Pioneering Women of American Architecture: 50 Profiles Online

The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation in New York has launched Pioneering Women of American Architecture, a website documenting 24 profiles (eventually 50) of American women architects, historians, and critics born before 1940. The site features biographies, drawings, and photos, compiled through archival research, site visits, and hundreds of interviews. Curators Mary McLeod and Victoria Rosner aim to center women's work in architectural history and encourage young women to enter the profession. Among the featured pioneers: Louise Blanchard Bethune, the first professional female architect in the US, who designed over 150 buildings including Buffalo's Hotel Lafayette; Anna Wagner Keichline, who patented the K-brick and rational kitchen designs; Natalie Griffin de Blois, the first woman senior designer at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, key to Manhattan icons like Lever House; Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first Black female architect licensed in New York and California, known for LAX Terminal One and the US Embassy in Tokyo; and Blanche Lemco van Ginkel, a Canadian urban planning pioneer who saved Old Montreal and introduced pedestrian studies at Manhattan.