Aiming for Stylish and Utilitarian

I've always said that I like my history with breasts; I can only hear about old white guys for so long before wanting to hear about an historic woman.

Today's came courtesy of the Library of Virginia's noon lecture, "Beth Barnard Nickels: A Very Surprising Virginia Architect."

I think the main reason she was labeled surprising was because she had girl parts.

Researcher Erin Myers read a lecture on Nickels' life, beginning with the early years at her family home, Sunnyside, in Prince George County.

And if you think because the home had a name that it was elaborate or large, you'd be mistaken.

The simple wooden structure with a separate building for the kitchen had remained as it had been built in the 19th century until Nickels renovated it after becoming an architect.

And even then she did it her way.

Nickels loved to cook, so when she enlarged the house and joined the two separate buildings, she naturally remodeled the kitchen.

Did she turn it into a showplace kitchen? She did not.

Never able to tolerate having another person in the kitchen when she cooked, she purposely designed a room that could only hold one.

That's thinking ahead and I admire that.

Originally a teacher like her mother and grandmother, she went on to follow in her handsome engineer father's footsteps and took classes in drafting and design.

When she began working for the prestigious firm of Marcellus Wright and Son in 1947, he new boss observed that she wore skirts and high heels to the job sites every day.

Nickels was smart, though, acknowledging that the contractors and sub-contractors treated her very well on site.

Never, I repeat never, underestimate the power a of a skirt and heels.

God knows I don't.

That said, she made some concessions to being a woman in a man's world, not wearing too much makeup and always speaking first to the wives of her coworkers at work functions.

You know how distracting we womenfolk in lipstick can be.

Myers' lecture touched on many of the buildings around town that Richmond's first female architect had a hand in.

One I recognized at once now houses Vogue Flowers downtown on Main Street; she also worked on several homes in Windsor Farms.

Her buildings were characterized as "stylish and utilitarian," a description I wouldn't mind hearing applied to myself.

But more than that, Nickels did things her way.

She never took the State Boards to become certified as an architect, not needing the validation (or the A.I.A. after her name).

"Yep, I don't live by the rules," Nickels was quoted by Myers as having said last year before her death in March. "Sorry 'bout that."

My hero!

A friend recently said of me, "Oh, Karen knows the rules. She just chooses not to play by them."

Beth Barnard Nickels and I: cut from the same cloth apparently.

Is it any wonder I like my history with girl parts?