The women who changed architecture

Review by Choice Review

This volume charts the biographies and career trajectories of 121 women architects, starting in the 1850s, and presents examples of groundbreaking work. Women have expanded architecture as a field, weaving together new forms of working and engaging with different populations, media, and sites. But though women have been working as architects for more than 100 years, they have been absent when it comes to awards and industry accolades. Traditionally, women architects were relegated to drafting in large architecture firms or designing interiors, kitchens, public housing, and landscapes and gardens. The book traces some of the shifting frames of this struggle over many generations. These women designed large bold projects and lived long, productive, and complex lives. Just like their male colleagues, they taught and wrote and engaged in other professions (e.g., photography). The book's co-publisher, the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, asks that readers use the book not as a chronology per se but rather as a framework for understanding generational shifts of power. As such, it serves as an extensive catalog of women architects that is far more exhaustive than other recent, similarly themed books. One cannot help but be encouraged and inspired by the vivid professional and personal life stories. Summing Up: Highly recommended. --Rebecca Hackemann, Kansas State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

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Review by Library Journal Review

While useful as a biographical dictionary, this title aims to write women architects back into history. The foreword by architect Beverly Willis describes the lack of women architects in much of written architectural history and the absence of women as role models in the profession. This book seeks to correct this by profiling some of the many women who shaped the field. A preface discusses the criteria for the selection of the 122 women profiled, including "design excellence and distinction, cultural and social progressiveness, and leadership in architectural practice." The biographical entries are grouped into six generations; each section is accompanied by short introductory essays by well-known architectural historians, architects, and academics identifying the commonalities and differences across the generations. Subjects who are still living are interviewed, and the profiles feature several pages describing each architect's education, career, and major projects, as well as photographs and drawings. Most of the architects practiced in the United States between 1881 and 2021, but there is respectable coverage of architects from across the globe. VERDICT As a collection of women architects' biographies, this is a worthwhile book for architecture collections. As an effort to reframe women's impact, contributions, and participation in the profession of architecture, it is essential for collections that cover architecture or design.--Amy Trendler

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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