Episode 111: Anne Tyng Part One
Anne Tyng was born on July 14, 1920, in Jiangxi, China. Her parents, Ethel Atkinson and Walworth Tyng, were American Episcopalian missionaries stationed in China at the time. Anne would become the first licensed female architect in Pennsylvania and a key collaborator with Louis Kahn.
Anne was interested in design from an early age. She attended Radcliffe College, where she graduated in 1942, and later studied at Harvard’s architecture school, where she was influenced by notable architects like Walter Gropius. Despite her accomplishments, Anne faced challenges finding work as a woman in architecture. She briefly worked at various firms, including Knoll Associates, before joining the Philadelphia firm Storonov and Kahn, where her passion for geometry and mathematics significantly impacted her architectural work.
Anne had a pivotal role in many of the firm’s projects like the Yale University Art Gallery. Unfortunately her contributions were often overshadowed by her male counterparts. Anne even found time to design an innovative toy, the Tyng Toy, showcasing her creativity and design philosophy.
In her late 20’s Anne faced hostility during her architecture license exam. Despite facing this unwelcoming environment during the exam, she passed. She ultimately became the first licensed woman architect in Pennsylvania and a partner at Kahn's firm.
Caryatid: Raha Ashrafi and Marziah Zad
Raha Ashrafi and Marziah Zad, co-founders of ASHRAFI & ZAD DESIGN, are impressive architects with strong international credentials. Raha, who holds a Master's in Architecture from the University of Melbourne and studied sustainable design in Germany, is noted for her work at United Design Architects, including the upcoming Hamadean Chamber of Commerce project, which draws on Persian geometric principles. Marziah, with a Bachelor's from the University of Tehran and an MArch from IAAC, is also an educator at her alma mater and other universities.
Similar to Anne, geometry and rationality in architecture is a driving force of Ashrafi & Zad Design. Their firm leverages advanced design and technology to create inclusive built environments that empower communities and honor individual stories and identities.
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This transcript was prepared during the development of the episode.
Final recorded episode may deviate slightly from the content presented below as changes, edits, or improvements may be made during the recording and editing process.
Norgerie: Hi! Welcome to She Builds Podcast, where we share stories about women in the design and construction field, one lady at a time.
Jessica: This season’s theme is: “Pairs, Duos” . We are talking about ladies who were a part of a professional pair in some fashion.
Lizi: As always, we are not experts, we are just sharing stories about the information that we find, as friends having a fun conversation. If you find an error, send us an email and we will all continue learning.
Norgerie: Today we're talking about Anne Tyng, first licensed woman architect in Pennsylvania and longtime collaborator with Louis Khan. I’m Norgerie Rivas, being more social by joining a bocce league, in Houston Texas
Jessica: Hi, I’m Jessica Rogers doing activities with a new group of friends in Miami, FL
Lizi: Hi, I’m Lizi Raar, trying to get traction for a trivia team in San Francisco.
Norgerie: We got a lot to cover today so put on your seat belts. We're going fast and furious.
Lizi: Ready!
Jessica: Let’s do this!
Norgerie: The time was July 14, 1920, the place Jiangxi, China, Anne, with an e, Griswold Tyng was born. Don’t be fooled into thinking she’s Chinese. Anne’s parents were Ethel Atkinson (née Arens) and Walworth Tyng, American Episcopalian missionaries stationed in China.
Lizi: Ok, good clarification.
Jessica: oooh interesting
Norgerie: And don't let their job description of missionaries fool you into thinking these people were from modest means. That's a mistake I made before. No, these people came from an elite family in Boston. So elite that Anne's ancestor, Ann Tyng, without the E, has a portrait just casually hanging out in Boston’s Museum of Fine Art.
Lizi: Woah. Okayyy, I am getting a picture of what we’re working with here.
Jessica: yeah - this totally changed my initial impression - I was thinking humble beginnings
Norgerie: So Anne grew up in Asia but she and her family went on trips to the US often. Anne had been interested in design from a young age. She used to carve cities out of the soft stone and landscape around her family’s properties.
Lizi: That’s cool. Kind of like building a sandcastle, but subtractive.
Jessica: I’m sure traveling also aided in her love for design too
Norgerie: Yeah, that's true. When Anne was 18 she decided to go to college in the United States to study fine arts, so she lands at Radcliffe College. Do you remember if we've talked about this college before? Are any of our past ladies from this school?
Lizi: ya last week, but it’s in the same circles as some of the other historically female New England schools we’ve talked about in the past.
Norgerie: Ok then let's talk about it now. The Radcliffe College actually started out as the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, also known as “the Harvard Annex,” in 1879. It was known as that because since Harvard didn't allow women to attend their university, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz started her own higher education school, affiliated to Harvard. In 1894 they rebranded to Radcliffe College. So that's the story on Anne's alma mater.
