The university dorms had curfews for women (but not for men), and all female students were required to live in residence. Life in the architectural studio included the usual late nights. Staying out all night (part of the night was not an option) meant risking financial aid and other penalties. Luckily I had the support of residence staff, who would warn me of scheduled fire drills when each person was counted, and I’d be sure to work in my room on those nights. Survival by stealth.
At my first job in an architect’s office (summers and later full-time) at Eero Saarinen and Associates/Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates, the staff of eighty-plus included only three professional women when I arrived: one technician, one foreign-trained architect and one interior designer. Again, there were no real role models, so I just kept swimming.
In 1974 when my husband and fellow architect, Kiyoshi Matsuzaki, and I began working with Arthur Erickson Architects in Vancouver, I met my first and still-active role model, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, landscape architect. She showed me how to balance a robust professional career, family and volunteer work – all the while maintaining good humour and a positive outlook.
During the design and construction of the C.K. Choi Building for the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia in the mid-1990s, I had the exceptional experience of working with a mostly female team. We were determined to take the concept of environmental responsibility as far as it could go. Energy and resource conservation was a primary concern, but the design solution also created a healthy and desirable place to work. Virtually every workstation has a large window that opens and its own temperature controls. Odourless paint, carpets laid without glue and constantly circulating fresh air eliminated the usual toxins found in buildings.
I am convinced that we blossomed in the exceptionally supportive atmosphere that grew out of our weekly gatherings. The result was an environmentally sustainable project well ahead of its time. We all declared our love for nature and our responsibility to future generations. Some of the many sustainable design practices followed in the C.K. Choi Building include the use of recycled building materials, natural ventilation and lighting, and stormwater retention (rainwater storage for irrigation). Water resources are further conserved with composting toilets and a greywater system, which is used to irrigate the surrounding landscape.
At the induction ceremony for newly registered architects in British Columbia in December 1989 a few women spoke of the unreasonable hurdles they had encountered in their education and registration paths. We wondered how widespread these experiences and sentiments were. After some phone calls, eighty women packed into a small meeting room to share their stories – and to demand change. We organized a Saturday workshop in the spring of 1990; with over 100 attendees, this was the beginning of Women in Architecture B.C., a group that is still active. That initial workshop identified common wishes for mentors and support systems that women could easily access, especially for those working in isolation. Over the years this group has been an advocate for change in the professional institutes; provided seminars, tours and newsletters; published the book Constructing Careers: Profiles of Five Early Women Architects in British Columbia in 1996; and curated several exhibits.
In 1998, when I became the first woman president of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the RAIC Board agreed to support workshops that would provide a forum for women to exchange information and ideas for change. We asked participants to offer specific recommendations to schools, to professional organizations and to architectural practices on how to make our profession more welcoming to women. From all regions, we heard the need for more female faculty at schools of architecture, more flexibility for women balancing family and careers, more networking opportunities. In many sessions we discussed the possibility of a national organization of Women in Architecture, perhaps under the umbrella of the RAIC. But that remains on our wish list.
As women architects around the world gain in prominence, it’s important to acknowledge the women who came before us and to celebrate their trail-blazing courage, passion for design and downright pigheadedness. This is our inheritance. The publication of this book is one more step toward reclaiming our past.
Eva Matsuzaki
Vancouver, October 2007
Since 1984, Eva Matsuzaki has been a principal of Matsuzaki Architects Inc., an award-winning leader in environmentally sensitive design. From 1985 to 1990, she served as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of British Columbia. From 1974 to 1984, she worked as an associate with Arthur Erickson Architects. Matsuzaki is a founding member of Women in Architecture B.C. and an advocate for women students and practitioners. She was the first woman president of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, elected in 1998.
Born in Riga, Latvia, Eva Matsuzaki (née Pupols) holds a B.Arch. degree from Cornell University. After graduation in 1966, she worked in the office of Eero Saarinen and Associates/Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates in Connecticut before moving to Vancouver in 1972.
MANSONS CONSTRUCTING THE CITY WALL, Cité des Dames, Collected Works of Christine de Pisan, fifteenth century, British Library.
Vitruvius, Palladio, Christopher Wren, Thomas Jefferson, Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier – these are just a few of the many great architects who have been recognized over the centuries. Many kings but no queens. There is a legend that Jane Wren, daughter of Christopher Wren who was charged with the rebuilding of London’s churches after the Great Fire of 1666, was responsible during her brief life for work on three Wren churches in east London. By the late nineteenth century, a few women architects had appeared but it was not until the second half of the twentieth century that women entered architecture in significant numbers.
This book is about women in architecture, yesterday and today, and about the establishment in Canada of the profession itself. Prior to 1890, architectural training in Canada was acquired through apprenticeship. Starting that year, courses in architecture were offered at the University of Toronto; in 1896, McGill University in Montreal followed suit. Today, there are eleven architectural programs at universities across the country.
It was from the Department of Architecture at the University of Toronto that Marjorie Hill graduated in 1920, the first “girl architect,” as described by a Toronto newspaper at the time. For the Record profiles Marjorie Hill and some of the women who followed her. They were among the first women to become architects in Canada.
Although this book focuses on the early women graduates in Architecture at the University of Toronto, three distinguished architects who were trained elsewhere should be mentioned: Catherine Chard Wisnicki, Phyllis Lambert and Blanche Lemco van Ginkel. Above and beyond their design work, these three women have made outstanding contributions to education within the profession.
Catherine Chard Wisnicki was the first woman to graduate in Architecture from McGill, in 1943. She was an active participant in the development of west coast modernism and taught for over twenty years in the School of Architecture at the University of British Columbia until her retirement in 1986.
Phyllis Lambert holds a master’s degree in Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology and had an award-winning architectural practice based in Montreal. In 1979, she founded the Canadian Centre for Architecture, a museum and international centre for architectural research – based on the conviction that architecture is an urgent public concern.
Blanche Lemco van Ginkel graduated from McGill in Architecture in 1945 and completed her master’s degree in City Planning at Harvard five years later. A distinguished educator as well as a successful architect and planner, van Ginkel was Director, then Dean of Architecture at the University of Toronto from 1977 to 1982.
Researched and written by women architects, this book speaks in a collective voice. It is our intention to