Natalie de Blois

De Blois was born in Paterson, New Jersey, into a family of three generations of engineers.[3] 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."[4] She attended the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, and received an architecture degree from Columbia University in 1944.[5][6] While at Columbia, she worked at Babcock & Wilcox during the summer and for Frederick John Kiesler.[7]

De Blois began her career at a New York firm, Ketchum, Gina, and Sharpe,[5] but was fired after "rebuff[ing] the affections" of one of the firm's male architects, who asked for her to be fired.[8] She then joined the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM).[9] While working at SOM, De Blois became known as a "pioneer" as a female architect in the "male-dominated world of architecture."[8] She designed a number of 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."[6]

She transferred to the Chicago branch of SOM in 1962, continuing to work on skyscrapers in Chicago until 1974.[9] While there, she founded the Chicago Women in Architecture.[9] Richard Tomlinson, the managing partner of SOM's Chicago office, believes 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.

De Blois joined Neuhaus & Taylor (now known as 3-D International) in Houston in 1974.[9] In 1980, she began teaching at the University of Texas School of Architecture, and was a faculty member until 1993.[9] She died at age 92 in Chicago.

In 2014, De Blois was recognized for her work designing the Pepsi Cola World Headquarters and Union Carbide Building, winning sites of Built by Women New York City,[10] a competition launched by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation during the fall of 2014 to identify outstanding and diverse sites and spaces designed, engineered and built by women. Willis is quoted as saying "There wasn't anybody in the country quite like Natalie, because there was no one else working for a firm quite like Skidmore."[1]

• Union Carbide Building (now known as the Chase Building), 270 Park Avenue, New York - Completed 1960, de Blois Senior Designer[9]
• New York State Building, 5 East 57th Street, New York - Designer of 1946 renovation
• Terrace Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio - 1948, Design Coordinator
• Lever House, New York - 1952, Design Coordinator
• Pepsi Cola Headquarters, 500 Park Avenue, New York - Senior Designer
• Emhart Manufacturing Company Building - 1962, Senior Designer
• Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Headquarters, Bloomfield, Connecticut - 1957, Senior Designer
• Equitable Building, Chicago[8]

• 
  Lever House
  New York, New York 1952
• 
  Union Carbide Building (now 270 Park Avenue)
  New York, New York 1954
• 
  Connecticut General Life Insurance Headquarters
  Bloomfield, CT 1957
• 
  Pepsi Cola Headquarters
  New York, New York 1959
• 
  Equitable Building
  Chicago, Illinois 1965
• 
  270 Park Avenue
  New York, New York 1960

• Fulbright fellowship to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
• Edward J. Romieniec Award, recognizing an outstanding architectural educator, by the Texas Society of Architects
• Named honoree of the Natalie de Blois scholarship, UT Austin
• Fellow of the AIA (1974)

• Oral history of Natalie de Blois. Interview by Betty J. Blum, Chicago Architects Oral History Project, Ernest R. Graham Study Center for Architectural Drawings, Department of Architecture, the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Susana Torre, Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective
• Natalie de Blois papers, University of Texas Architecture School
• AIA Historical Directory of American Architects