Lizi: Gotcha.
Jessica: ahhh okay now I know why this sounds familiar - the Julia Roberts movie “Mona Lisa Smile” is about this school - one of my faves (has julia stiles, maggie glynhall, and kirtsen durst)
Norgerie: During her last year in school she learned about the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. This place was novel y'all. It was the first institution to teach design training to women only, apparently no boys allowed. Take that x-y-ers! So she started taking classes there.
Lizi: Yeah! That’s awesome. I have wondered about doing an episode about that school because there were a lot of ladies who came out of that school. Particularly landscape architects.
Norgerie: Yeah! That sounds like a good charette for you. I look forward to it.
Jessica: me too - I had no idea
Norgerie: Back to Anne, she graduated with a bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College in 1942.
Jessica: yeahhhh
Norgerie: Then during WWII Harvard allowed women to attend school cause Harvard needed the moneyz.
Lizi: Yup. Gotta get that tuition money.
Jessica: yep
Norgerie: Anne took full advantage of this opportunity. She went to the architecture school at Harvard where she had professors like Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer and episode 24 Catherine Bauer. No big deal.
Lizi: Casual list of professors. But good for Anne! Take that opportunity.
Jessica: okay shout out to Catherine Bauer and those other guys lol
Norgerie: In 1944 when she graduated from Harvard she was among the first group of women that could put that on their resume.
Lizi: YAY!
Jessica: so Awesome
Norgerie: After graduating she struggled to get a job, she wasn't taken seriously because, surprise surprise she had two x chromosomes. Within the span of a year she worked at three design firms and two of them were not architecture firms.
Lizi: Ugh. So sad that she couldn't find a job and yet not surprising.
Jessica: uughh that must have been frustrating
Norgerie: One of those design firms was Knoll Associates.
Jessica: Wait
Lizi: Knoll as in Knoll?
Norgerie: Yep, Knoll as in Knoll.
Jessica: OOOOO MMM GGGG
Norgerie: A year later she landed in Philadelphia. There she started working at the firm Storonov and Kahn.
Lizi: Kahn as in Kahn?
Norgerie: You're two for two.
Jessica: OOOOOOO yeahhhhhh
Norgerie: Before going any further in the story I should mention that Anne had a lifelong interest in geometric patterns and designs. This stemmed from her passion for mathematics. And it all led her to focus on space frame architecture and the structural possibilities of basic geometries, like triangles. Using interlocking geometric forms she created an architecture full of light. So yeah, she was influencing the designs of the firm Storonov and Kahn with her design theories.
Lizi: oooooo that’s such an interesting connection, but makes sense how patterns and mathematics would transfer to space frames.
Jessica:oooo I see what is happening
Norgerie: There are such cool examples of this. A famous one is the Yale University Art Gallery. I've seen it referred to as, Art “Center” but the actual name is Gallery. The project ran from the late 1940s until 1953. OK this project is a glass and brick building with a complex ceiling of concrete tetrahedra over oak flooring. But y'all this ceiling is 100% where it's at, and it has Anne Tyng written all over it.
Lizi: YES! We studied this building in school and it is very well known. I LOVE the ceiling in this building. But Norgerie, let’s talk about how when we learned about this in school we learned only about Louis Kahn designing it. So talk to me about Anne being involved and how they didn’t tell us the full story.
Jessica: Exactly! We were always told that this was Kahn’s work. But as soon she mentioned Anne’s interest in geometry- it all made sense - should have known. COME ON SCHOOLS - DO BETTER!
Norgerie: Oh yeah you're gonna notice very quickly this was the case for many many projects. It is well documented that it was Anne's research in geometry that led to the design decisions we admire of many of these famous projects but because it was not her name on the door, because she was a woman, because because because, all the work gets attributed solely to Kahn.
Jessica: LE SIGH, well today we are righting those wrong!
Norgerie: It is said that she was influenced by class act Buckminster Fuller, who she had been studying from at the University of Pennsylvania. I couldn't find when she started studying there so that will remain a mystery to us for now.
Lizi: BUCKY!
Jessica: Bucky!
Norgerie: You know how our ladies like to keep themselves beyond busy. Like seriously, beyond.
Lizi: Yes.
Jessica: For real!
Norgerie: Anne was no exception. In 1947, at the age of 27, Anne invented and put on the market the Tyng Toy, a modular kit available in three sizes small, medium, and large. Depending on which one you bought you would get 6 to 26 pieces. The pieces, which included plywood and dowel pins, could be assembled into various items, such as a stool, rocking horse, cart, or desk, and a lot of other possibilities. Anne's creativity, grasp of geometry, and how different pieces come together, as seen with the Tyng Toy, is something she carried into all her design work. And the Tyng Toy exhibited at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the ICA in Boston, and the Denver Children's Museum.
