Architect
Isabel Roberts- courtesy of Pioneering Women of American Architecture
Name: Isabel Roberts
Date of Birth / Location: March 7, 1871 / Mexico, Missouri
Date of Death / Location: December 27, 1955 / Orlando, Florida
Education: Atelier Masqueray-Chambers, 1899–1901 (Does not appear to have had formal architectural training.)
Date of Death / Location: Firms she worked for are in total: Frank Lloyd Wright, Oak Park, Illnois, 1902–14; Ryan and Roberts, Orlando, Florida, 1920–45.The partnership used several variations of the name Ryan and Roberts, including Ida Annah Ryan and Isabel Roberts Architects (1921) and Ryan and Roberts Studios (1929). All buildings noted to date are located in Florida with her partner Ida Annah Ryan. Active beyond 1914, but moved to Orlando, Florida. Active years in Illinois spent at Frank Lloyd Wrights Firm - it would appear that Roberts did not design any buildings in Illinois on her own, but helped with project design in Frank Lloyd Wright's office.
Professional Organizations & Activities: Project designer in the office of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Georgia Louise Harris Brown, ca. 1950. Courtesy of Ebony Magazine.
Name: Georgia Louise Harris Brown
Date of Birth / Location: June 12, 1918 / Topeka, Kansas
Date of Death / Location: September 21, 1999 / Washington, D.C.
Education: Washburn University,1936-1937; Bachelor's of Architecture, University of Kansas School of Engineering and Architecture,1944; Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Institute of Design, Architecture Department, 1950-1953.
Date of Death / Location: Firm of Kenneth Roderick O'Neal, 1945 to 1949; Frank J. Kornacker & Associates, 1949-1953; Private practice in Brazil, 1953-1993. Through her engineering projects in the United States she also worked with the architectural firms of Holsman, Holsman, Elekamp and Taylor, Keck & Keck, Pace Associates, and Sidney Morris & Associates.
Professional Organizations & Activities: First African American woman to graduate from the University of Kansas with a degree in architecture. Second African American woman to become a licensed architect in the United States.
Carol Ross Barney Courtesy of Ross Barney Architects
Name: Carol Ross Barney
Date of Birth / Location: April 12, 1949 / Chicago, IL
Education: Bachelor's in Architecture, University of Illinois, 1971.
Date of Death / Location: Worked for the Peace Corps right out of college, then Holabird and Root. Barney founded her own firm, Ross Barney Architects in 1981.
Professional Organizations & Activities: One of the founding Members of Chicago Women in Architecture (CWA). Barney was the subject of the Chicago Architecture Foundation's exhibit "5 Architects" (2005). Barney is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, an honorary member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, a member of the board of governors at the Metropolitan Planning Council, and an adjunct professor of architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).
Awards & Honors: 1979 AIA Institute Honor Award for the Chicago Public Library restoration; 1983 Plym Traveling Fellowship from the University of Illinois: 1991 AIA Institute Honor Award from the National Endowment of the Arts for the Glendale Heights Post Office; 2005 Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture from AIA.
Gertrude Lempp Kerbis. Courtesy of Chris Deford.
Name: Gertrude Lempp Kerbis
Date of Birth / Location: 1926 / Chicago, IL.
Date of Death / Location: June 14, 2016.
Education: Wright Community College in Chicago; University of Wisconsin. Bachelor's in Architectural Engineering, University of Illinois, 1948. Kerbis studied under Walter Gropius at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, 1949-1950. Master's of Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), 1954, where she studied under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
Date of Death / Location: Carl Koch (1948–1949); Bertrand Goldberg (1949–1950); Loebl Schlossman & Bennett (1950–1951); Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (1954–1959); Naess & Murphy (1959–1962) and (1965–1967); Kerbis started her own firm, Lempp Kerbis in 1967.
Professional Organizations & Activities: Co-founded the Chicago Women in Architecture Club (CWA) in 1973. Gert was the first female president of the Cliff Dwellers Club in Chicago. One of the first women in Chicago to begin her own architectural practice. Was also one of the first architects in general to act as both an architect and developer for one of her own projects (i.e. Greenhouse Condos). She taught at Harper Community College (Palatine) for 25 years. Lecturer at University of Illinois at Chicago; lecturer-at-large at Ball State University; lecturer-at-large at the Art Institute of Chicago; lecturer-in-the-field for Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri; and an Associate Professor at William Rainey Harper College. Kerbis contributed to the designs of Lustron House, the US Air Force Academy, and O'Hare International Airport. She was a pioneer in working for the equal status of women in the field of architecture, founding the groups Chicago Women in Architecture (CWA) and the Chicago Network. Gert was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, elected to the AIA College of Fellows in 1970. She served as director of the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects, 1970-74.
Awards & Honors: In 2008, Gert Kerbis was given a Lifetime Achievment Award from the AIA Chicago Chapter. She was the first woman and only the third person to get this honor.
Name: Susan G. Froelich
Professional Organizations & Activities: American Institute of Architects (AIA)
Name: Mary Colter
Date of Death / Location: Mary Colter was named the official Architect and Designer for the Fred Harvey company in 1910, she held the position until she retired in 1940.
Name: Eugenia Lane
Date of Birth / Location: April 3, 1906 / Elwood, Virginia
Date of Death / Location: September 24, 1967
Education: Bachelor of Science in Architecture, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), 1938-1942
Date of Death / Location: Her own firm, Eugenia Lane, as of 1956.
Professional Organizations & Activities: Joined AIA in 1950. Moved her practice to Seattle by 1956, possibly before. In 1956 she was a member of the American Society of Planning Officials.
Natalie Griffin de Blois was an associate partner at the Chicago architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in the 1960s. Courtesy of SOM.
Name: Natalie Griffin de Blois
Date of Birth / Location: April 2, 1921 / Patterson, New Jersey
Date of Death / Location: July 22, 2013 / Chicago, Illinois
Education: Western College for Women, Oxford, Ohio, 1939-40; Bachelor's of Architecture, Columbia University, 1944.
Date of Death / Location: Ketchum, Gina & Sharp, 1944-1944; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), 1962-1974; Office of Gordon Bunshaft
Professional Organizations & Activities: Founding Member, Chicago Women in Architecture (CWA); Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, 1974; Professor, University of Texas at Austin, 1980-1993.
Awards & Honors: Romieniec Award of the Texas AIA for distinguished achievement in education, 1998.