Women Building History

This handsomely illustrated book is a welcome addition to the history of women during America’s Gilded Age. Wanda M. Corn takes as her topic the grand neo-classical Woman’s Building at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a structure celebrating modern woman’s progress in education, arts, and sciences. Looking closely at the paintings and sculptures women artists made to decorate the structure, including the murals by Mary Cassatt and Mary MacMonnies, Corn uncovers an unspoken but consensual program to visualize a history of the female sex and promote an expansion of modern woman’s opportunities. Beautifully written, with informative sidebars by Annelise K. Madsen and artist biographies by Charlene G. Garfinkle, this volume illuminates the originality of the public images female artists created in 1893 and inserts them into the complex discourse of fin de siècle woman’s politics. The Woman’s Building offered female artists an unprecedented opportunity to create public art and imagine an historical narrative that put women rather than men at its center.

A path breaking reference work that features biographies of more than 400 women who helped build modern day Chicago. 158 photos.

"A beautiful coffee table book celebrating the Maestrapeace Mural that adorns San Francisco Mission District's Women's Building, in time for the 25th anniversary of the mural in 2019"--

Warum erhalten Architektinnen nicht die Anerkennung, die ihr Werk verdient? Women in Architecture ist ein Manifest für die großartigen Leistungen von Frauen in der Architektur. 36 international tätige Architektinnen kommen mit einem eigenen Projekt zu Wort. Dieses vielfältige Panorama wird ergänzt von Essays zu Pionierinnen in der Architektur und Analysen, die der strukturellen Diskriminierung von Architektinnen auf den Grund gehen. Mit Mona Bayr, Odile Decq, Elke Delugan-Meissl, Julie Eizenberg, Manuelle Gautrand, Annette Gigon, Silvia Gmür, Cristina Guedes, Melkan Gürsel, Itsuko Hasegawa, Anna Heringer, Fabienne Hoelzel, Helle Juul, Karla Kowalski, Anupama Kundoo, Anne Lacaton, Regine Leibinger, Lu Wenyu, Dorte Mandrup, Rozana Montiel, Kathrin Moore, Farshid Moussavi, Carme Pinós, Nili Portugali, Paula Santos, Kazuyo Sejima, Annabelle Selldorf, Pavitra Sriprakash, Siv Helene Stangeland, Brigitte Sunder-Plassmann, Lene Tranberg, Billie Tsien, Elisa Valero, Natalie de Vries, Andrea Wandel und Helena Weber.

"Despina Stratigakos is assistant professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York."--BOOK JACKET.

Investigates how women patrons of architecture were essential catalysts for innovation in domestic architectural design. This book explores the challenges that unconventional attitudes and ways of life presented to architectural thinking, and to the architects themselves.

We like to say that our cities have been shaped by creative destruction the vast powers of capitalism to remake cities. But Marta Gutman shows that other forces played roles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as cities responded to industrialization and the onset of modernity. Gutman focuses on the use and adaptive reuse of everyday buildings, and most tellingly she reveals the determinative roles of women and charitable institutions. In Oakland, Gutman shows, private houses were often adapted for charity work and the betterment of children, in the process becoming critical sites for public life and for the development of sustainable social environments. Gutman makes a strong argument for the centrality of incremental construction and the power of women-run organizations to our understanding of modern cities. "

The World's Columbian Exhibition, held in Chicago in 1893, included amazing exhibits of the results of women's activities-- in the arts, in industry, in science, and in reform and philanthropic work. Most of these were housed in the Women's Building, which was designed, decorated, and controlled entirely by women. Weimann traces the struggles among the women for the domination of the Board of Lake Managers, describing the politics and passion for the first time.

A timely and important search for architecture's missing women For a century and a half, women have been proving their passion and talent for building and, in recent decades, their enrollment in architecture schools has soared. Yet the number of women working as architects remains stubbornly low, and the higher one looks in the profession, the scarcer women become. Law and medicine, two equally demanding and traditionally male professions, have been much more successful in retaining and integrating women. So why do women still struggle to keep a toehold in architecture? Where Are the Women Architects? tells the story of women's stagnating numbers in a profession that remains a male citadel, and explores how a new generation of activists is fighting back, grabbing headlines, and building coalitions that promise to bring about change. Despina Stratigakos's provocative examination of the past, current, and potential future roles of women in the profession begins with the backstory, revealing how the field has dodged the question of women's absence since the nineteenth century. It then turns to the status of women in architecture today, and the serious, entrenched hurdles they face. But the story isn't without hope, and the book documents the rise of new advocates who are challenging the profession's boys' club, from its male-dominated elite prizes to the erasure of women architects from Wikipedia. These advocates include Stratigakos herself and here she also tells the story of her involvement in the controversial creation of Architect Barbie. Accessible, frank, and lively, Where Are the Women Architects? will be a revelation for readers far beyond the world of architecture.

"In the United States, the practice of interior design has been considered women's territory, regarded by the majority of architects, most of whom are male, as a lesser discipline. In the past 150 years, however, designing women have made their mark, first as domestic decorators and since the late 1940s as interior designers responsible for the planning, furnishing, and execution of the interior architecture of multimillion dollar corporate, financial, and other "important" environments for thousands of people." "Women of Design profiles thirty-two of these working women: the first generation of American women to dominate the world of commercial interior design, a multibillion dollar industry in the United States. They have overcome gender discrimination to establish themselves successfully as heads of their own independent practices or as valued principals in some of the largest interior design firms in the country. They have excelled as creators of spaces and products and as business people, serving as models for and opening the doors to a new generation of American women interior designers. Their designs for a variety of projects, ranging from retail, office, commercial, hotel, and restaurant environments, as well as residential gems, stand as proof of the immense pool of talented women who have emerged as leaders in a particular industry. Some of those included have also entered the world of design education, serving as deans and teachers at prominent design schools, molding and training future talents." "These remarkable women designers from every corner of the nation offer insights into their struggle to achieve success, revealing their personal and professional philosophies. Photographs of some of their finest achievements are included in this colorful and groundbreaking volume that serves as a testament to the enormous achievements American women have made in this field during the past century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved