architects participated in an intensive two-day training program in association management at the American Institute of Architects. They met with leading private architecture firms and restorers in Washington, D.C., New York, and Chicago. They visited agencies such as the General Services Administration to learn about the U.S. Government’s policies for the preservation and use of its historic architecture.During these meetings, the six program participants also began to make plans for a follow-up visit by their American counterparts to St. Petersburg for a continued exchange on the adaptation of historic buildings to new uses. A June 2001 workshop has been planned.

The WABC will initially offer business and leadership training, develop a newsletter, and look at evolving ways for professional women to assume a larger role in the economic and cultural life of the city. The women have been hard at work since their return to St. Petersburg, and have begun to share what they learned on their trip with the other members of their association.

The three-week study program was funded by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Hillsdale Fund, and the Chauncey and Marion Deering McCormick Foundation.