Jessica: okay let’s add inventor to the list!
Lizi: This is so cool! I love that she created this toy which sounds really fun first of all. And second, I can see how her love of geometry and things fitting together informed this toy in addition to her designs. Can we still find the toy today?
Norgerie: Unfortunately from what I could tell its no longer commercially sold. Maybe Ebay?
Jessica: just checked…. No dice but I saw images - looks cool
Norgerie: Ok back to architecture. You know what else happened in 1947?
Lizi: What?
Norgerie: Louis Khan and Oscar Stonorov parted ways. Louis got a big enough commission to start his own firm, the Samuel Radbill Building, and Anne was working on that, as well a bunch of other projects, like the Yale Art Gallery with Louis, so she stayed with him.
Lizi: Oh yeah, you can’t leave that behind.
Jessica: ooh yeah
Norgerie: Let’s dive into the Samuel Radbill Building. It's not very well known but those who do know say it was sorta the Yale Art Gallery before the Yale Art Gallery. There Anne and Louis explored the same ideas of structure and function as generator of form, structure as ornament. The entry pavilion has Anne written all over it. It's basically a big triangular form and we know our girl is all about the basic geometry.
Jessica: our girl loves the shapes! I’m happy we brought up structure as ornament - I alway associated that phrase with Kahn but now it’s more of an Anne thing then Kahn
Norgerie: very sadly this building fell into disarray and was demolished in 2021. They are building a new hospital on the same site. They tried to renovate the building but with the building in such bad shape and way more stricter codes in place now than in the 1940s it just made more sense to tear it down and start new. Still pretty sad to have lost such an important piece of history.
Jessica: ooooh noooo
Norgerie: At this point Anne was probably thinking hey I made a ridiculously awesome toy, I'm working on these amazing innovative architecture projects… it's time I get my license. A woman taking the architecture licensing exam sounds like no big deal, right?
Lizi: I mean I think it should be no big deal, but at this point in history it was kind of a big deal.
Norgerie: You're right, at that time it was a huge huge deal. She was the only woman taking the exam and she had to face hostility from a proctor… he turned his back to her and refused to give her the test. But haters could go ahead and hate all day long as Anne becomes the first woman licensed in architecture in the state of Pennsylvania.
Lizi: Oh my gosh. Openly trying to stop her from taking the exam is wild. Like if the state allows her to take it sir, it’s not your job to take things into your own hands. But way to go Anne for getting through that and getting her license!
Jessica: I just don’t understand why the proctor was so against it - like I’m sorry who is hurting, why the hatred and animosity. But screw you Proctor and nay sayers and thank you Anne for pulling through
Norgerie: Anne said in an interview that she was the only woman in the United States to take the architecture licensing exam that year.
Lizi: Wow. Sad but not surprising.
Jessica: that’s crazy!
Norgerie: y'all she's licensed and I couldn’t find an exact date of when this happened but I know she also made partner at Kahn’s firm!
Jessica: oh heyyyy
Lizi: WOO! Great job Anne.
Norgerie: Let's end this episode here, on a high note, she's an accomplished toy designer, licensed architect, and partner at an architecture firm. We will continue her story next week. Despite me trying really hard to be concise, there was just way too much I wanted to share about Anne so here we are.
Lizi: Yeah she did so much!
Jessica: yeah let’s keep the party going with another one!
Norgerie: I gotta say thank you to Lizi who convinced me to make this episode a two parter instead of me spending even more time than I already had trying to edit. I think Anne is the lady that took me the longest to research this season, I just was really fascinated by the work she did. Next week we’re gonna dive into details of a few of my favorite projects of hers.
Lizi: You’re welcome. We don’t want to cut short her story, so we gotta give her a bit more time!
Jessica: Agreed! As much as I’m dying to know that happens next - this just gives us more time to learn more about her and her work - so tune in next week – so excited!
Norgerie: Alright, now we have reached the second part of our episode, the Caryatid. A caryatid is a stone carving of a woman, used as a column or a pillar to support the structure of a Greek or Greek-style building. In each episode we choose a “caryatid” -- a woman who is working today, furthering the profession through their work, and who ties into the historical woman of our episode.
Norgerie: Drum roll please… Raha Ashrafi and Marziah Zad
Lizi and Jessica: (applause) Yeay!
Norgerie: That’s right today we have two for the price of one. Raha Ashrafi and Marziah Zad are the co-founders of the firm ASHRAFI & ZAD DESIGN.
Lizi: yay!
