Architect
Nancy Ann Abshire (Courtesy of CWA)
Name: Nancy Ann Abshire
Date of Birth / Location: Dayton, Ohio
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design, Northwestern University; Bachelor of Architecture, University of Illinois; 1965-1969
Date of Death / Location: C.F. Murphy Associates 1961-1968; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), interior design department, also design architect and project manager on various architectural projects, 1968-2019, promoted to Associate 1988.
Professional Organizations & Activities: Chicago Women in Architecture, Founder AIA, RIBA, NCARB; Executive director of SOM foundation 2010-2019; National Trust of Great Britain; Architecture and Design Society of the Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago Architecture Foundation, Auxiliary Board Member since 1971
Awards & Honors: SAH award 2010; Chicago Women in Architecture Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, 2021
Lillian Leenhouts (right) receiving a Fellow certificate at the 1980 Society of Women Engineers National Convention- Courtesy of the Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University
Name: Lillian Leenhouts
Date of Birth / Location: 1911
Date of Death / Location: February 22, 1990
Education: School of Architecture, University of Michigan,1936. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning awarded her an honorary doctorate in May 1989. In 1990, the School established a financial scholarship in Willis and Lillian Leenhouts' name.
Date of Death / Location: Harry Bogner in Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1936; In 1945, Lillian and her husband Willis formed a professional partnership in Milwaukee.
Professional Organizations & Activities: Lillian had the distinction of becoming Wisconsin's first licensed female architect in 1942, and she helped to form the Milwaukee chapter of the Society of Women Engineers in 1973. The Leenhoutses were inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (A.I.A.) in 1975, marking the first time in the A.I.A.'s history that a husband and wife earned a fellowship together..
Awards & Honors: In 1889, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning awarded her an honorary doctorate. In 1990, the School established a financial scholarship in Willis and Lillian Leenhouts' name.
Marion Mahony Griffin. Courtesy of New York Historical Society.
Name: Marion Mahony Griffin
Date of Birth / Location: February 14, 1871 / Chicago, Illinois
Date of Death / Location: August 10, 1961 / Chicago, Illinois
Education: Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1890-1894.
Date of Death / Location: Firms she was involved with: Office of Dwight Heald Perkins, Chicago, 1894–95; Office of Frank Lloyd Wright, Chicago, 1895–98; Marion has been credited with executing a large percentage of the drawings within the Wasmuth Portfolio, which helped establish Wright's reputation in Europe. Oak Park Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, Oak Park, Ill., 1898–1908; Principal Designer, Office of Hermann Valentine von Holst, Chicago, 1909–12; Office of Walter Burley Griffin, Chicago, 1911–13; Office of Walter Burley Griffin, Melbourne, Australia, 1915–25; Office of Walter Burley Griffin and Eric Nicholls, Sydney, Australia, 1925–circa 1929; Office of Walter Burley Griffin, Lucknow, India, 1936–37; Her practice moved to Sydney Aus. in 1914.
Professional Organizations & Activities: Marion was the first woman registered to practice architecture in Illinois (she became a licensed architect in the State of Illinois in 1898) and the second woman to graduate from MIT with an architecture degree. Chicago Arts and Crafts Society, founding member; Chicago Architectural Club, member; Illinois Chapter of AIA, member.
Awards & Honors: Winning design for the Australian Federal Capital at Canberra, Federal Design Competition, 1912, with Walter Burley Griffin.
Name: Purnima Gupta
Education: Bachelor of Architecture, Roorkee University (in India) 1963-68; and Masters in Architecture, University of Illinois, 1969-70.
Date of Death / Location: From 1980-1982 she served as the campus architect at North Carolina State University, where she also taught engineering graphics. She then worked in finance for a period of time, at Max New York Life Insurance from 1982-1992 and then AXA Equitable from 1993-2012.
Awards & Honors: Joined AIA 1973, recipient of First Prize for Architectural Design.
Name: Deborah Jane Hayes
Professional Organizations & Activities: Joined AIA in 1978.
Name: Maureen C. Tansey Tokar
Date of Birth / Location: 1931, Cincinnati, Ohio
Education: University of Cincinnati, 1955
Date of Death / Location: Job captain Hixson, Tarter & Merkel, Cincinnati, 1964-1968; Director interior architecture Ferry & Henderson, Springfield, Illinois, 1968-1972; Project coordinator Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Chicago, 1972-1976; Review architect Illinois Capital Development Board, Chicago, 1977-1982; Vice president Planning and Design Consultant, since 1975; Vice president Planning and Design Consultant, since 1975; The Art Institute of Chicago Chicago
Professional Organizations & Activities: Member American Institute of Architects, Chicago Women in Architecture, Alpha Omicron Pi
Elisabeth Martini. Courtesy of Life and Labor
Name: Elisabeth Martini
Date of Birth / Location: 1886 / Brooklyn, New York, New York
Date of Death / Location: 1984 / Pleasant Hill, Tennessee
Education: Pratt Institute of Design; Columbia University.
Date of Death / Location: In 1914, Martini opened her own office in Chicago, becoming the first women to be the sole owner of an architectural firm in the City of Chicago. In 1934, she moved her practice to Bangor, Michigan.
Professional Organizations & Activities: Martini was the second woman architect ever licensed in the state in 1914. Founded the Chicago Women's Drafting Club in 1921, one of the first organizations for women architects and the precursor to the Women's Architectural Club. She also regularly contributed articles to Better Homes and Gardens Magazine.
Awards & Honors: Martini was one of three winners of a 1917 farm house design competition sponsored by the Illinois Board of Agriculture and the Illinois Chapter of the A.I.A.
Name: Martha Dianne Weinberg
Professional Organizations & Activities: Joined AIA in 1978.
Name: Heather McTammany
Date of Death / Location: Carol Ross Barney Architects, elected vice president in 1985.
Professional Organizations & Activities: Joined AIA in 1978.
Name: Penelope June Jastrey
Professional Organizations & Activities: Licensed in New York and Illinois - Joined AIA in 1978.
Awards & Honors: Listed in New York and Illinois - Joined AIA in 1978.