Quick Facts
Biography
Olive Frances Tjaden (November 24, 1904 – March 15, 1997) was a pioneering woman architect, one of the first female architects of her generation.
Education
Born November 24, 1904, Olive Tjaden graduated from Cornell University in 1925 with a bachelor's degree in architecture at the age of 19 after completing the five-year program in only four years. As a land grant institution, Cornell was required to admit women, but she was the only woman architect in her graduating class.
Career
In 1929, at the age of 24, Tjaden became the youngest registered architect in New York State. In 1938, she became the first woman admitted to the Brooklyn Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. She specialized in residential architecture, and was chosen to design a home for the 1939 World's Fair.
From the 1920s to 1940s, Tjaden supervised the design of more than 400 homes in the Garden City area of Long Island, New York. In 1943, she moved to Florida to capitalize on the building boom of the era. She designed more than two thousand buildings in her career.