Daphne Brown

American architect

Daphne Elizabeth Brown
Born	(1948-04-28)April 28, 1948 Manchester, New Hampshire
Died	December 10, 2011(2011-12-10) (aged 63) Anchorage, Alaska
Nationality	American
Occupation	architect
Years active	1975-2010
Known for	project manager of the Anchorage Museum expansion
Spouse	Jonathan Curry Steele

Daphne Elizabeth Brown (1948–2011) was an American architect who was posthumously inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame and awarded the Kumin Award from the American Institute of Architects, the highest recognition for architectural achievement in Alaska.

Biography

Daphne Elizabeth Brown was born April 28, 1948, in Manchester, New Hampshire to Sophie Mary (née Rowbotham) and Ridgley Staniford Brown. In her childhood, her family relocated to Gardner, Massachusetts and she attended school at Walnut Hill School in Natick, Massachusetts. She continued her education at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1970 and in 1973, earned her master's degree in architecture from the University of Washington.^[1]

In 1975, Brown moved to Alaska and began her career working for Edwin Butler Crittenden at CCC Architects in Anchorage. She began working with Kumin Associates in 1987^[2] and in 1988, her work was recognized in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) traveling exhibition to acknowledge the contributions of women architects. The exhibition, entitled Many More: Women in Architecture, 1978-1988, featured 77 projects accepted from women architects by the committee.^[3] She was honored with a Loeb fellowship from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1989.^[1]

Brown was involved in many corollary support organizations, serving as the chair of the state licensing board for architecture, engineering and land surveying; the chair of the board for subdivisions and boundaries; and the chair of the planning and zoning commission.^[4] In 2002,^[5] she began work on a project to expand and renovate the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center. Brown's role in the project was to ensure that the design met with the "technical, climatic, structural, and seismic" requirements of Anchorage codes and conditions,^[6] She served as the overall project manager of the 90,000 sq ft addition and remodeling of the existing space. In 2007, she became a partner in Kumin Associates.^[4]

She died of uterine cancer on December 10, 2011, in Anchorage, Alaska.^[1] In 2013, she was posthumously honored as an inductee into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame^[2] and was awarded the Kumin Award from the AIA, the highest recognition for architectural achievement in Alaska.^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Daphne Brown: April 28, 1948 - December 10, 2011". Anchorage, Alaska: Janssen Funeral Homes. 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Daphne Elizabeth Brown". Anchorage, Alaska: Alaska Women's Hall of Fame. 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^ ""Many More: Women in Architecture, 1978-1988"". Blacksburg, Virginia: Virginia Tech Libraries. 1988. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^ ^a ^b "Movers & Shakers". No. 1. Anchorage, Alaska: Alaska Journal. January 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^ "Minutes of the Anchorage School Board Special Session April 15, 2002" (PDF). Anchorage, Alaska: Anchorage School District K-12. 15 April 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 November 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^ Storm, Gene (December 15, 2008). "Devil in the Details" (PDF). Building Design + Construction. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
^ "A Couple of Highlights from the Conference". Anchorage, Alaska: AIA Alaska. December 2013. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.