Elsa Gidoni

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Elsa Gidoni-Mandelstamm (* 12. March 1899 in Riga , Governorate of Livonia ; † 19th April 1978 in Washington ) was a German - American architect and designer for interior design .

Life

Elsa Mandelstamm was of German-Jewish descent. She was a cousin of the poet Ossip Mandelstam . Gidoni graduated from high school in Berlin and then studied art, design and architecture at the St. Petersburg Art Academy and the Technical University Berlin-Charlottenburg .

In 1929 she founded her own office for interior design in Berlin-Schöneberg , which she ran until 1933. After Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Reich, Elsa Gidoni fled to Palestine in 1933 and opened an architecture office in Tel Aviv , which built numerous buildings under the name Elsa Gidoni. In 1938 she emigrated to the USA and worked for the architects Meyer & Whittlesey in New York until 1942 . From 1942 to 1945 Elsa Gidoni worked for Fellheimer & Wagner in New York as an interior designer and from 1945 to 1967 as a structural engineer at Kahn & Jacobs, New York.

In mid-1967 Elsa Gidoni retired and received emeritus status from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and moved to Washington, DC with her husband Alexis Gluckman.

Elsa Gidoni died in April 1978 at her home in Washington at the age of 77.

Works (excerpt)

  • Modern cupboard for dining room, Berlin, 1930
  • Swedish Pavilion for the Levante Fair , Tel Aviv, 1934
  • House of the pioneers "Beith Hachalutzot", Tel Aviv, 1936
  • Cafe-restaurant on Tel Aviv Beach, 1936
  • Participation in the exhibition facility "General Motors Futurama" at the New York World Exhibition, 1939
  • Various industrial buildings for chemical engineering, New York, 1942–1945 (for Fellheimer & Wagner)
  • Library interior, Council for Pan-American Democracy, 1946
  • At Kahn & Jacobs, worked on numerous buildings and projects in New York and the surrounding area, 1945–1967
  • Construction of the Seagram Building , together with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , New York, 1954
  • Designs for the “Hecht und Co.” department store with parking garage, Ballston, Virginia, 1956

literature

  • Susanne Torre: Women in American architecture. A historic and contemporary perspective , exhibition catalog of the Whitney Library of Design, New York 1977.
  • Robert Stern, Thomas Mellins and David Fishman (eds.): New York 1960. Architecture and Urbanism between the Second World War and the Bicentenniel , New York / Cologne 1995.
  • Irmel Kamp-Bandau / Pe'era Goldman: Tel Aviv. Neues Bauen 1930–1939 , Tübingen Wasmuth 1993, ISBN 3-8030-2810-8 , p. 247.
  • Despina Stratigakos: Reconstructing a Lost History: Exiled Jewish Women Architects in America , in: The Transatlantic Jewish Paper , Vol.LXVIII, No. 22 (October 31, 2002).
  • Edina Meyer-Maril: Three women, three paths, one modernity: Genia Averbuch, Judith Segall-Stolzer and Elsa Gidoni-Mandelstamm plan and build in Eretz Israel . In: Jörg Stabenow / Ronny Schüler: Mediation Paths of Modernity - New Building in Palestine (1923–1948) , Berlin: Gebr. Mann 2019, ISBN 978-3-7861-2781-9 , pp. 69–82.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edina Meyer-Maril: Three women, three ways, one modernity: Genia Averbuch, Judith Segall-Stolzer and Elsa Gidoni-Mandelstamm plan and build in Eretz Israel . In: Jörg Stabenow / Ronny Schüler: Mediation Paths of Modernity - New Building in Palestine (1923–1948) , Berlin: Gebr. Mann 2019, ISBN 978-3-7861-2781-9 , pp. 69–82, here: pp. 74.
  2. ↑ IAWA database information for Elsa Mandelstamm Gidoni , IAWA entry university libraries Virginia Tech
  3. ^ The American Institute of Architects Archives, Washington, DC (Membership File)
personal data
SURNAME Gidoni, Elsa
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gidoni almond stem, Elsa (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American architect and interior designer
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga , Livonia Governorate
DATE OF DEATH April 19, 1978
Place of death Washington