Natalie de Blois

Her notable works include the Pepsi Cola Headquarters, Lever House, and the Union Carbide Building in New York City; the Equitable Building in Chicago; the low-rise portions of the Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan; and the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Headquarters in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Several of de Blois' buildings are among the tallest woman-designed buildings in the world. She later taught architecture at the University of Texas in the 1980s and 1990s. 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]".

Natalie de Blois studied at Columbia University and Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The recorded working language is French. Employment is recorded with University of Texas System. Works named in the authority record are 270 Park Avenue.

• Name — Natalie de Blois • Born — 2 April 1921 • Birthplace — Paterson, New Jersey, US • Died — 22 July 2013 • Place of death — Chicago, Illinois, US • Education — Columbia University • Practice — Skidmore, Owings & Merrill • Significant Buildings — Union Carbide Building, Lever House, Pepsi Cola Headquarters, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Headquarters

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

De Blois began her career at a New York firm, Ketchum, Giná & Sharp, but was fired after she "rebuffed the affections" of one of the firm's male architects. She then joined the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM). While working at SOM, De Blois became known as a "pioneer" female architect in the "male-dominated world of architecture." 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). 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." In 1962, she transferred to the Chicago headquarters of SOM, where she worked on skyscrapers until 1974. While there, she founded the Chicago Women in Architecture. Richard Tomlinson, the managing partner of SOM's Chicago office, said it was the "best thing that ever happened to us", and De Blois was eventually promoted to associate partner in 1964. Her works in Chicago include the Equitable Building. De Blois joined Neuhaus & Taylor (now known as 3-D International) in Houston in 1974. In 1980, she began teaching at the University of Texas School of Architecture, and was a faculty member until 1993. She died at age 92 in Chicago, and had her ashes scattered on Lake Michigan. 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."

• Union Carbide Building (later known as the Chase Building), 270 Park Avenue, New York – Completed 1960, de Blois Senior Designer • New York State Building, 5 East 57th Street, New York – Designer of 1946 renovation • Terrace Plaza Hotel, Cincinnati, Ohio – 1948, Design Coordinator • The Terrace Plaza's Gourmet Room restaurant, considered one of the most iconic public spaces in a landmark of modernist architecture. • 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 • Boots Pure Drug Co., Nottingham, England, 1968

• Illustration — Lever House New York, New York 1952 • Illustration — Union Carbide Building (later known as, 270 Park Avenue) New York, New York 1954 • Illustration — Connecticut General Life Insurance Headquarters Bloomfield, Connecticut 1957 • Illustration — Pepsi Cola Headquarters New York, New York 1959 • Illustration — Equitable Building Chicago, Illinois 1965 • Illustration — Exterior of the Gourmet Room • Illustration — Interior of the Gourmet Room

• 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 collection, Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin • AIA Historical Directory of American Architects

The following is established of the heading itself.

The following is established of origins and background. Blois died in 2013 at Chicago. It is also recorded that natalie de Blois was born in 1921 at Paterson.

The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count.