Episode 01: Milka Bliznakov
Our first episode YEAY! Ok here we go:
Milka Tcherneva Bliznakov began the International Archive of Women In Architecture, a big collection of works of women architects from all over the world. She was born in 1927, in Varna, Bulgaria. She graduated from the State Polytechnic University in Sofia with a masters in architecture in 1951 and a year later started practicing architecture. Sometime after that she married Dr. Emile Bliznakov and her brother escaped to the United States. Milka and her husband eventually followed in her brother’s footsteps. She arrived to New York in 1961. There she worked for several architecture firms such as Perkins and Will while completing a PhD in Architectural History from Columbia University. She completed her PhD in 1971. Afterwards she taught at UT Austin, and later at Virginia Tech. It was there that she began the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA). She was inspired to do this by female students that asked her why they were not studying women architects. Milka served as the chair of the IAWA Board of Advisors from 1985-1993. She retired at 71 and established the Milka Bliznakov Prize, awarded annually to people whose research furthers the knowledge of women's contributions to architecture and design. Milka kept getting and donating works to the IAWA until her death on November 4, 2010 at 83. Her legacy of the International Archive of Women Architects and the Milka Bliznakov Prize live on.
Publications
From Theory to Practice in Constructivist Architecture (1979). Division of Architecture and Environmental Design, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
History and Theory of Urban Form (1985). College of Architecture & Urban Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University.
"A Bibliographical Guide to Their Work: Soviet Women Architects, 1917–1937" (1994)
Caryatid: Lori Brown
In 2008 Lori Brown received the Milka Bliznakov Prize Commendation for her work on the “Feminist Practices Exhibition”. The exhibition focused on architectural studies that used feminist methods of design, research, and practice by women in the field. At first it was a traveling exhibition and later it became a book “Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture”. Today Lori continues her message and investigations through ArchiteXX, a non profit organization which she co-founded and runs, that promotes gender equity. ArchiteXX is a collaborator #wikiD, a project to add more women architects on Wikipedia. Lori is a licensed architect in the state of New York and a Syracuse University Professor and is also currently working on a Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture.
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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 the first very first episode of She Builds Podcast
All of us: YEAY! WOOOoooooo, Woot woot
Norgerie: where we will share stories about women in the design and construction field one lady at time. Today we’re gonna talk about Doctor Milka Bliznakov the woman who began the International Archive of Women In Architecture, a big collection of works of women architects from all over the world. I’m Norgerie Rivas a Syracuse School of Architecture graduate from Puerto Rico now sweating in Houston Texas. With me are two more Syracuse Architecture Ladies Jessica and Lizi.
Jessica: Hi, I’m Jessica Rogers I’m a Miami native now based out of Washington DC
Lizi: Hi, I’m Elizabeth Raar, but everyone calls me Lizi. I’m originally from Michigan and now I’m a licensed architect in San Francisco.
Norgerie: Yeay! Now that you know us, quick disclaimer. The three of us are not historians, or experts on this subject.
Jessica: Yeah, we are just sharing stories on information that we find about each woman. If we get our facts a little mixed up, please forgive us, leave us a comment and we will all continue learning.
Lizi: You can reach out to us on our website shebuildspodcast.com, email us your thoughts at shebuildspodcast@gmail.com or follow us on instagram @shebuildspodcast and on twitter @shebuildspod.
Norgerie: Ok, let's get started. It's really exciting to begin our podcast talking about Milka Bliznakov because she did a lot regarding the study of women architects. So it's very fitting to begin with her. Let's start at the beginning. The place is Varna Bulgaria. The year is 1927. She grew up during the interwar years which is the years between the first and second World Wars. Bulgaria was on the losing side of World War One. Well both actually but that comes later.
Jessica: uh - wow, losing two world wars? Bulgaria wasn’t doing so good…
Norgerie: Exactly, but they had just lost one at the moment, anyway, Milka had a little brother. When she started going to school she would come home and teach him everything she learned.
Lizi: Starting her teaching career young.
