Women a Growing Force in S.D. Architecture : Some Still Don’t Feel Entirely Accepted

Women architects in San Diego all seem to have their pet stories about what it was like to break into a field traditionally dominated by men.

“At an interview I went to a number of years ago, I was shocked,” said Judy Clinton, now working in Rob Quigley’s office.

“They asked, ‘Are you married? Do you have children? Are you going to? What does your husband do?’ And this was in the mid-’80s!”

Another office explained to architect Alison Whitelaw that they couldn’t hire her because women aren’t strong enough to lift heavy sets of plans.

At 47, Clinton belongs to a generation of women who broke into architecture the hard way, in days when female architects were few and far between. Her younger peers, especially those just out of school, report that things have taken a drastic change for the better.

Still, women who want to make it as architects face barriers.

The American Institute of Architects’ San Diego chapter recently surveyed architects’ salaries. Although a significant number of those polled were women, the AIA decided not to break out women’s pay separately; a possible cover-up, some of the women believe. One architect who has seen the survey said it shows women are paid at least 10% less than men.

In terms of sheer numbers, women are gaining strength.

The local AIA chapter probably has 50 to 60 women among its 1,000 members, said chapter President Ed Grochowiak. Women in Architecture’s San Diego chapter recently counted 60 registered female architects in San Diego, plus 112 interns who will soon be eligible to take licensing exams.

Women may now represent 20% of all architectural school graduates, Grochowiak estimated. That’s a far cry from his days at the University of Illinois 25 years ago, where only one of 700 architecture students was female.

Question of Acceptance

Although the numbers are coming around, many female architects still don’t feel entirely accepted by their male counterparts.

Sometimes, this can be simply a confidence problem, but other times their fears are legitimate. Men occasionally question their credibility.

“There have been a couple of situations where I had to tell myself to keep it together,” said Whitelaw, a staff architect at Batter Kay Associates, whose job includes inspecting job sites. The contractors she deals with are usually men. “I’ve stood my ground when all I wanted to do was run and hide.”

Grochowiak recalled the case of an attractive female staff architect at SGPA Planning and Architecture, where he is a principal. Eventually, she overcame the whistles she faced when she visited projects to check construction.

To provide moral and professional support, Clinton, Whitelaw and architect Chica Love founded Women in Architecture 10 years ago. Although some local architects, both men and women, believe the group’s function is primarily social, most of its members disagree.

‘Full of Bananas’

“They’re full of bananas,” Clinton responded. “The three of us started the group because we wanted to have an old girls’ group like the men have an old boys’ group. The AIA was, and still is, a male dominated group. We just felt real uncomfortable. We wanted a place where we could discuss some of the professional issues.

“If you asked the men questions, they’d put you down, even if they didn’t know the answers themselves.”

WIA’s monthly meetings often take the form of serious discussions or tours.

One Saturday recently, they walked through a new Mission Valley high-rise with the architect. On two consecutive days last month, they visited local firms with several women on staff.

“Networking is a hackneyed term, but that is a significant benefit,” said Leslie Allen, this year’s WIA president, employed by Bokal Kelley-Markham Architects. “I got this job through a reference from a friend and fellow WIA member. I helped get her a job in John Nalevanko’s office.”

It’s the same system men have been using successfully for years.

Do women bring different strengths and weaknesses to the drafting table?

Whitelaw said that, after several years of experience, she feels her talents are comparable to those of a man of similar tenure, even if she was brought up with different toys and the idea that women are docile while men are assertive.

She and other women said male architects tend to leap to decisions more quickly, while women are more willing to hear different opinions before making a choice.

So far, San Diego has few significant buildings attributable to women. Lilian Rice laid out downtown Rancho Santa Fe in the ‘20s and designed several buildings there, plus a number of houses. Hazel Waterman, who once worked with Irving Gill, is best known for the design of the Wednesday Club on East Ivy Lane (circa 1910), done in the sleek stucco box tradition of Irving Gill.

Love has designed military housing and, with husband and architect Lee Platt, their house. Clinton designed her house, but in Quigley’s office, she mostly translates other people’s designs into working drawings.

Cindy Blair of SGPA is a project manager on the huge Hazard Center project being built near California 163 and Friars Road, and on the renovation of College Grove Shopping Center.

Janice Kay Batter, a partner in Batter Kay Architects with husband Mike Batter, is the overachiever many local women would like to emulate. She’s virtually the only woman whose work has received kudos from the local AIA chapter in each of the last several years. Her work has been published often in national and international magazines.

The refreshingly positive approach of the young generation should assure Kay Batter of some company soon.

“It’s all a matter of attitude,” says Batter Kay intern Bic Newsome. “If you expect to be discriminated against, you may be. I just deal with one thing at a time.”

DESIGN NOTES

A rhapsodic essay on architect Irving Gill’s La Jolla buildings, especially the Women’s Club and the Kautz house (now the Bed & Breakfast Inn), appears in the November issue of Metropolitan Home. . . . The home of husband and wife architects Lee Platt and Chica Love is being photographed for Better Homes & Gardens. Love says there is talk of putting it on the cover. . . . Buzz Yudell and John Ruble, architects for the Escondido Civic Center’s second phase, were in town for their first design meeting two weeks ago. Their internationally acclaimed partner Charles Moore, based in Texas, is expected to visit every month or two. . . . Architect Cindy Blair of SGPA Planning and Architecture received a pleasant surprise when she ran plans for the new addition to College Grove Shopping Center through City Hall. Plan checker Bill Evans also approved the original plans 30 years ago. . . . Architect Wally Cunningham is haggling with the California Coastal Commission over a new home for a client in La Jolla. The commission wants so much fire clearance that the house would only be 12 feet wide.