The New York times started the new year off with an article on Marion Mahony Griffin. Partly about the efforts by scholars to publicize her work, partly biographical sketch, and mentions the on-line version of her Magic of America and the recent book on Millikin Place, published by the Walter Burley Griffin Society.
The broader effort to devote more attention to female architects has also focused attention on Lilly Reich, who worked in Germany with Mies; Aino Aalto, who worked in Finland with her husband, Alvar; and more recently, Denise Scott Brown, the Philadelphia architect who many say was cheated when her husband and partner, Robert Venturi, was awarded the Pritzker Prize on his own in 1991. Among Mahony’s champions is Elizabeth Birmingham, an assistant professor of English at North Dakota State University in Fargo. “The specifics of Marion’s life fell victim to the primary scholarly effort to establish and fix the canon of ‘great men’ whose genius-personalities, buildings and texts would become central to the story of architecture,” she wrote in a dissertation.
The recognition is overdue, and deserved, but the article is disappointing — too short, a bit shallow and a not-exactly-flattering portrait of her character.
But, the acknowledgment of her work is overdue, and drawing attention to the on-line Magic of America is a wonderful thing, so the article is hard to fault.
2 Comments
The Magic of America is so cool, but what’s more pressing to me: is her maiden name really pronounced “Mah-ni”? We’ve been puzzling over that one for days.
I’ve seen that pronunciation referenced in more than one source, so I’m guessing that is accurate.
Given that she lived into the 1960s, and that there must still be many alive who knew her, I’d go with it unless someone disputes it.