New Angle: Voice

Hello, this is New Angle: Voice, the podcast about Pioneering Women in American Architecture brought to you by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. I'm your new host, Alexandra Lange. Our latest episode describes the creation and experience of the Women's School of Planning and Architecture, popularly known as WSPA, which ran for four summers from 1974 to 1979. It completes a trilogy of episodes, including previous ones on the fantasy environments of architect Phyllis Birkby and the first exhibition on Women in American Architecture at the Brooklyn Museum, that ask and answer the question, How did architecture meet the feminist movement in the 1970s? WSPA was the brainchild of seven women, Leslie Kanes Weisman, Phyllis Birkby, Katrin Adam, Bobbie Sue Hood, Ellen Perry Berkeley, Marie Kennedy, and Joan Forrester Sprague. These women represented a mix of academic, professional, and practical experience. What they wanted to create was an educational curriculum, by women and for women, that freed architecture from the hierarchies of existing schools and practice. At their workshops, held on a succession of college campuses, starting with St. Joseph's College in Biddeford, Maine, everyone was a student and everyone was a teacher. No one was passive. You could learn woodworking in the morning and feminist theory in the afternoon, and then let loose and make candy houses in the evening. Childcare was free, tuition was minimal, and the locations were scattered throughout the country, making it easy for interested parties to attend. For many of the participants, it was their first experience of being the majority gender in a design classroom or architecture office. Even decades later, they remembered the experience with happy tears. As with many collaborative enterprises with shoestring budgets, WSPA eventually dissipated, but not before giving a generation of women architects the tools (sometimes literally) to imagine a more communitarian world. It sounds like a club I would definitely have liked to be part of. Without further ado, here is "Not Only Survive, but Flourish: The Story of WSPA." __ Special thanks in this episode to Leslie Kanes Wisemen, Katrin Adam, Cathy Simon, and Paulett Taggart. And to the Smith College Special Collections, which houses all of the WSPA archives. You can see some incredible photos from this collection, including the Building Charades and Architecture Cakes, on our Instagram page at NewAngleVoice This podcast is brought to you by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation and produced by Brandi Howell. You can find other episodes of New Angle: Voice wherever you find your podcasts. And if you liked this episode, please leave a review and share with a friend.

We continue our throw-back to the seventies, and take a deeper dive into the many facets of the women's movement that impacted the practice of architecture. Pushed to the side and rarely credited for her architectural work at Davis Brody, Phyllis Birkby became a significant figure in extending the lesbian women's movement to architecture during the 1970s. Her environmental fantasy workshops played a crucial role in galvanizing the community, providing a creative and empowering space within a male-dominated profession. Growing out of other consciousness raising techniques, freed up in her classes, Phyllis released the rigor of her conventional training to get down on the floor, and lead the group in sketching their fantasies however outlandish on giant rolls of butcher paper. She encouraged the women to imagine architecture above, below, and beyond the norm. Birkby's work not only contributed to architectural discourse but also fostered a sense of collective identity among lesbian architects, highlighting the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, and professional identity in the field. In her later years, she focused on architecture for people marginalized in other ways – by addiction, by age, and by disability, again imagining spaces of community and support. Welcome to Beyond Architecture: The Fantasy Worlds of Phyllis Birkby Special thanks in this episode to Stephen Vider, MC Overholt, Gabrielle Esperdy, Matthew Wagstaffe, Leslie Kanes Weisman and the Smith College Special Collections. This podcast is produced by Brandi Howell, with editorial advising from Alexandra Lange. New Angle Voice is brought to you by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Funding for this podcast comes from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Sarah Pillsbury, or Sally as she was better known by her peers, and Jean Bodman were both architects who married architects. As an architect who also married an architect, my perspective may be more inside baseball on the professional side, but utter awe and fascination on the family end. I'm Cynthia Phifer Kracauer, architect, Executive Director of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, mother of only two, and your host. Welcome to our last episode of New Angle Voice 2023. It's hard to look at the early days of TAC—the Architects Collaborative—for a time a world-class firm founded by two husband/wife couples and a handful of their classmates … with Walter Gropius thrown in to give them the gravitas that concealed their youth—without a bit of nostalgia. Nostalgia for the naïve progressive ideology, nostalgia for that post World War 2 hope that the world could be remade through architecture—after all, Europe was rubble—and utter amazement that the firm fared as well as long as it did. TAC was admired by women of my generation who saw two women partners with 13 children between them, garnering design awards, winning competitions, and acting on a world stage with far flung offices and impressive civic and institutional work. For goodness sakes the National American Institute of Architects hired them for their new headquarters! What could be more iconic. Soon after the founding of the firm in 1947, Sarah and Jean wrote an article for House & Garden titled "Architecture, Family Style" which – as their biographer Michael Kubo writes – constituted something of a manifesto for the changing needs of the postwar housewife. But as we all know, sometimes youthful dreams don't pan out. In this episode, we revisit the utopian fantasy that the Architects Collaborative built and take a look inside. "Architecture, Family Style – The Lives and Work of Sarah Harkness and Jean Fletcher". Special thanks in this episode to Sara Harkness and Joseph Fletcher, Michael Kubo and Amanda Kolson Hurley. Current Six Moon Hill residents Linda Pagani and Barbara Katzenberg kindly opened their homes and shared their stories. Long time TAC partners Perry Neubauer and Gail Flynn were generous with their time as were Andrea Leers and Jane Weinzapfel. The archival oral history of Sally Harkness comes from her interview with Wendy Cox. This podcast is produced by Brandi Howell, with editorial advising from Alexandra Lange. Thanks also to production assistants Virginia Eskridge and Aislinn McNamara. New Angle Voice is brought to you by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Funding for this podcast comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Graham Foundation.

