WE ARE PLEASED TO BE OFFERING BOTH IN-PERSON AND VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE OPTIONS FOR THIS EVENT! PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS TO JOIN EITHER VENUE.

For two decades, from 1963 to 1983, Chloethiel Woodard Smith ran the largest woman owned architectural practice in the United States.  Smith despised being labeled as a woman architect, but there were many ways in which her gender proved useful to her, even as she also suffered significant discrimination and harassment.  Most notably, she depended on women journalists, members of one the few professions in which women had historically been well represented in the United States.  Smith made good copy in part her gender made her exceptional.  Smith was not a boldly original designer.  Instead, much of her success depended upon the service she rendered the profession and the marketability of the housing she designed, as well as her eventual status as a consummate Washington insider.  Reconstructing the ways in which Smith adhered to some ladylike norms of her era while flouting others not only helps explain why her predominantly male client base hired her, but also the way in which mixing stereotypically male and female gender attributes made her unusual career possible. 

Kathleen James-Chakraborty is professor of art history at University College Dublin.  She holds a BA from Yale University, where she has been the Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History, and an MA and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.  Her books include German Architecture for a Mass Audience, Architecture since 1400, and Modernism as Memory: Building Identity in the Federal Republic of Germany.  In 2021-22 she was an Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Fellow at the Center at the National Gallery of Art.  She holds an Advanced European Research Council Grant for a project entitled “Expanding Agency: Women, Race, and the Global Dissemination of Modern Architecture.”

IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE

The lecture will take place at The First Congregational United Church of Christ, Second Floor, 945 G Street NW, Washington, DC. Reservations are not required. $10.00 for Latrobe Chapter members, student members (full time) free with ID, $15.00 for non-members. Doors will open at 6:30 pm for socialization and refreshments; lecture will begin at 7:00 pm.

VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE

Virtual attendance is free but advance registration is required to participate. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the lecture. Virtual lecture will begin at 7:00 PM. Please note that this event will not be recorded. TO REGISTER VIA ZOOM, CLICK HERE.