Huxtable, Ada Louise (1921–)

American architectural critic. Born Ada Louise Landman, Mar 14, 1921, in New York, NY; only child of Michael Louis Landman (physician) and Leah (Rosenthal) Landman; Hunter College BA (magna cum laude); attended Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, 1945–1950; m. L. Garth Huxtable (industrial designer), 1940.

Architectural critic for The New York Times (1963–81) who won Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism, was assistant curator of department of architecture and design of Museum of Modern Art (1946–50); organized a touring exhibit on architect Pier Luigi Nervi for the museum (1952) and published 1st article on Nervi for Progressive Architecture (of which she was a contributing editor, 1952–63); wrote Four Walking Tours of Modern Architecture in NYC (1961) and Classic NY; Georgian Gentility to Greek Elegance (1964); joined New York Times as a full-time architectural critic (1963), a 1st-of-its-kind position, and remained there for 18 years, advancing to editorial board (1973); published Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard?, a collection of her Times articles (1970); was instrumental in creation of a Landmarks Preservation Commission for NYC (1965) and also had a hand in saving architectural treasures in other American cities; other books include Kicked a Building Lately? (1976), The Tall Building Artistically Reconsidered: The Search for a Skyscraper Style (1985) and Architecture Anyone? (1985).

See also Women in World History.