I picked up a free glossy real estate magazine with an enticing photograph of summer leisure pursuits under the title Sag Harbor: A Whale of a Good Time. We traveled out there in early spring, collecting voices of preservation, community, celebrity, and long tenured summer families as we searched for Amaza Lee Meredith's modern architecture. A short bike ride away from the summer haunts of Melville, Steinbeck, Betty Friedan, Spaulding Gray, lived the creator of Azurest North, the Black summer real estate enclave syndicated by Amaza Lee Meredith with her sister Maude Terry. But on the beach we found only Maude's name enshrined on the commemorative plaque. For decades, Amaza and her life-long partner Edna Meade Colson, made an annual migration to enjoy the respite and comfort of their shared northern home. Hundreds of miles south is their other Azurest—a tidy white International Style house on the edge of the Virginia State University Campus where Meredith and Colson both maintained significant teaching positions, living openly queer lives. Together, the homes and communities that Meredith helped establish provided a sense of joy and pleasure to those at a time when this wasn't always possible. And her story, as it continues to unfold with time, is a point of inspiration for those who have been lucky enough to discover it. In this episode, we explore the intersections of sexuality, modernity, art, architecture, and the faith community that nurtured this pair of lovers. Amaza and Edna found their home in each other and shared it openly with their church, their colleagues and their students. Listen to Amaza Lee Meredith: Love and Home. Special thanks to writers Jacqueline Taylor and Jessica Lynne, and to Brooke Williams who graciously provided Sag Harbor resident insights, as did advocates and preservationists Georgette Grier-Key, Michael Butler, and Renee Simons. And to Reverend Grady Powell and Reverend Dr. George WC Lyons from Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg, Virginia. Franklin Johnson-Norwood is the Director of Alumni Relations at Virginia State University, and our excellent tour guide for Azurest South, and to Christina Morris of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. New Angle Voice is a presentation of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. This podcast is produced by Brandi Howell, with editorial advising from Alexandra Lange. Virginia Eskridge provides daily assistance. Generous funding for this season has been provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation. Take a look at the illustrated Amaza Lee Meredith profile on the Pioneering Women of Architecture website.

