Works of Women Architects Shown

The works of four prolific women architects in the first 50 years of this century are on exhibit through May 11 at UCLA’s Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning in Gallery 1220.

Alice Constance Austin was an expert in building adobe houses and in 1935 outlined her ideal socialist community in her book titled “The Next Step.”

Edith Northman received her architecture degree in Denmark and migrated to California in 1920; she designed individual and multi-unit residences and in the 1930s designed 50 gas stations for Union Oil.

Edla Muir was just 13 years old when she apprenticed to John Byers, a craftsman who later became an architect. She designed more than 200 projects, mostly residential, and was known for her use of natural materials and careful integration of outdoor and indoor space.

Julia Morgan, the best known of the four, had an engineering degree from UC Berkeley and was the first woman to graduate from the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts. Among her more than 700 projects, Morgan designed the Hearst Castle at San Simeon, the former Herald-Examiner building and five YMCAs in Los Angeles, as well as homes for actress Marion Davis.