Olive Frances Tjaden

Born November 24, 1904 in New Utrecht, New York. Her father was John G. Tjaden, a structural engineer.[1]

Tjaden graduated from Jamaica High School at the age of 15.[2] Rejected from Columbia University’s architectural program because she was too young, Tjaden waited a year to meet the age requirements for Cornell University’s School of Architecture.[2] As a land grant institution, Cornell was required to admit women.[3] Tjaden completed the five-year course in four years and graduated from Cornell University in 1925 with a bachelor's degree in architecture at the age of 19.[2] She was the only woman architect in her graduating class.[4]

In 1929, at the age of 24, Tjaden became the youngest registered architect in New York State.[5] In 1938, she became the first woman admitted to the Brooklyn Chapter of the American Institute of Architects[4] and for many years was the only female member of the organization.[6] She specialized in residential architecture,[4] and was chosen to design a home for the 1939 World's Fair.[4] She designed more than two thousand buildings in her career.[7]

On the recommendation of a Cornell dean, Tjaden was hired by a Mineola, NY architecture firm and began designing “distinctive homes for people of moderate means.”[2] From the 1920s to 1940s, Tjaden supervised the design of more than 400 homes in the Garden City area of Long Island, New York.[2] Tjaden's designs included flourishes such as formal breakfast rooms and sweeping staircases.[2] One of her most admired elements was her use of stained glass windows, particularly a colorful peacock door designed by her and constructed in England.[2] The homes were meant to sell for around $12,000.[2] According to Nassau County Historical Society member Millicent Vollono “She would sometimes do a whole block of homes using five or six kinds of styles. When you go through those neighborhoods now, the homes look different, but they all fit together.”[2]

A Tudor mansion Tjaden designed in Woodmere, NY for a distiller was featured in a 1935 edition of “Good Housekeeping” magazine.[2]

Tjaden's former home on 11th Street in Garden City is marked with a weather vane representing her career- a young woman holding a caliper and sitting astride a T-square.[2] Tjaden often hosted social events for women at her home and the house served as an advertisement for her work.[2]

In 1943, she moved to Florida to capitalize on the building boom of the era.[7] Once in Florida she ceased working on individual homes, but wrote a column for an architectural journal and designed garden apartments.[2] She also served as program director and member of the board for the Museum of Fine Arts in Fort Lauderdale.[8]

Olive Tjaden Hall, part of the Cornell University College of Architecture, Art, and Planning

Tjaden married Carl G. Johnson of Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1945.[1] At the time, Tjaden was reported to live in Garden City, New York.

Tjaden died at the age of 92 and left most of her $12 million estate to Cornell.[2] A building housing part of Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning was named in her honor in 1981.[2][9]

Tjaden's entry in the International Archive of Women in Architecture Biographical Database at Virginia Tech

• Finding guide to the Olive Tjaden Papers, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
• Obituary in the Cornell Chronicle