Anne Griswold Tyng, FAIA
(1920-2011)
Anne Griswald Tyng, 1978. Photo Credit: The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania
Anne Griswold Tyng, FAIA architect, designer, and theorist renowned for her skills synthesizing geometry and the built environment, passed away at her Greenbrae, CA home on December 27, 2011 at age 91.
Tyng’s design legacy was one of pioneering and brilliance. Born on July 14, 1920 in Jiangxi, China to Episcopal missionaries from Boston, Tyng had an interest in mathematics and geometric forms from a young age. She was among the first group of women to graduate from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design with a Masters of Architecture in 1944, and she was the only woman in the US to apply for and receive her architecture license in 1949, though during the exam one of the male proctors refused to administer the test to a woman. Despite frequent discrimination in the job market because of her gender, she joined Louis Kahn’s practice Stonorov and Kahn as a consulting architect and continued to work with Kahn in his independent practice until 1964. Tyng went on to teach at the University of Pennsylvania for 27 years, where she received a Ph.D. in architecture for her theoretical work on hierarchical symmetry and organic form in constructs of human habitation. She received a number of grants to continue this work, including Grant Foundation Fellowships and a New York AIA Brunner Grant.
Yale University Art Gallery Ceiling. Photo Credit: Joy Wulke
Tyng’s best known architectural projects include the Trenton Bath House, Yale University Art Gallery, and un-built City Tower, all collaborations with Kahn. She pioneered the use of the tetrahedron ceiling grid in the Yale University Art Gallery, a groundbreaking design for its visual dynamism and functionality that allows access to electrical and HVAC components. The proposed City Tower, which utilizes tetrahedronal concrete floors for stability, was Tyng’s design. Her independent work includes the Walworth Tyng House (1953) and Waverly Street House (1967), both of which utilize habitable space-frame construction—another of Tyng’s pioneering feats. The Walworth Tyng House was awarded an Honorable Mention for its “ingenious structural system” by the AIA Philadelphia.
City Tower and plaza model (un-built). Photo Credit: Steven Vance
However, Tyng’s independent designs and contributions to Kahn’s projects are largely unknown to the public. Her work, like many others, suffered the fate of miss-attribution to her male counterpart. It was not until the twilight of her life at age 90 that her 2010-2011 installation, “Anne Tyng: Inhabiting Geometry”, brought her out from under the shadow of Kahn to publicly showcase her concepts in their full radiance and in their own right. Commissioned by the ICA Philadelphia and with a grant from the Graham Foundation in Chicago, the installation featured three-dimensional shapes at human scale that the audience could enter and explore, demonstrating the relevance of geometric form to spatial awareness. The sculptures were complimented by a selection of archival material from her past projects, publications, and research, including Urban Hierarchy (circa 1970) and the Four-Poster House (1971-1974).
A truly visionary woman and captivating individual, Anne Tyng will be missed.
- Gioia Connell
Relevant Links: See the Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania for the Anne Tyng collection of Architectural Papers. See Anne Tyng’s profile in the BWAF’s Dynamic National Archive Collection of Women of 20th-Century American Architecture. Read “Anne Tyng: A Life Chronology”, released by the Graham Foundation in conjunction with the installation “Anne Tyng: Inhabiting Geometry”. Read an interview with Tyng in Domus Magazine. Read Anne Tyng’s obituary in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
