{{short description|American architect}} {{Infobox architect | name = Judith Edelman | image = Judith_Edelman.jpg | image_size = <!-- if image is smaller than 250px --> | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Judith Hochberg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|9|23}} | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York | death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|10|4|1923|9|23}} | death_place = | alma_mater = Connecticut College<br>New York University<br>Columbia University | spouse = Harold Edelman | partner = | children = | parents = | awards = | practice = Huson Jackson<br> Edelman Sultan Knox Wood/Architects | significant_buildings = | significant_projects = Phelps House<br>9G Cooperative Apartments | significant_design = | signature = | website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} --> }} '''Judith Deena Edelman''' (September 23, 1923 – October 4, 2014) was an American architect. She designed a variety of projects in New York with her firm Edelman Sultan Knox Wood/Architects. A feminist, she was an advocate for the advancement of women in architecture and led the American Institute of Architects' first task force on women.
==Early life== Edelman was born Judith Hochberg in Brooklyn in 1923. Her parents were migrants from Eastern Europe. She was interested in architecture from a young age after visiting an architectural office as a high school student. She attended Connecticut College, New York University and Columbia University,<ref name=nyt>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/business/judith-edelman-architect-91-is-dead-firebrand-in-a-male-dominated-field.html|title=Judith Edelman, Architect, 91, Is Dead; Firebrand in a Male-Dominated Field |date=October 18, 2014|first=Douglas|last=Martin|work=The New York Times|accessdate=October 20, 2015}}</ref> finishing her Bachelor of Architecture at Columbia in 1946.<ref name=mag>{{cite web|url=http://www.architectmagazine.com/design/judith-edelman-pioneer-of-women-in-architecture-dies-at-91_o|title=Judith Edelman, Pioneer of Women in Architecture, Dies at 91|first=Elizabeth Evitts|last=Dickinson|work=Architect Magazine|accessdate=October 20, 2015}}</ref>
==Career== During Edelman's time in Columbia University, her class had several women (due to World War II) who were never given respect to by the architecture professors. Her and a few classmates were not content with the curriculum, and succeeding spoke up for it to be more challenging. After graduating from Columbia, Edelman struggled to find work and was told by numerous employers that they would not hire women. She worked briefly designing mental hospitals before she was hired by the Greenwich Village-based architect Huson Jackson.<ref name=nyt/> In 1960, she co-founded Edelman and Salzman Architects (later known as Edelman Sultan Knox Wood/Architects) with her husband, Harold Edelman, and Stanley Salzman.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.edelmansultan.com/legacy/decade/1960s|publisher=Edelman Sultan Knox Wood/Architects|title=1960s|accessdate=October 20, 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151103081213/http://www.edelmansultan.com/legacy/decade/1960s|archivedate=November 3, 2015}}</ref>
Edelman was a frequent campaigner for the advancement of women architects and insisted that women should become involved in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) although it was "an exclusive gentleman's club".<ref name=places>{{cite web|url=https://placesjournal.org/article/the-incredible-true-adventures-of-the-architectress-in-america/|title=The Incredible True Adventures of the Architectress in America|date=September 2012|first=Gabrielle|last=Esperdy|work=Places Journal|accessdate=October 20, 2015}}</ref> She was the first woman to be elected to the executive committee of the AIA's New York chapter in 1972.<ref>{{cite web|last1=MoMA|title=Women in architecture|url=http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=wia}}</ref> In 1972, she founded the Alliance of Women in Architecture, an organization to promote the advancement of women architects.<ref name=nyt/> The next year, she was a co-author of "Status of Women in the Architectural Profession", a resolution for the AIA that encouraged the institute to adapt to the "climate of change" brought about by the feminist movement of the time.<ref name=mag/> At the AIA national convention in 1974, she gave a presentation about the fact that only 1.2 percent of American registered architects were women, claiming that the only industries with a smaller proportion of women were coal mining and steel work.<ref name=nyt/> After the presentation, she was recruited to lead the AIA's first task force on women,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2014/10/141021-Remembering-Architect-Judith-Edelman-1923-2014.asp?WT.mc_id=rss_archrecord|title=Remembering Architect Judith Edelman, 1923–2014|work=Architectural Record|date=October 21, 2014|first=Cathleen|last=McGuigan|accessdate=October 21, 2015}}</ref> and came to be called "Dragon Lady" at AIA headquarters.<ref name=nyt/> She was the inspiration for Gloria and Esther Goldreich's 1974 children's book titled ''What Can She Be? An Architect''.<ref name=nyt/>
With the firm she started, Edelman worked on a variety of projects in New York City, including many affordable housing projects.<ref name=nyt/> One such was Phelps House, a housing complex with a community center for the elderly, completed in 1983. In the 1960s she worked on a design to convert nine brownstone houses on the Upper West Side into a single building while preserving their facades; the building is now 9G Cooperative Apartments. Her designs won awards from the AIA, the Municipal Art Society and the City Club of New York, and she and her husband won the Andrew J. Thomas Pioneer in Housing award from the AIA's New York chapter in 1990.<ref name=mag/>
==Personal life== She married Harold Edelman in 1947. They had two sons, Marc and Joshua and eight grandchildren. She died of a heart attack on October 4, 2014.<ref name=nyt/>
==References== {{reflist|30em}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Judith Deena Edelman |url=https://architectuul.com/architect/judith-deena-edelman |access-date=2024-03-05 |website=Architectuul}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Moldenhauer |first1=Judith A. |last2=Berkeley |first2=Ellen Perry |last3=McQuaid |first3=Matilda |date=March 1990 |title=Women's Ways of Building |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4020753 |journal=The Women's Review of Books |volume=7 |issue=6 |pages=29 |doi=10.2307/4020753|jstor=4020753 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edelman, Judith}} Category:1923 births Category:2014 deaths Category:American women architects Category:American feminists Category:Connecticut College alumni Category:Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation alumni Category:Architects from Brooklyn Category:21st-century American women