IAWA Katherine Diamond Inventory

IAWA

CAUS

Katherine Diamond
Architectural Papers, 1985-1995

Ms96-001
0.2 cu. ft.

Introduction:
Katherine Diamond is currently Partner in Charge of Design for Siegel Diamond Architects in Los Angeles, California, a fifteen person, 100% woman owned architectural partnership with a design portfolio of institutional, commercial, and residential projects. She earned her Bachelor of Architecture degree from The Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology in 1978, and is a registered architect of California and Israel.

Diamond served as 1993/94 President of the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), becoming that chapter's first woman President in its then ninety-nine year history. She was President of the Los Angeles-based Association for Women in Architecture (AWA) for two consecutive terms in 1989/90 and 1990/91. She chaired the joint AIA/LA + AWA Committee which organized the Los Angeles installation of the National AIA Exhibit "That Exceptional One, " and chaired the Exhibit Task Force that created "Women in American Architecture, 1888-1989, a Historic, Contemporary, and Southern California Perspective" which accompanied the "That Exceptional Exhibit" when it traveled to museum sites in California. She serves as the Vice President/President Elect of CWED, California Women in Environmental Design.

Diamond's architectural projects include serving as design consultant to the architects of the Los Angeles Airport Air Traffic Control Tower and Base Office Building, and as designer of four Elevated Light Rail Stations for the Los Angeles/Long Beach Metro Blue Line, which won the Los Angeles Beautification Award in 1994.
Scope and Content:
The papers consist of correspondence, an exhibit script for the "That Exceptional One" exhibit created by the AIA, newspaper articles and other information about the exhibit "Women in American Architecture, 1888-1989, a Historic, Contemporary, and Southern California Perspective," and Diamond's and other women architects' curriculum vitas.
Provenance:
The papers were donated in February 1996 by Katherine Diamond of Los Angeles, California, to the International Archive of Women in Architecture. The materials were originally processed in February and March 1996 by Christopher Gwaltney, student assistant, and Laura Katz Smith, Manuscripts Curator, Special Collections Department. An addition to the papers came in May 1996, and processed in May 1996 by Laura Katz Smith.
Contents List:

Folder 1: 1985, script for the "That Exceptional One," Women in American Architecture, 1888-1988 exhibit, created by the AIA.

Folder 2: 1987-89, miscellaneous information about the "Women in American Architecture, 1888-1989: a Historic, Contemporary and Southern California Perspective" exhibit. Includes:

clipping from CA Architect with information about Diamond,

newspaper clipping from The New York Times, September 8, 1988, "Sugar and Spice and Blueprints and T squares,"

newspaper clipping from the Los Angeles Times, June 25, 1989, "Urban Scene Women Architects Mark First 100 Years,"

Photograph of the exhibit panels,

biographies of Julia Harder Oakes and Lisa Wightman,

notice about the death of Marlene Laskey on August 9, 1989;

photocopy of "The Residential Work in Berkeley of Five Women Architects" written by the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Assn. Includes information about Lilian Bridgman, Leola Mall, Julia Morgan, Edna Deakin, and Katherine Underhill [1984];

photocopy of brochure for "Women in Architecture: A Perspective On Our Past," an Historical Home Tour, San Diego by Design Week June 25, 1988.

Folder 3: 1989-91, Correspondence to and from Clare Lorenz of London about her observations on how women become architects and their work as architects.

Folder 4: 1991, L.A. Architect, October 1991 issue, with a special feature on women in architecture. Includes article by Diamond, "A Herstory for Women in Architecture."

Folder 5: 1992, Women Architects: USA by Jan Gero. Working draft of book.

Folder 6: 1993, California Real Estate Journal, April 1993 issue, with photograph on front page on Diamond and article "Building a New Model: Long Shut Out of the Association's Power Structure, Women Architects are Drafting a Kinder, Gentler AIA," featuring Diamond.

Folder 7: 1995, Curriculum vitae