Women Architects at Work - by Mary Anne Hunting & Kevin D Murphy (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The first comprehensive history of the role of women architects within the history of American modernism"--

Book Synopsis

A comprehensive history of the women architects who left their enduring mark on American Modernism

In the decades preceding World War II, professional architecture schools enrolled increasing numbers of women, but career success did not come easily. Women Architects at Work tells the stories of the resilient and resourceful women who surmounted barriers of sexism, racism, and classism to take on crucial roles in the establishment and growth of Modernism across the United States.

Mary Anne Hunting and Kevin D. Murphy describe how the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Massachusetts evolved for the professional education of women between 1916 and 1942. While alumnae such as Eleanor Agnes Raymond, Victorine du Pont Homsey, and Sarah Pillsbury Harkness achieved some notoriety, others like Elizabeth-Ann Campbell Knapp and Louisa Vaughan Conrad have been largely absent from histories of Modernism. Hunting and Murphy describe how these innovative practitioners capitalized on social, educational, and professional ties to achieve success and used architecture to address social concerns, including how modernist ideas could engage with community and the environment. Some joined women-led architectural firms while others partnered with men or contributed to Modernism as retailers of household furnishings, writers and educators, photographers and designers, or fine artists.

With stunning illustrations, Women Architects at Work offers new histories of recognized figures while recovering the stories of previously unsung women, all of whom contributed to the modernization of American architecture and design.

Review Quotes

"Winner of the Documentation Citation of Merit, Docomomo US Modernism in America Awards"

"Women Architects at Work is an instrumental stride towards correcting inequities in women's architectural histories, and a testament to women's prevailing contributions to American Modernism. Hunting and Murphy show us history need not be encumbered with austerity--it is enlivened through learning not only what people built, but how they did it, and who they were. After all, what is better than reading about a complex and insightful architect's professional achievements?"---Sherya Balaji, Arcade

"Highly readable and brilliantly researched. . . . [T]his book is more than an important resource for educators, historians, and students. It is an active reminder of what is true: women have helped to build and continue to build the world we inhabit."-- "Places Journal"

"Drawing from two decades of research, compiling archives, letters and documents [Women Architects at Work] presents invigorating, inspiring and, at times, vexing tales of women who refused to remain ghosts"---Bansari Paghdar, STIR World

"A great new book. . . . [that] really dives deep into a fascinating aspect of architectural history and American history that deserves a lot of attention."---Nicholas Redding, PreserveCast podcast

"An exhaustive work of setting the record straight. . . . Hunting and Murphy's project details the erasure of women in modernism as much as their contributions--it's a necessary if painful symbiosis."---Laura Raskin, Architect's Newspaper

"[Women Architects at Work] offer[s] new perspectives on recognized designers while also shining a light on lesser-known practitioners, whose contributions to the field are equally deserving of recognition."---Sydney Shilling, Azure Magazine

"A pointillist account, touching on dozens of designers, and substituting an atomized collage for a few singular narrative trajectories. . . . The Modern project for the women of Women Architects at Work was creating places where the choice between domesticity and design could be a capricious and joyous one."---Zach Mortice, Metropolis

"Architecture in the 20th century was a male-dominated profession (and not much has changed), but this study of the alumnae of the Cambridge School of Architecture in Massachusetts makes the case for women as necessarily shrewd operators."-- "Apollo Magazine"

"A valuable survey of modernist women architects. . . . Interspersed with ample photos and sketches, this is a comprehensive and welcome revival of a lesser-known chapter in the history of architecture."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"This book models the research and scholarship needed to more fully represent women in the history of architecture. The result is a richer story of both women in architecture and modernism in the United States."-- "Library Journal starred review"

"[Mary Anne Hunting and Kevin D. Murphy] succeeded in reviving the work of scores of impressive women. A well-populated, deeply researched history."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

About the Author

Mary Anne Hunting is an architectural historian and the author of Edward Durell Stone: Modernism's Populist Architect. Kevin D. Murphy is the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in the Humanities and professor and chair in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Vanderbilt University. His books include Jonathan Fisher of Blue Hill, Maine: Commerce, Culture, and Community on the Eastern Frontier.