Milka Bliznakov
(1927-2010)
Milka Bliznakov Photo Credit: International Archive of Women in Architecture. See below for more info.
I first met Milka Bliznakov in the mid-1970s at conference of the International Union of Women Architects being held in Washington, DC. We instantly “hit it off”. Thus began a 35-year friendship. She was a warm, jovial, loving friend. Tall, strong, determined, she had a commanding presence. Very articulate with a strong Bulgarian accent, she who did not know the word failure. She would push and push, until she achieved her ends. When I moved to New York in 1990, she would call me every few years, and command me to come for a stay at her home in Blacksburg, VA. We would talk into the wee hours of the night. She sensitized me to the need to work on behalf of preserving women’s legacies.
Milka Tcherneva Bliznakov, an incredible trailblazer for women in the built environment, professor emerita of architecture in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, died November 4, 2010, at age 83.
A native of Varna, Bulgaria, Bliznakov received her master’s in architecture from the State Polytechnic of Sofia in 1951, and practiced architecture in Bulgaria, then France, and eventually in the United States, where she had immigrated in 1961. Within ten years of her arrival, she received, in 1971, her Ph.D. in architecture from Columbia University. In 1974, Bliznakov joined the architecture faculty at Virginia Tech.
In 1985, frustrated by the lack of primary research materials on women in architecture, Bliznakov founded the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA), underwritten by Virginia Tech, that collects and archives the professional papers of women architects, landscape architects, designers, architectural historians and critics, and urban planners, as well as the records of women’s architectural organizations. In 1995, I donated the Beverly Willis archive to the IAWA.
Bliznakov received many academic honors and awards throughout her career. But her greatest legacy for me will be her achievements as a champion of women who have impacted the built environment.
– Beverly Willis, FAIA
Photo Credit: [IAWA Archivist's Files, Ms85-021, (UR040705TRAY9SLOT44)], Special Collections, University Libraries, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [http://spec.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/04DLA/iawa/screen/UR040705TRAY9SLOT44.jpg].
