Eve Mirjam Laron OAM (1931 – 6 July 2009) [1] was a Hungarian-born Australia architectural writer based in Sydney. [2]
Laron was born in Hungary in 1931. In 1949, she left Hungary on foot with her future husband, George Gavriel Laron, walking through neighbouring Czechoslovakia to refugee camps in Vienna. She lived in Israel from 1949 to 1955 before emigrating to Sydney in 1955. [3] In 1983, she founded an organisation called Constructive Women Inc., an association for female architects, landscape architects, and planners, as well as other women involved in the building industry. [4] In 2001, she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of her contribution to architectural discipline. [5]
She died in 2009. Laron Lane is named after her in Australian Capital Territory. [6]
Marion Mahony Griffin was an American architect and artist. She was one of the first licensed female architects in the world, and is considered an original member of the Prairie School. Her work in the United States developed and expanded the American Prairie School, and her work in India and Australia reflected Prairie School ideals of indigenous landscape and materials in the newly formed democracies. The scholar Debora Wood stated that Griffin "did the drawings people think of when they think of Frank Lloyd Wright ." According to architecture critic, Reyner Banham, Griffin was "America’s first woman architect who needed no apology in a world of men."
Sir John Sulman was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the development of Canberra.
Catherine Winifred "Kate" Dwyer was an Australian educator, suffragist, and labour activist.
The Australian Institute of Architects, officially the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, is Australia's professional body for architects. Its members use the post-nominals FRAIA (Fellow), ARAIA and RAIA. The Institute supports 14,000 members across Australia, including 550 Australian members who are based in architectural roles across 40 countries outside Australia. SONA is the national student-membership body of the Australian Institute of Architects. EmAGN represents architectural professionals within 15 years of graduation, as part of the Australian Institute of Architects.
Florence Mary Taylor was the first qualified female architect in Australia. She was also the first woman in Australia to fly in a heavier-than-air craft in 1909 and the first female member of the UK's Institution of Structural Engineers in 1926. However, she is best known for her role as publisher, editor and writer for the influential building industry trade journals established in 1907 with her husband George, which she ran and expanded after his death in 1928 until her retirement in 1961.
Sancta Sophia College is a residential college for undergraduate women and postgraduate men and women at the University of Sydney. The college has a Catholic foundation but admits students of all religions. Fiona Hastings has been the Principal of the College since 2018.
The Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, also known as The University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, formerly the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, is a constituent body of the University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school was established in 1920.
Maria Rosaria Piomelli is an Italian architect. She became the first woman to hold the position of dean at any architectural school in the United States when she was appointed dean of the CCNY School of Architecture in 1980.
Women in architecture have been documented for many centuries, as professional practitioners, educators and clients. Since architecture became organized as a profession in 1857, the number of women in architecture has been low. At the end of the 19th century, starting in Finland, certain schools of architecture in Europe began to admit women to their programmes of study. In 1980 M. Rosaria Piomelli, born in Italy, became the first woman to hold a deanship of any school of architecture in the United States, as Dean of the City College of New York School of Architecture. In recent years, women have begun to achieve wider recognition within the profession, however, the percentage receiving awards for their work remains low. As of 2023, 11.5% of Pritzker Prize Laureates have been female.
Louisa Macdonald was an educationist and women's suffragist.
Shelley Jane Penn is a Melbourne-based award-winning architect, educator, urbanist and built environment advocate.
Helen Marian Lochhead is an Australian architect and urbanist who combines academic and expert advisory roles with practice. Her career has focused on the inception, planning, design, and delivery of complex urban projects ranging from city improvements programs to major urban regeneration projects. She has held numerous influential roles in government, industry and universities including Dean, Faculty of Built Environment and Pro Vice-Chancellor Precincts at UNSW Sydney, National President of the Australian Institute of Architects and Deputy Government Architect in NSW. She has served on various Panels and Boards including the NSW Independent Planning Commission, The Australian Heritage Council and the National Capital Authority.
Yvonne von Hartel is one of the founding members of Melbourne-based architectural and urban planning firm peckvonhartel, which was established in 1980 and since has expanded its offices to Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane. Von Hartel was the first woman to graduate with an honors degree in architecture from the University of Melbourne and is a Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects (LFAIA).
Eleanor Cullis–Hill was an Australian architect. Running a solo practice from her home between 1946 and 1981, she designed dozens of buildings and renovations, mostly residential, on Sydney's North Shore.
Muriel Stott (1889–1985) was probably the first woman with her own architectural firm in Australia, opening it in 1917. Between 1916 and 1930, she designed houses in Victoria and the surrounding area. Her most noted design is a house built for the Moran family in 1926 called "Little Milton".
Heather Sutherland (1903–1953) was an Australian architect working pre- and post-World War II in Canberra, the nation's capital. Together with her husband Malcolm Moir she formed the architecture practice, Moir & Sutherland. Their work is considered significant as it represents some of the earliest Canberran examples of 'truly modern design'.
Annabelle Nicole Pegrum, LFRAIA is an Australian architect, former public servant and academic.
Margaret Hendry was an Australian landscape architect, one of the first women to work in this field in Australia. She worked for the National Capital Development Commission in Canberra from 1963 to 1974 and later lectured at the Canberra College of Advanced Education.
The MLC Building is a landmark modernist skyscraper in the central business district of North Sydney, on a block bounded by Miller Street, Denison Street and Mount Street. Planned in 1954 and completed in 1957, the complex was designed in the modernist Post-war International style by architects, Bates, Smart & McCutcheon. Its completion marked the appearance of the first high-rise office block in North Sydney and the first use of curtain wall design. Built to provide much-needed office space for the Mutual Life & Citizens Assurance Company Limited, the building continues to be primarily-occupied by its original tenants. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 January 2024.