As the United States faces a crisis today of inadequate affordable and low-income housing, it is a timely moment to look back at the work of Catherine Bauer, a leading 20th-century reformer and activist who helped introduce the socially minded goals of European architects to America through her seminal book, Modern Housing, published in 1934. She helped formulate the revolutionary U.S. Housing Act of 1937, with which the federal government, for the first time, embraced the concept that housing the poor was not a private affair; the legislation created a federal loan and subsidy program to spur construction of decent low-income housing. Like the Bauhaus architects and other European Modernists, Bauer believed that good design for public housing should be an abiding concern for the architectural profession.
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1905, Catherine, along with her younger sister (museum curator Elizabeth Mock Kassler) went to Vassar College. Catherine left to study architecture for a year at Cornell University, but returned to Vassar to graduate in 1926. After a sojourn in Paris, she was working in promotion and publishing in New York when she met Lewis Mumford. Through him, her interest in architecture was rekindled. The mentorship by the married man turned into a romance.
You have 0 complimentary articles remaining.
Unlimited access + premium benefits for as low as $1.99/month.