New Angle: Voice is back! We kick off Season Two with Ray Kaiser Eames. Many know Ray Eames as the small, dirndled woman behind her more famous husband. In this episode, we uncover the talented artist who saw the world full of color, the industrial designer bending plywood in the spare bedroom, and the visionary who treated folk art, cigarette wrappers, flowers, and toys as equally valuable and inspiring. Ray brought the sparkle to the legendary Eames Office, as you'll discover in this episode "Beauty in the Everyday: The Life and Work of Ray Eames." Special thanks in this episode to Pat Kirkham, Lucia Dewey Atwood, Llisa Demetrios, Jeannine Oppewall, Donald Albrecht, Meg McAleer and Tracey Barton at the Library of Congress, and Alexandra Lange. This podcast is produced by Brandi Howell, with editorial advising from Alexandra Lange. Thanks also to Virginia Eskridge, and Amy Auscherman, Director of Archives and Brand Heritage for MillerKnoll. The archival audio heard in this episode comes from the MillerKnoll archives and the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Intro music composed by Emma Jackson. New Angle Voice is brought to you by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Funding for this podcast comes from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation, and MillerKnoll.

Norma Sklarek had many "firsts". She was often credited at the start of her career as the first Black Women architect to be licensed in the United States. That distinction actually goes to Beverly Greene – Norma was the 3rd. But it didn't matter. Young black girls read her name in the likes of Ebony Magazine – a staple publication in every black household at the time – when she was included in their 1958 article on "Successful Young Architects". As more and more discovered her career, she became their role model. Like so many women, then and now, she chose a management path. Achievement was measurable, ambition was acceptable, and competence over pizazz was a vital and necessary counterpoint to charismatic male designers in firms with large scale complex projects. As a woman and as an African American, the design path was simply not open to her, and she needed to work, she had two boys to support, and without any shame, she needed to get paid. So her work often fell shadow to the lead designer. She was the project manager, the woman behind the scenes who made sure things got done… And yet, despite the groundbreaking achievements of Norma, what is the current state of black women in the field of architecture? In the 2020 AIA Demographic survey, the association counted 94,000 members. 23,500 of these are women. There are 691 Black Women architects. As each Black woman achieves her license, it is a matter of pride to add consecutively to that very small number. It's a matter of shame that it is still so small. On today's episode, Norma Sklarek: An Extreme Bold Hand. Special thanks to Kate Diamond, Renee Kemp-Rotan, Roberta Washington, Gail Kennard, Michael Enomoto and Gruen Associates, Pat Morton, Jack Travis, Beth Gibb, Alexandra Lange, and Suzanne Mecs. The archival recording of Norma Sklarek is from the African American Architects of Los Angeles collection at the UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research. This podcast is produced by Brandi Howell, with editorial advising from Alexandra Lange. New Angle Voice is brought to you by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, with support from Knoll, a MillerKnoll company and SOM.

Natalie de Blois (1921–2013) contributed to some of the most iconic modernist works for corporate America, all while raising four children. After leaving this significant mark on post-war Park Avenue, she transferred to the SOM Chicago office, where she became actively involved in the architecture feminist movement and was one of the leaders in the newly formed Chicago Women in Architecture advocacy group. Later, she finished her career as a professor at UT Austin, where she trained a future generation of architects. As an architect, Natalie loved systems – understanding how things worked. For her, it wasn't just pretty buildings, she challenged the code and questioned the status quo. And like the buildings she designed, there was a certain complexity to Natalie herself. She was a woman of resilient beauty, inspiring yet distant, ahead of her time. Often overshadowed by her male counterparts, we hope to shed light on her life's work and legacy. Special thanks to Gabrielle Esperdy, Audrey Matlock, Carol Krinsky, Carol Ross Barney, Margaret McCurry, Peter Dixon, John Newman, Liz Watykus, Julia Murphy and Robert de Blois. The archival audio of Natalie de Blois interviewed by Betty Blum is from the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Architects Oral History Project. Thank you to Nathaniel Parks, Director of the Art Institute of Chicago Archives, for your help with this recording. This podcast is produced by Brandi Howell, with editorial advising from Alexandra Lange. Special thanks to Matt Alvarez and Iowa Public Radio for their production assistance. New Angle Voice is brought to you by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, with support from Knoll, a MillerKnoll company and SOM.