Chloethiel Woodard Smith: An Architect for Washington

Chloethiel Woodard Smith was a woman of paradoxes. She dismissed women’s liberation while benefiting from coverage by female journalists recently liberated from covering traditional home and social news. She designed Modernist housing while living in historic homes in Georgetown and on Massachusetts Avenue. She was keenly attuned to the plight of the poor, especially impoverished African American city dwellers, but played a leading role in displacing them from South-west. She was also successful. From 1963 until her retirement in 1983, Smith ran the country’s largest women-led architecture practice. Above all, she sought the public eye. Smith published articles in such professional journals as Architectural Forum even before she had built anything of her own. She organized exhibitions, gave lectures, and submitted her work to magazines including House Beautiful, as well as for awards. Finally, she was frequently profiled in the newspapers of the cities where she worked. How did a woman architect, at a time when architecture was the most masculinized profession in the United States, play such a prominent role in the reshaping of Washington, DC?