Norgerie: Just a little slice of what she would do for the rest of her life. One day she decided she was pretty bored at school, and instead of wasting her time she took exams to skip a year.
Jessica: Wow, what an achiever! When I got bored, I didn’t think to skip a year. I just doodled in my notebook.
Norgerie: Yeah, not Milka. By this time, Bulgaria had lost World War Two and was part of the Soviet Bloc. She skipped a grade and got into college one year early, but just as she did that the Communists took over the government in Bulgaria. The problem was that her father was part of the Bulgarian Parliament and not part of the Communist party.
Norgerie: He was arrested for being an enemy of the people, also known as anyone who is not communist, and sent to a work camp. Of course you can’t have the daughter of an enemy of the people in college so they kicked her out.
Norgerie: But, you can’t keep Milka down. She appealed her expulsion. She explained her parents had divorced when she was 10 years old. Her father remarried and then joined politics. Milka lived with her mother and barely ever saw her dad. So with those cold hard facts, long story short, a year later they let her back in.
Lizi: Nice.
Norgerie: At 24 years old, she graduated from the State Polytechnic University in Sofia with a masters in architecture in 1951 and a year later started practicing architecture. Now’s a good time to take a quick break. Hopefully in the near future we will have sponsors but until then lets fill your ears with our inspirational message of the week.
Jessica: Self-motivation. You know, success doesn't just find you. The harder you work for something, the greater you'll feel when you achieve it. Take it from this week’s topic on Milka Bliznaov’s … she had a lot of it, Self Motivation that is. Self-motivation… get you some!
Norgerie: And we’re back. Sometime after she graduated and started working, her brother went to visit Germany and casually escaped to the United States. You know how it is. By this time Milka had gotten married to Dr Emile Bliznakov who was a microbiologist and would later write the famous book, The Miracle Nutrient Coenzyme Q, for scientist listeners.
Norgerie: Ok so Milka was an architect, married, her little brother stirred up trouble and she told her husband they had to go join her brother in the US. Her husband was like that sounds like a terrible idea, cause you know escaping the Soviet Bloc was dangerous.
Lizi: Wait, did they have kids?
Norgerie: Nope! Which I guess makes it easier to take that risk. Milka tells her husband that she knows someone that knows someone that for $10,000 US dollars (which is about $100,000 today) would help them escape. Emile was not about that. He was afraid of bribing a government official, getting caught and then, prison work camp.
Lizi: Seems like a reasonable fear.
Jessica: Yeah but if we have learned anything about Milka is that she will typically get what she wants one way or another.
Norgerie: Right! Milka got the money and was smuggled into a vacation cruise for high government officials, going to the Mediterranean. She and Emile got fake names and the plan was to make it a one way trip.
Lizi: So she escaped via vacation? I mean not to minimize her struggle and dangerous situation, but still, that seems like the ideal escape scenario.
Norgerie: Haha yeah it was a party cruise, there was gambling and everything.
Lizi: See what I mean?
Norgerie: Emile won some money and then there was a little drama because people kept wanting to borrow money from him. Milka on purpose caused a scene, and then Emile was able to say hey man I would loan you money but then my wife would get angry at me so sorry, not sorry.
Lizi: Milka to the rescue.
Jessica: Milka saves the day AGAIN.
Norgerie: So they arrive in Marseille, France, ditch the Bulgarian party people, and head to Paris. From there she began the process of immigration to the US. Which was not easy or fast, she lived and worked as an architect in France for two years.
Jessica: Norgerie, you know about that life.
Norgerie: Haha yes, well maybe not the Parisian life, but right now I'm living this immigration process with my husband who is from Costa Rica, so I can relate. So congrats Milka on your bravery for leaving home and your patience to reach the United States of America. Now it's 1961, Milka is 34 years old, she says Au revouir France, Hello USA. She stays in New York, working on a PhD in Architectural History from Columbia University while also working at a few known architectural firms of the time such as Harry M. Prince, Murphy & Morey, and Perkins & Will
Jessica: ooh, SHOUT OUT to our Perkins & Will Friends.
Norgerie: She worked on houses and urban design projects
Lizi: Those are very different project types.
