Elisabeth Coit

Who is Elisabeth Coit?

Elisabeth Coit was an American architect. Coit was born in Winchester, Massachusetts in 1897. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1911, attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and received her Bachelors of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1919. After graduation, she worked as a drafter and designer at the office of Grosvenor Atterbury until 1929. She then opened her own firm in New York City, which designed houses mainly for women outside of the city and for businesses in the state. She ran the firm until 1942. In 1941 she published "Design and Construction of the Dwelling Unit for the Low-Income Family," which was a study about low-income housing in the United States. From 1942-1947 she also was the technical standards editor for the United States Housing Authority's Public Housing Design in Washington, D.C., followed by a research position at Mayer and Whittersley from 1947-48. She retired in 1962, as the principal planner for the New York City Housing Authority. Even in retirement she continued to serve as an adviser for government and private housing organizations. In 1973, she was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate Academician.