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Things I like: suffragettes, war workers, factory girls, socialites who got stuff done, ladies who ruled countries, and women who changed the world, even if it was just a little bit. Click on photos for sources.

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metamuseum: Margarete Schütte-Lihotsky, Austrian, 1897-2000, Frankfurt Kitchen, 1926-1930, Kitchen cabinetry and stove, Gift of funds from Regis Foundation, 2004.195 The Frankfurt Kitchen, part of an ambitious citywide project to create affordable housing after WWI, was extremely influential throughout Europe into the 1930s and still stands as the epitome of “scientific” organization for the domestic workspace. City Architect Ernst May hired Schütte-Lihotzky, one of the first female architects in Austria, to design a rationally planned kitchen for 10,000 integrated housing units over a four-year period. She analyzed key principles for household design and labor, and positioned each kitchen element carefully, minimizing unnecessary steps as well as providing labor-saving devices and increasing physical comfort. The kitchen’s many innovative features included integrated units, continuous work surfaces, a worktable for preparing food under a large window adjacent to the sink (both set at a convenient height for use while seated), as well as storage bins with handles and spouts, an adjustable ceiling light, a movable stool, a concealed pass-through, drop-down ironing board, and cabinetry painted blue, supposedly to repel flies.   Jennifer Komar Olivarez Associate Curator, Decorative Arts, Textiles, and Sculpture Minneapolis Institute of Artshttp://artsmia.org/

metamuseum:

Margarete Schütte-Lihotsky, Austrian, 1897-2000, Frankfurt Kitchen, 1926-1930, Kitchen cabinetry and stove, Gift of funds from Regis Foundation, 2004.195


The Frankfurt Kitchen, part of an ambitious citywide project to create affordable housing after WWI, was extremely influential throughout Europe into the 1930s and still stands as the epitome of “scientific” organization for the domestic workspace.

City Architect Ernst May hired Schütte-Lihotzky, one of the first female architects in Austria, to design a rationally planned kitchen for 10,000 integrated housing units over a four-year period. She analyzed key principles for household design and labor, and positioned each kitchen element carefully, minimizing unnecessary steps as well as providing labor-saving devices and increasing physical comfort.

The kitchen’s many innovative features included integrated units, continuous work surfaces, a worktable for preparing food under a large window adjacent to the sink (both set at a convenient height for use while seated), as well as storage bins with handles and spouts, an adjustable ceiling light, a movable stool, a concealed pass-through, drop-down ironing board, and cabinetry painted blue, supposedly to repel flies.

 

Jennifer Komar Olivarez

Associate Curator, Decorative Arts, Textiles, and Sculpture
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
http://artsmia.org/

Today is the 100th anniversary of New York’s Grand Central Station. Jackie Kennedy Onassis played a significant role in preserving Grand Central and other New York City landmarks.  A plaque in Grand Central commemorates Jackie’s role in preserving the station: In an age when few people sought to preserve the architectural wonders that are a daily reminder of our rich and glorious past, a brave woman rose in protest to save this terminal from demolition. Because of her tireless and valiant efforts, it stands today as a monument to those who came before us and built the greatest city known to mankind. Preserving this great landmark is one of her many enduring legacies. The people of New York are forever grateful. In the 1975 photo above Jackie is pictured with Ed Koch who was at the time serving in the House of Representatives.  He went on to serve as Mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989.  Ed passed away today at age 88.

Today is the 100th anniversary of New York’s Grand Central Station. Jackie Kennedy Onassis played a significant role in preserving Grand Central and other New York City landmarks.  A plaque in Grand Central commemorates Jackie’s role in preserving the station:

In an age when few people sought to preserve the architectural wonders that are a daily reminder of our rich and glorious past, a brave woman rose in protest to save this terminal from demolition. Because of her tireless and valiant efforts, it stands today as a monument to those who came before us and built the greatest city known to mankind. Preserving this great landmark is one of her many enduring legacies. The people of New York are forever grateful.

In the 1975 photo above Jackie is pictured with Ed Koch who was at the time serving in the House of Representatives.  He went on to serve as Mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989.  Ed passed away today at age 88.

plusarchitekt: Anne Griswold Tyng (1920-2011) Though Tyng’s career seems unduly inseparable from the life and work of Louis Kahn, Tyng was a pioneer in her own right. Taking an early interest in architecture, she leapt from her undergraduate studies in Radcliffe to attend the Harvard GSD in 1942, where she studied under Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer to later become the only woman to enter the architecture licensing exam in 1949.

plusarchitekt:

Anne Griswold Tyng (1920-2011)

Though Tyng’s career seems unduly inseparable from the life and work of Louis Kahn, Tyng was a pioneer in her own right. Taking an early interest in architecture, she leapt from her undergraduate studies in Radcliffe to attend the Harvard GSD in 1942, where she studied under Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer to later become the only woman to enter the architecture licensing exam in 1949.

Unfinished Spaces, premiering tonight (October 12) on PBS, check your local listings.

In 1961, in the heady first days of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro asked three visionary architects to build the Cuban National Arts Schools on what had been the golf course of a country club. Before construction was completed, the revolution became Sovietized, and suddenly the project was denounced as bourgeois and counter-revolutionary. These radical, magnificent buildings become a prism through which we see the turbulent, ever-shifting history of Castro’s Cuba and follow the fates of the three architects, now in their 80s, who may get a second chance to revitalize their utopian project. 

For another look at the Cuban National Art Schools, check out Dancing with Cuba, Alma Guillermoprieto’s memoir of the six months she spent teaching modern dance at Cuba’s National School of Dance.

Marcia Mead (1879-1967) was the first woman to graduate from Columbia University’s School of Architecture.  She specialized in designing housing, you can read about the innovations she made in a Bridgeport, CT housing development here.    Barnard College offers an architecture award in Marcia’s name to undergraduate students.

Marcia Mead (1879-1967) was the first woman to graduate from Columbia University’s School of Architecture.  She specialized in designing housing, you can read about the innovations she made in a Bridgeport, CT housing development here.   

Barnard College offers an architecture award in Marcia’s name to undergraduate students.