Architect Profile

Marion Mahony

Growing up near the Hubbard Woods in Winnetka had a large impact on Marion Mahony's lifelong love of nature. She was one of the first licensed female architects in the world, considered an original member of the Prairie School and an artist. She worked as an architect in the U.S., Australia and India for 50+ years. Her pursuit of democratic ideals in architecture and community planning in Australia and the U.S., is significant. In her life, she maintained an outspoken position on environmental and planning matters.

Through a family benefactor, she attended & received her architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, becoming the 2nd woman to graduate with this degree from MIT. She began her career working for her cousin Dwight Perkins' architecture firm. This was groundbreaking as women were not generally accepted in this field. Perkins shared office space with F. L. Wright, who would later hire Mahony as his first employee. She worked with Wright on-and-off between 1895 and 1909. The latter had a high regard for her talents as a draughtswoman, illustrator and designer of furnishings. While a leader within the office, she completed several independent commissions under her own name. Her most widely-recognized contributions, however, were her beautiful Japanese-inspired drawings for the Wright’s Wasmuth Portfolio (book of lithographs).

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After Wright left for Europe with Mrs. Mamah Cheney, Marion joined the office of Hermann von Holst, with responsibility for Wright's uncompleted commissions. After working with W. B. Griffin on these projects,  Mahony married Griffin in 1911. She was the main force behind Griffin submitting and winning the international design competition for the new Federal capital of Australia, Canberra. Marion produced the elegant set of drawings illustrating Griffin's ideas that were a key component in their winning design. While in Australia for over a decade, the pair settled in Castlecrag and completed a number of architectural projects ranging from private residences to town plans. They then moved to India in the 1930s to complete several projects at Lucknow University. Sadly, Walter died suddenly in 1937, leaving his wife to finish several of his commissions in India and Australia. Mahony moved back to Chicago shortly thereafter, where she lived until her death in 1961.

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Source: ​https://www.griffinsociety.org/marion-mahony-griffin/