Ada Louise Huxtable
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Ada Louise Huxtable (née Landman; March 14, 1921 – January 7, 2013) was an
architecture critic Architecture criticism is the critique of architecture. Everyday criticism relates to published or broadcast critiques of buildings, whether completed or not, both in terms of news and other criteria. In many cases, criticism amounts to an assessmen ...
and writer on architecture. Huxtable established architecture and urban design journalism in North America and raised the public's awareness of the urban environment. In 1970, she was awarded the first ever
Pulitzer Prize for Criticism The Pulitzer Prize for Criticism has been presented since 1970 to a newspaper writer in the United States who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism'. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by C ...
. In 1981, she was named a
MacArthur Fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...
. Architecture critic
Paul Goldberger Paul Goldberger (born in 1950) is an American author, architecture critic and lecturer. He is known for his "Sky Line" column in ''The New Yorker''. Biography Shortly after starting as a reporter at ''The New York Times'' in 1972, he was assign ...
, also a Pulitzer Prize-winner (1984) for architectural criticism, said in 1996: "Before Ada Louise Huxtable, architecture was not a part of the public dialogue." "She was a great lover of cities, a great preservationist and the central planet around which every other critic revolved," said architect
Robert A. M. Stern Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern (born May 23, 1939), is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, also known a ...
, dean of the Yale University School of Architecture.


Early life

Huxtable was born and died in New York City. She went to Hunter College in 1941 and after her graduation she studied architectural history at New York University 's Institute of Fine Arts. Ada Louise Landman received an A. B. (''magna cum laude'') from Hunter College, CUNY in 1941. In 1942, she married industrial designer L. Garth Huxtable, and continued graduate study at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...
from 1942 to 1950. From 1950 to 1951 she spent one year in Italy on a scholarship of the U.S.-Italy Fulbright Commission.


Career

She served as Curatorial Assistant for Architecture and Design at the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
(MoMA) in New York from 1946 to 1950. She received a Fulbright Scholarship, which enabled her to travel in Italy and research Italian architecture and engineering. Given this opportunity, she left MoMA. In 1958, she also received a Guggenheim Fellowship to research the structural and design advances of American architecture. She was a contributing editor to ''
Progressive Architecture The Progressive Architecture Awards (P/A Awards) annually recognise risk-taking practitioners and seek to promote progress in the field of architecture. History The editors of ''Progressive Architecture'' magazine hosted the first Progressive Arch ...
'' and '' Art in America'' from 1950 to 1963 before being named the first architecture critic at ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', a post she held from 1963 to 1982. Her architectural writings were about the humanistic meaning and artistic power that also involved her displeasure for projects that were missing civic engagement. She made architecture a more prevalent part of the public dialogue by appearing on the front page of ''The New York Times''. From 1968 to 1971, her public opinion was found so successful that it was commemorated in ''New Yorker'' cartoons. She received grants from the
Graham Foundation The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts is a 501(c)3 non-profit that “fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. The Graham realize ...
for a number of projects, including the book ''Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard?''. She was elected a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1974 and a member of the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
in 1989. Huxtable was the architecture critic for ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', a position she held from 1997 until 2012. John Costonis, writing of how public aesthetics is shaped, used her as a prime example of an influential media critic, remarking that "the continuing barrage fired from erSunday column... had New York developers, politicians, and bureaucrats, ducking for years." He reproduces a cartoon in which construction workers, at the base of a building site with a foundation and a few girders lament that "Ada Louise Huxtable already doesn't like it!" Carter Wiseman wrote, "Huxtable's insistence on intellectual rigor and high design standards made her the conscience of the national architectural community." She wrote over ten books on architecture, including a 2004 biography of
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
for the ''Penguin Lives'' series. She was credited as one of the main forces behind the founding of the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in 1965. At the same time, she was a severe critic of addressing the city's past, writing in 1968:
Nothing beats keeping the old city where it belongs and where its ghosts are at home. utplease, gentlemen, no horse-drawn cars, no costumes, no wigs, no stage sets, no cute-old stores, no 're-creations' that never were, no phony little-old-New York.... That is perversion, not preservation.
Huxtable's oral biography, by
Lynn Gilbert Lynn Gilbert (born January 7, 1938) is a photographer and author best known for her portraits of illustrious women from the 1920s to the 1980s and her documentation of Turkish homes and interiors. Life and career Gilbert grew up in New York ...
, is included in ''Particular Passions: Talk With Women Who Shaped Our Times''. Through the years, she became such an important figure for the architectural world that she was invited to be involved in numerous juries and committees. For example, she served as a juror for the Pritzker Architecture Prize and Preamium Imperiale of Japan. She was also a member on the Architectural Selection and Building Design Committees for the Getty Center,
Getty Villa The Getty Villa is at the easterly end of the Malibu coast in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. One of two campuses of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Villa is an educational center and museum dedi ...
and more.


Archive

In 2013, the
Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".
announced its acquisition of the Huxtable archive, which spans 1921 through 2013 and includes 93 boxes and 19 file drawers of Huxtable's manuscripts and typescripts, reports, correspondence, and documents, as well as research files full of notes, clippings, photocopies, and, most notably, original photographs of architecture and design by contemporary photographers.


Publications

* ''Goodbye History, Hello Hamburger: An Anthology of Architectural Delights and Disasters'' (1986) * ''Architecture, Anyone? Cautionary Tales of the Building Art'' (1988) * ''Kicked A Building Lately?'' (1989) (first published in 1976) * ''Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard?'', a collection of material appearing in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' (1989) * ''The Tall Building Artistically Reconsidered'', a history of the skyscraper (1993) * ''The Unreal America: Architecture and Illusion'' (1999) * ''On Architecture: Collected Reflections on a Century of Change'' (2008) * ''Frank Lloyd Wright: A Life'' (2008)


References


External links


Pioneering Women of American Architecture, Ada Louise Huxtable

Tribute to Ada Louise Huxtable
a speech by
Paul Goldberger Paul Goldberger (born in 1950) is an American author, architecture critic and lecturer. He is known for his "Sky Line" column in ''The New Yorker''. Biography Shortly after starting as a reporter at ''The New York Times'' in 1972, he was assign ...
, architecture critic for ''The New Yorker''.
Huxtable interviewed on Charlie Rose


(German) in
Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (, ''Berlin Newspaper'') is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since reunification. It is published by Berliner ...
by Nikolaus Bernau * Finding aid for the Ada Louise Huxtable papers at the Getty Research Institute. * Finding aid for th
L. Garth Huxtable papers, 1913-2012
at the Getty Research Institute. {{DEFAULTSORT:Huxtable, Ada Louise American architecture critics Pulitzer Prize for Criticism winners Critics employed by The New York Times The New York Times Pulitzer Prize winners The Wall Street Journal people Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences People associated with the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) American curators American women curators Historical preservationists American biographers MacArthur Fellows Hunter College alumni New York University alumni Deaths from cancer in New York (state) 1921 births 2013 deaths American women biographers Writers from New York City Members of the American Philosophical Society