Bonus Episode: IAWA

OverBack in episode one when we talked about Milka Bliznakov and her becoming a professor at Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning in 1974, teaching in the urban design program. Her students kept asking her why they weren’t studying women architects, so in 1985, BliznAkov worked with Virginia Tech to open the International Archive of Women in Architecture or IAWA. She thought studying women architects would make architecture gender-neutral. The problem wasn’t that there weren’t many women architects, the problem was that they didn’t know who they were, where they practiced, and what they had accomplished. The IAWA documents the legacies of more than 435 individuals, firms, organizations, and exhibits from the 1890s through the present day. The permanent collections include approximately 2000 cubic feet of documents, photographs and negatives, architectural drawings, sketches, scrapbooks, building models, presentation boards, and other materials that capture the creative process. The IAWA also collects books, biographical information, and other published materials as part of its mission to act as a clearinghouse of information about the global history of women in architecture. The archives themselves are housed within the sections of the Special collection located in the Newman Library at Virginia Tech. When navigating the archive, look for the “Arrangement” Section. This gives you a general overview of what type of information they have on the person like publications, faculty research papers, etc. You can scroll down to see what is of interest to you and look at the “Box-Folder” and numbers that indicate the location. You can request to see that information in a variety of ways. We recommend, reaching out to the archivists via email and they can further assist you.all brief of your lady - 300 word max.