Norgerie: Yes, she was a lady of wide expertise. Look at the show notes for links to drawings and documents of those. She received her PhD from Columbia University in 1971, at 44.
Jessica: Meaning that now there are TWO doctor Bliznakovs in the family, oh yeah!
Norgerie: A year later she starts teaching architecture at the University of Texas in Austin.
Lizi: Shout out to our UT friends and colleagues.
Norgerie: There she meets like minded professors and they start putting together the Institute of Modern Russian Culture. It's a collection of books, documents, photographs, sound recordings... about Russian art and architecture. They also organize conferences, lectures, performances, and exhibitions.
Lizi: Sounds like a preview of what she would do later.
Norgerie: You called it! In 1974, Milka became a professor at Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning, teaching in the urban design program. While there, students kept asking her why they weren’t studying women architects, so in 1985, Bliznakov worked with Virginia Tech to open the International Archive of Women in Architecture. She thought studying women architects would make architecture gender neutral. The problem wasn’t that there weren’t many women architects, the problem was that they didn’t know who they were, where they practiced, and what they had accomplished.
Jessica: Wow and to think... it’s been 35 years and that is still a problem in our profession.
Lizi: What I am wondering is why did we not learn about the existence of this archive in school?
Norgerie: We barely learned about the existence of famous, noteworthy, women architects. I think I can count on one hand the women architects we studied in school.
Jessica: Yeah and every woman we learned about was tied to a man, Eileen Grey: Le Corbusier, Marion Mahoney Griffin: Frank Lloyd Wright, Dennis Scott Brown: Robert Venturi.
Lizi: All these women architects and their work has enough merit on its own but we barely discussed them. It’s terrible.
Norgerie: That’s why SheBuilds Podcast exists to discuss these women and move our profession towards gender neutrality.
Jessica: Go Women!
Norgerie: So back to Milka and the International Archive of Women Architects. We don’t have enough time to go in depth about the IAWA. Jessica did a road trip to Virginia Tech to check it out. That was a lot of fun Jessica, right.
Jessica: Oh yeah, an archventure.
Norgerie: SheBuilds Podcast Archventures, that could be an episode where we visit the work of the ladies we talk about!!
Lizi: A SheBuilds Podcast Pilgrimage
Norgerie: Yeah, but like I was saying, stay tuned for a future episode about the archive.
Jessica: For a little sneak peak... the archives have a lot of drawings, photographs, letters, and personal information of many women architects, engineers, and designers. Their goal is to make all that information available for scholars to further the study and research of women in the profession. Plus they are really helpful and interested in helping those with their research.
Norgerie: Milka served as the chair of the IAWA Board of Advisors from 1985-1993. She retired at 71 and established the Milka BliznAkov Prize, awarded annually to people whose research furthers the knowledge of women's contributions to architecture and design.
Lizi: That Milka don’t quit. Very impressive.
Norgerie: Definitely, Bliznakov kept getting and donating works to the IAWA until her death on November 4, 2010 at 83. But her legacy of the International Archive of Women Architects and the Milka Bliznakov Prize live on.
Jessica and Lizi: Wooohoooo, Yeah yeah yeah.
Norgerie: Ok real fast, let's rundown a few awards she won because Milka was a super boss.
Jessicai: She was awarded the Parthena Medal for Excellence in Architecture from the Bulgarian government
Lizi: She won Two Fulbright Hays Fellowships
Norgerie: And also received a National Endowment for the Arts Grant
Jessica: She was named a Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution Scholar
Lizi: To name a few.
Norgerie: Milka was also published and you can find information about that on our show notes. Now we are almost at the end of our first episode. But before we leave you, we have to give out our Caryatid for this week’s episode.
Lizi: Some background: 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. Each episode we’ll choose a “caryatid” -- a woman who is working today, furthering the profession through their work, and who ties in to the historical woman of our episode.
