Natalie de Blois

Natalie de Blois
270 Park Avenue by Natalie de Blois at Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill
Born	(1921-04-02)April 2, 1921 Paterson, New Jersey
Died	July 22, 2013(2013-07-22) (aged 92) Chicago, Illinois
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Columbia University
Occupation	Architect
Practice	Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Buildings	Union Carbide Building, Lever House, Pepsi Cola Headquarters, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Headquarters

Natalie Griffin de Blois (April 2, 1921 – July 22, 2013) was an American architect. She began her architectural career in 1944 and became known as a pioneer in the male-dominated world of architecture. She was a partner for many years in the firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, where, according to Beverly Willis, founder and chairwoman of the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, De Blois and firm partner Gordon Bunshaft were a "team" though "he took all the credit and she did all the work.” Her notable works include Pepsi building, Lever House, and the Union Carbide Building in New York City, the Equitable Building in Chicago, the low-rise portions of the Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan and the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Headquarters in Bloomfield, Connecticut. She later taught architecture at the University of Texas in the 1980s and 1990s.

De Blois was born in Paterson, New Jersey into a family of three generations of engineers She was interested in architecture from an early age saying in 2004, "I was selected to be the one that would go into art. I told my father that I wanted to be an architect from the age of ten or twelve." She attended the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, and received an architecture degree from Columbia University in 1944. While at Columbia, she worked at Babcock & Wilcox during the summer and for Frederick John Kiesler.