Episode 31: Ada Louise Huxtable
Ada Louise Landman was born on March 14, 1921 in Manhattan, New York. Ada graduated from Hunter College in 1941 majoring in Art. Shortly after that, she started working at Bloomingdale’s selling furniture by famous designers such as Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames. There she met her husband, industrial designer L. Garth Huxtable, and began pursuing an art and architectural history degree from NYU. In 1946, as an assistant curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art, she worked with Philip Johnson who was the curator during that time. Ada would work at the museum for four years until 1950 when Ada became a Fulbright Fellow. In 1958, she would continue her explorations as a Guggenheim fellow, studying American Architecture. Also in 1958, she wrote an article in the New York Times Magazine criticizing how newspapers covered urban development. She wrote “Superblocks are built, the physiognomy and services of the city changed, without discussion. Architecture is the stepchild of the popular press.” Anecdotally, in 1959, she and her husband collaborated to design the tableware for the Four Seasons Restaurant that was located in the Seagrams building. The year after that in 1960, Ada wrote her FIRST book on the Italian engineer/architect Pier Luigi Nervi, which was a part of a series of scholarly books. In 1970, she would win a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism - the first to do so in her field. Just a couple of years after that she got elevated to the editorial board for the Times. Ada passed away in 2013 in Manhattan, New York. Her last published column in the New York Times was in 2012.
Caryatid: Alison Killing
Alison Killing is an architect based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Alison is the FIRST architect to win a Pulitzer Prize. Through satellite imagery, Alison was able to find newly built camps in China that are believed to be detaining Muslims. Not only was she being recognized by her discovery of these camps but also her use of satellite imagery as a form of investigative journalism.
This article from the Architectural Record is a great read. For an interview with Alison on her research and background.
Agora: Gabriela F.
Congratulations Gabriela for recently getting licensed!
References
Information and images:
“Ada Louise Huxtable.” Pioneering Women of American Architecture, pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/ada-louise-huxtable. Accessed 18 June 2021.
Clausen, Meredith, and Meredith Clausen. “The Fiery Career of Architecture Critic Ada Louise Huxtable.” Getty Iris, 2 Nov. 2020, blogs.getty.edu/iris/the-fiery-career-of-architecture-critic-ada-louis-huxtable.
Dunlap, David. “Ada Louise Huxtable, Architecture Critic, Dies at 91.” The New York Times, 8 Jan. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/arts/design/ada-louise-huxtable-architecture-critic-dies-at-91.html?.?mc=aud_dev&ad-keywords=auddevgate&gclid=CjwKCAjw55-HBhAHEiwARMCszmhHJ7glL_TS7rB6udoSRMZQlXRLi4rqzDaN0pDvUdy0qN7VlisZgRoCcb4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds.
Kalra, Arunima. “Ada Louise Huxtable- America’s Most Influential Architectural Critic.” RTF | Rethinking The Future, 23 Feb. 2021, www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/know-your-architects/a647-ada-louise-huxtable-americas-most-influential-architectural-critic.