Norgerie: Raha Ashrafi is an award winning architect from Iran. She has a Masters of Architecture from the University of Melbourne, Australia and she also studied sustainable and environmental design at Stuttgart University, Germany. Marziah Zad is also an award winning architect from Iran, she has had a varied academic career with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Tehran and an MArch from Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia aka IAAC.
Lizi: lots of credentials.
Jessica: Such international students
Norgerie: We haven’t gotten to this part of the story yet but next time you’ll learn Anne was a professor, stay tuned to learn where. Well Marziah is a professor too! Marziah is a part of the faculty at her alma mater IAAC. And she has also taught at San Jose State University and the University of Oregon.
Lizi: Impressive!
Jessica: okay spoiler alert - but that also very cool about Marziah
Norgerie: The reason I was drawn to these two ladies today is because I came across an article in Architizer, 50 Women Rocking the World of Architecture and one of the ladies highlighted is Raha. There she is mentioned as a co-founder of the firm United Design Architects, UDA and during her time at said firm she worked on the Hamadean Chamber of Commerce that is fingers crossed going to be constructed by 2027. The design of this institutional structure is based on mathematical principles inspired by the legacy of Persian geometric theory; as quoted from Archetizer “this complex exudes rationality and order.”
Lizi: Sounds like our girl Anne!
Norgerie: So I was like, geometric theory, rationality, and order, yeah this is the caryatid. I start looking into her and learn that she has moved on from UDA, started another firm with her friend, no big deal. And I learn that her co-founder Marziah is all about lightweight structures, geometry, and computational design as they relate to space and identity. This is also Anne Tyng’s jam right there.
Lizi: Wow, they both are giving Anne vibes.
Jessica: just two peas in one pod
Norgerie: I really appreciate this quote from the Ashrafi and Zad Design website. “We focus on how advanced design techniques and technological innovation can benefit and empower communities, how to make our built environments more inclusive, and how architecture can offer opportunities for transformation through representation, respecting the stories of people and place, and offering a sense of belonging and identity.”
Lizi: I love this. Sounds like they’re doing really great work.
Jessica: yes! I really like this - such a great pick! Their works sounds amazig
Norgerie: Before we say goodbye we want to say thank you to CMYK for the music, John W our technical advisor. And most of all thank you for listening!
Lizi: Remember to check out our show notes for links to all of our resources on this episode as well as pictures of projects we’ve talked about.
Norgerie: We hope you enjoyed learning about today’s lady and caryatid along with our banter, and that you are inspired to find out more about them and other amazing professional ladies. Again, thank you.
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References
Architecture MasterPrize. “Hamedan Chamber of Commerce.” Architecture MasterPrize, architectureprize.com/winners/winner.php?id=3220.
Architizer. “50 Women Rocking the World of Architecture.” Journal, 10 May 2022, architizer.com/blog/inspiration/industry/women-architects-to-watch.
Daniel. Holy Smokes, It’s the Tyng Toy! - Daddy Types. 13 Oct. 2009, daddytypes.com/2009/10/13/holy_smokes_its_the_tyng_toy.php.
Jacobs, Karrie. “Anne Tyng and Her Remarkable House.” Architect Magazine, Feb. 2018, www.architectmagazine.com/design/anne-tyng-and-her-remarkable-house_o. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.
Kornblatt, Izzy. “In Philadelphia, Demolition of a Louis Kahn-Designed Hospital Raises Thorny Preservation Questions.” Architectural Record, 21 Feb. 2021, www.architecturalrecord.com/articles/15524-in-philadelphia-demolition-of-a-louis-kahn-designed-hospital-raises-thorny-preservation-questions. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.
“Marizad Architects.” Architizer, 19 July 2024, architizer.com/firms/emsys-design-group.
“Office - ASHRAFI &Amp; ZAD DESIGN.” ASHRAFI & ZAD DESIGN, 5 Oct. 2024, ashrafizad.com/office.
Saffron, Inga. “Anne Tyng Obituary: Architect Who Collaborated With Louis Kahn Was 91 - Los Angeles Times.” Los Angeles Times, 21 Aug. 2014, www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-anne-tyng-20120110-story.html.
Tyng, Anne Griswold | Weitzman. www.design.upenn.edu/architectural-archives/collections/tyng-anne-griswold.
WDA Student Group. “Anne Tyng: Ordered Randomness - Womxn in Design and Architecture.” Womxn in Design and Architecture, 24 Nov. 2021, wda.princeton.edu/conference/2020/anne-tyng-ordered-randomness.
Wikipedia contributors. “Anne Tyng.” Wikipedia, 4 Apr. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Tyng.
“Women in Architecture: Anne Tyng - Optima.” Optima, 8 Apr. 2024, www.optima.inc/women-in-architecture-anne-tyng.
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