March 4, 2025

Remembering Architectural Trail Blazer Elizabeth Reilly Moynahan, AIA, for Women’s History Month

Elizabeth Reilly Moynahan, AIA, a lifelong architect who graduated from Radcliffe College and the Harvard School of Design in 1952 as one of only three women in her class, died September 23, 2019, age 94.

She was born on D-Day, June 6, 1925 in Boston, MA. Elizabeth graduated from Girls’ Latin School in Boston, Radcliffe College AB 1946, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, B. Arch, M. Arch 1952.

Liz, as she was known by friends and colleagues, managed to have a long and illustrious career as an architect while raising a family and sustaining a marriage of 68 years with the man she called “the love of her life,” her deceased husband, Julian Lane Moynahan, Distinguished Professor of English, poet, novelist, and literary critic.

Eleanore Pettersen and Elizabeth Moynahan (Right) at the 1984 AIA NJ Convention

Her work included corporate office buildings, houses, schools, community buildings, housing for the elderly, barrier-free designs, a college library, and the compound for The Institute for Women’s Leadership located on the Douglass campus of Rutgers University. In Princeton, she remodeled a section of the Princeton University Library and the Institute for Advanced Study, a pioneering design for solar housing as early as the 1970s. Elizabeth was active in historic preservation restoring, among others, the Albert Einstein House. As a committed advocate for affordable housing, she was instrumental in creating Architects Housing, Eggerts Crossing Village Community Building and Offices in New Jersey. Her architecture and renovations included buildings in London, Dublin, and many houses on Cape Cod.

Images of one of Ms. Moynahan’s elegant residential projects in Princeton are available HERE. 

She was a gifted teacher, serving as a visiting professor of Architecture at the University of Utah, Louisiana State University, Rutgers University, and visiting critic at the Bartlett School, London. Her service to the New Jersey State Board of Architects included serving as commissioner for six years and president for one. She was secretary and treasurer to the Central Chapter AIA of the New Jersey Society of Architects and selected to serve on a six-member steering Committee for Historic Resources.

This 1976 Issue of Architecture New Jersey includes news and a photo of Elizabeth on page 23. 

AIANJ-1976-1 EMoynihan p 23

In addition to her professional accomplishments, Liz was a mother to three daughters, an active feminist, and supporter of Civil Rights who campaigned for Shirley Chisholm and Geraldine Ferraro. A devoted mentor to young men and women pursuing architecture, she generously donated her time to judging design projects in local high schools. She was an accomplished gardener and cook who taught her daughters and grandchildren how to bake bread, make pesto, and eschew processed food. Each birthday featured a delicious and creative birthday cake, with a detailed Irish Cottage one of the most impressive. Her sewing projects were extensive, featuring Liberty prints and Irish tweed, creating unique and beautiful outfits for herself and her children.

An avid reader, a wonderful grandmother, and a mother who inspired and cherished her three daughters, she felt strongly about human rights and civil liberties and, along with her husband, gave generously to charity and liberal causes. An excellent storyteller and great conversationalist, she will be remembered for her wit, intelligence, strength, and empathy. Memorable anecdotes included her waltzing with the writer James Baldwin, and serving as a “Rosie the Riveter” during WWII, welding in an airplane factory as part of the war effort.

By Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA, AIA NJ Advocacy Consultant | Posted in AIA Central New Jersey, Women in Architecture | Tagged: #AIANJWIA, #ElizabethReillyMoynahanAIA, #womeninarchitecture, #WomensHistoryMonth | Comments (0)