These Are the Women Who Changed Modern Architecture
The authors of a new volume take a permanent marker to architecture’s male-dominated history books, boldly underscoring the profound achievements of more than 100 women.
The authors of a new volume take a permanent marker to architecture’s male-dominated history books, boldly underscoring the profound achievements of more than 100 women.
Even before editor and historian Jan Cigliano Hartman began studying the history of architecture in the 1970s, she was well aware of the stark imbalance in printed knowledge between women and men architects. Forty years later and things still hadn’t changed.
"I was Googling general architectural subjects—architects under 40; architects at 80; architecture’s top award winners—and I found that 95 percent or more of the names that came up were men," explains Hartman. "Yet, I knew of plenty of influential work by women. I also knew that many of their stories were buried under the weight of their dominant and more prominent male peers."
The Women Who Changed Architecture documents the triumphs and challenges of female architects, and their impact on the built environment. It features essays and biographies by Jan Cigliano Hartman, Beverly Willis, and Amale Andraos, and is published by Princeton Architectural Press.
Courtesy of Princeton Architectural Press
It became clear the issue wasn’t going to disappear on its own, so she decided to do something about it. Hartman and Amale Andraos, a New York designer and former dean at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, are the authors of new book The Women Who Changed Architecture, a collective biography highlighting 122 architects from 28 countries whose works have significantly influenced the trajectory of the built environment. Some names herein will be familiar—Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand, Florence Knoll, and Zaha Hadid. But many more had gone largely unrecognized despite their impressive achievements and contributions.
"This book will bring female architects into the central narrative," Hartman says. "Students will now hear about Lilly Reich’s pivotal role in the design of Mies van der Rohe’s world-renowned chairs and Barcelona Pavilion, and Anne Tyng’s hand in the interior design of Louis Kahn’s Yale University Art Gallery and Design Center. And what about the many female associates of Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio? They are unsung heroes."
Read on for a sampling of the many works Hartman brings to light, or grab your own copy of the new volume that sets the record straight on the history of modern architecture.
Julie Snow
Julie Snow was born in Minnesota in 1948 and realized her passion for architecture while attending the University of Colorado. In 1989, she founded James Snow Architects with Vincent James, and, in 1995, opened her own firm, Julie Snow Architects. "I would pursue projects that had some visionary leader at the helm," she says. "If you had a vision, if you had an idea of what architecture needed to do, then I would make it happen." In 2014, Snow named firm-veteran Matthew Kreilich as coprincipal, and the firm became Snow Kreilich Architects. Today, about half of Snow Kreilich’s employees are women or minorities.
Weekend House, Schroeder, MN, 2009. © Corey Gaffer
Judith Chafee
Judith Chafee’s family home—an adobe house in Tucson—became the inspiration for her career. Most of Chafee’s designs were residential, although she won an award for a hospital design in 1959 while studying at Yale University where she was the only woman in her class. Because the award ceremony was held in a men’s club, she had to enter through the kitchen. After completing her education, Chafee practiced for a decade in the Northeastern U.S. with such preeminent modernists as Walter Gropius, Sarah Harkness, Eero Saarinen, and Paul Rudolph. She started her own private practice in Arizona in 1970, and her work combined an interest in Sonoran desert landscapes and endemic materials with a strong sense of place and the use of light. Chafee never secured major public commissions during her career, which scholars speculate was due to a perception of her as obstinate. In other words, some gender bias was likely at play.
Ramada House, Tuscon, AZ, 1975. Photograph by Bill Timmerman
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