Edla Muir (January 23, 1906 – November 5, 1971) was an American architect, best known for designing residences in Southern California.

Early life and education

Muir was born in 1906 in San Francisco, California. Her father was Joseph Muir, a throat surgeon and diplomat, and her mother Ethel Fitch Muir was an operatic soprano. Her first name is from her father's earlier wife, Edla Coleman McPherson, who died before her parents married. Edla Muir's parents divorced in 1916. As a schoolgirl, she worked weekends and summers for a Santa Monica-based architect, John Byers. She graduated from Inglewood High School in 1923, and then began working full-time in Byers' office. In 1927, she won a cash prize for her designs from the Rondith Corporation.

Career

Muir focused on designing modern private homes, especially for clients in Malibu, Pacific Palisades, and other affluent Southern California communities. Among her celebrity clients were

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, Robert Taylor and

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. She earned her architecture license in 1934, and continued at the Byers office until 1942. After World War II, she opened her own office, and was an independent architect until the end of her life. Her designs were featured in ''

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Architectural Digest ''Architectural Digest'' (stylized in all caps) is an American monthly magazine founded in 1920. Its principal subjects are interior design and landscaping, rather than pure external architecture. The magazine is published by Condé Nast ...

'', and other publications as representative of the modern California home. She also designed some public and commercial buildings, such as a supermarket and the City Hall in Ellensburg, Washington and a corporate office in Mexico City. Her design for the Zona Hall residence in West Los Angeles won the Honor Award of the Southern California chapter, American Institute of Architects in 1952. She also designed her own family's residence, a dramatic structure on the side of a cliff at Mandeville Canyon.

Personal life and legacy

Edla Muir married Clyde Lambie, and had one son. She died in November 1971, age 65. In 1982 the Organization of Women Architects honored Edla Muir and Lutah Maria Riggs as pioneering women in architecture, in a publication to mark the group's tenth anniversary. She was also one of the women architects highlighted in a 1989 exhibit at the

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. Muir's papers are in the Architecture and Design Collection at University Museum,

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

.Finding Aid for the Edla Muir Papers, University of California, Santa Barbara, Online Archive of California.
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Works outside southern California

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muir, Edla 1906 births 1971 deaths 20th-century American architects Architects from San Francisco 20th-century American women artists People from Mandeville Canyon, Los Angeles American women architects Architects from California