Norgerie: Without further ado, our first caryatid is Lori Brown
Norgerie: In 2008 while we were starting architecture school, Lori Brown received the Milka BliznAkov Prize Commendation for her work on the “Feminist Practices Exhibition”. The exhibition focused on architectural studies that used feminist methods of design, research, and practice by women in the field. At first it was a traveling exhibition and later it became a book.
Norgerie: Today Lori continues her message and investigations through Architexx, a non profit organization that promotes gender equity.
Jessica: That's Architect replacing ct at the end with two x’s. Which is pretty clever.
Norgerie: Super fun fact, Lori is a licensed architect in New York and a Syracuse University Professor.
Lizi: YOUR Syracuse professor
Norgerie: yeah… its kinda embarrassing, it was one of my worst studios.
Lizi: What semester was it?
Norgerie: Second year, first semester
Lizi: oh yeah that was a bad studio for me too.
Norgerie: My terrible studio is not a reflection of Lori as a professor and more of me being a teenager that barely knew what architecture was. But we learn most from our failures, so thank you very much Professor Brown. I hope we get to meet again.
Lizi: Maybe through this podcast.
Norgerie: Yes that would be brilliant! Well it's here, the end of our episode. This is bittersweet, but mostly sweet and exciting. We wanna thank our sponsors, CMYK for the music, they actually graduated architecture school with us! John W our technical producer. And most of all YOU listeners, thank you so so so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed learning about Milka and Lori, along with our banter, and that you are inspired to find out more about them and other amazing professional ladies. Again, thank you!
Jessica: Please let us know what you thought of our episode. We are excited to hear from you and for you to come back and keep learning about women bosses with us. You can email us your thoughts at shebuildspodcast@gmail.com or follow us on instagram @shebuildspodcast and on twitter @shebuildspod. Until then, BYE!
References
International Archive of Women in Architecture https://spec.lib.vt.edu/iawa/
“A Guide to the Milka T. Bliznakov Papers and Architectural Drawings, 1946-2010 Bliznakov, Milka T. Papers and Architectural DrawingsMs1991-025.” Special Collections, Virginia Tech, ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=vt/viblbv01554.xml;query=Bliznakov;brand=default. Accessed 12 Nov. 2019.
“About.” ArchiteXX, www.architexx.org/about. Accessed 1 July 2020.
Adrienne. “Milka’s Legacy- The Passion for Studying Women in Architecture Lives On.” Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives, 27 June 2014, vtspecialcollections.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/milkas-legacy-the-passion-for-studying-women-in-architecture-lives-on.
“ArchiteXX Cofounder Lori Brown to Speak about Architects’ Role in Social Justice Feb. 5 at ISU : Iowa State University College of Design.” Iowa State University College of Design, www.design.iastate.edu/news/2020/01/lori-brown-lecture/?c=news. Accessed 20 July 2020.
“Milka Bliznakov.” Wikipedia, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milka_Bliznakov. Accessed 30 Nov. 2019.
“Milka Bliznakov Research Prize.” International Archive of Women in Architecture, spec.lib.vt.edu/iawa/center/bliznakov.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2019.
Wikipedia contributors. “Lori Brown (Architect).” Wikipedia, 22 Apr. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Brown_(architect).
Wrenn, Tony, Hon. AIA. “Professor Milka Tcherneva Bliznakov.” INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVE OF WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE IAWA Center News, Virginia Tech, 2011, vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/80975/news23.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
Images (in order of appearance):
Travis Williams, Milka Bliznakov, the founder of the International Archive of Women in Architecture, taught at Virginia Tech from 1974 to 1998. The Roanoke Times. Roanoke.com. 02 Aug. 2015. roanoke.com/news/education/tech-archive-appreciated-by-architects-around-the-world/article_dfedbc0a-47bf-5cb3-a265-ffe10f3c75e1.html
Wrenn, Tony, Hon. AIA. Bergman Street Residence, Austin, TX. Tall Oaks Residence, Blacksburg, VA. 1978 Photograph from Street. “Professor Milka Tcherneva Bliznakov.” INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVE OF WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE IAWA Center News, Virginia Tech, 2011. vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/80975/news23.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
All other images property of She Builds Podcast
