Curator – Wendy Scott Bertrand
It was with one year of college, one year traveling around the world on a shoestring, and another year while living in France, when architecture was suggested to me as a career by an occupational counselor in 1964. I am still interested and engaged with the discipline and the profession. After attending the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Montpellier, France, in 1967, I returned to my home state to earn a Bachelor of Architecture, 1971 and a Master’s of Architecture, 1972 from the University of California at Berkeley, my daughter was 16 months old. In 1978, I obtained registration as a licensed architect on Ohlone lands in California.
My largest chunk of professional work was with several agencies of the Federal Government as an architect. Working as an Architectural Department Head and as an Engineering Division Director among other job titles, I practiced my values of attempting new ways of working, deliberate fairness and respect for the value of an individual’s daily experience along with the actual work.
After leaving Federal Service I decided to write my memoir, Enamored With Place As Woman+As Architect (2012). I saw it as an act in transparency, telling one everyday woman architect’s experiences, hoping to expose readers to the practice of architecture, and to encourage other women to write their stories and concerns, as so few biographies in the English language are about women. Along with sales to readers through bookstores, I targeted libraries of all types, international locations and architectural schools to neighborhood street libraries, over 100 are listed on my sister website: wendybertrand.com.
My participation in the creation and involvement during past decades within the Organization of Women Architects + Design Professionals (OWA +DP), along with other activist concerns, helped develop my interest in organizational behavior, history, social issues in architecture and placemaking, especially with concern for women’s issues and feminisms.
As a fiber artist I knit, spin yarns and weave carpets.
Additional Informational Links
Enamored With Place: As Woman + As Architect (Eyeonplace Press, San Francisco, 2012)
www.youtube.com/user/enamoredwithplace
International Archive of Women in Architecture – IAWA Center News No. 24 Fall 2012 & 2022 No 25/26
International Archive of Women in Architecture –Wendy Scott Bertrand Collection
Data Manager – Mitchell Lawrence
In 2020, I graduated with my Bachelor’s of Science in architecture from Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. Soon after, Wendy and I met during a series of zoom architectural working group sessions about the architect’s role in addressing Global Warming and the limits of the planet.
I relocated to San Francisco from my home state of Michigan in 2022, where I am now working as an architectural designer. The majority of my first year was spent writing a Housing Guide for the residents of Plumas County, California, who are navigating the complicated process of rebuilding their community which burned in the Dixie Wildfire in 2021. Recent interests focus at the intersections of community, space, environment, policy, and social justice. My professional background includes internships in Japan, and as a project and technology consultant at the University of Michigan Libraries.
It has been my pleasure to be a working member on this project, not only as the data manager, but also because I was invited to support Wendy’s project, in the development, design, and refinement of the contents of this website, A Feminist Architect’s Library Database.
Outside of work, I enjoy practicing landscape photography, hand drawing, watching films, and exploring the beautiful city of San Francisco.