Elizabeth Scheu Close: A Life in Modern Architecture
Jane King Hession
University of Minnesota Press, April 2020

Hardcover | 10 x 9 inches | 224 pages | 152 illustrations | English | ISBN: 978-1517908577 | $39.95

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:
Elizabeth ?Lisl? Scheu Close (1912?2011) left an indelible mark on Minnesota?s built landscape during her six decades as an architect. In 1938, with her husband, Winston Close, she founded the state?s first architecture firm dedicated to modernism. In addition to designing the first International Style house in Minneapolis, the firm also created more than 250 handsome and efficiently planned modern residences. One of few women who were practicing architects in the mid-twentieth century, she blazed a trail for future generations of women in the profession. As Jane King Hession shows, the trajectory of Lisl?s architectural career was shaped by the political, economic, and aesthetic upheavals of the twentieth century. Raised in a renowned modern house in Vienna, Austria, Lisl was exposed to revolutionary ideas in art and architecture at a young age. Forced to emigrate to the United States as the Nazis rose to power in Europe, she completed her architectural education at MIT. During the Depression, she struggled to find work and encountered challenges as a young woman in the field. In her pursuit of and devotion to a singular and successful career as a modern architect, she proved herself to be talented, determined, and adept at negotiating ...