According to ArchDaily's Kayle Overstreet, De Blois's career legacy and body of work, "significantly changed the way that women can participate in the [architecture] profession [in the 21st century]".[3]
Early years
De Blois was born in Paterson, New Jersey, into a family of three generations of engineers.[4] She was interested in architecture from an early age, saying in 2004, "I was selected to be the one that would go into art. I told my father that I wanted to be an architect from the age of ten or twelve."[5] She attended the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, and received an architecture degree from Columbia University in 1944.[6][7] While at Columbia, she worked at Babcock & Wilcox during the summer and for Frederick John Kiesler.[8]
Architectural career
De Blois began her career at a New York firm, Ketchum, Giná & Sharp,[6] but was fired after she "rebuffed the affections" of one of the firm's male architects.[9] She then joined the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM).[10] While working at SOM, De Blois became known as a "pioneer" as a female architect in the "male-dominated world of architecture."[9] She designed major business buildings on Park Avenue in New York City, including the Pepsi building and the Union Carbide Building (now known as the Chase Building).[1] She worked with Gordon Bunshaft on the Pepsi building, which was completed in 1960 and was "praised by critics for its gem-like, seemingly levitating exterior walls of gray-green glass and aluminum."[7]
In 1962, she transferred to the Chicago headquarters of SOM, where she worked on skyscrapers until 1974.[10] While there, she founded the Chicago Women in Architecture.[10] Richard Tomlinson, the managing partner of SOM's Chicago office, said it's the "best thing that ever happened to us", and De Blois was eventually promoted to associate partner in 1964.[2] Her works in Chicago include the Equitable Building.
In 2014, De Blois was recognized for designing the Pepsi Cola World Headquarters and Union Carbide Building by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, whose Built by Women New York City competition identified outstanding and diverse sites and spaces designed, engineered, and built by women. Willis said, "There wasn't anybody in the country quite like Natalie, because there was no one else working for a firm quite like Skidmore."[1]
Notable projects
Union Carbide Building (later known as the Chase Building), 270 Park Avenue, New York - Completed 1960, de Blois Senior Designer[10]
Fulbright fellowship to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, 1951–52
Edward J. Romieniec, FAIA, Award for Outstanding Educational Contributions, recognizing an outstanding architectural educator, by the Texas Society of Architects, 1988
Named honoree of the Natalie de Blois scholarship, UT Austin