Boulder Women in Architecture and Design

Margaret Williams Read was the first female architect in Boulder. She was born in Iowa in 1892 and was the youngest child of Margaret and John Wood Read. Margaret and her parents moved to Boulder shortly before 1910 so Margaret could attend the University of Colorado in Boulder. Margaret was socially and civically active and gave talks on “Civic Pride” in 1914 and “Our denominational societies” and “What will make our society a greater success?” in 1915. She lived at 525 Mapleton Ave. in the Mapleton Hill Historic District with her parents.

Margaret obtained a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Colorado, then graduated from the University of California School of Architecture in 1920. She then taught at the University of Colorado’s Department of Architecture and at the Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles.

As early as 1923, Margaret was providing drafting services to Glen H, Huntington at his architectural firm in Boulder. She began to officially work for Huntington in 1925 and specialized in “the problem of fraternity house planning,” and is credited with working on fraternity and sorority houses in Boulder, Denver, Golden and Fort Collins. She was credited with drawing and design collaboration for a number of buildings in and around Boulder, including:

• The Pi Beta Phi Sorority House at 890 11th St.
• The design of her brother’s house in at 1862 13th Ave. in Greeley, designated the Lim House
• The house at 740 13th St. in Boulder which she built in 1928 for her elderly father and herself
• The Trinity Lutheran Church at 2200 Broadway
• The Boulder Day Nursery at 1518 Spruce St., and
• The Alpha Omicron Pi House at 1015 15th St

Eve Drewelowe was born in 1899 in Iowa. She received a bachelor's degree in graphic and plastic art from the University of Iowa, then petitioned the university to create a graduate degree of study in painting: In 1924, she earned the university’s first master's degree in fine arts. Shortly after, Eve married Jacob Van Ek and they moved to Boulder.

Eve designed both of her houses in Boulder: 626 13th St., designated as an individual City of Boulder landmark as the Drewelowe-Van Ek House, alongside Boulder architect Glen Huntington and 2025 Balsam Dr., which was demolished in 2000. She added her own personal touch to the eclectic, “chateauesque-style” house on 13th Street, including gargoyles and a purpose-built studio in the third-floor attic space. 

In addition to being a prolific and accomplished painter, Eve was a founding member of the Boulder Artists’ Guild. She also taught at the University of Colorado in both the school of engineering and in the department of fine arts. 

Cecille was born in Canada in 1923. When she was 16, she was awarded a Marshall Field scholarship and moved to Chicago to attend the Institute of Design. Her teachers included world-renowned modernist architect Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, and Bauhaus School professors László Moholy-Nagy and György Kepes, all of whom fled Germany due to the rise of Nazism. She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in Art Education from the Chicago Art Institute and a master's degree in Fine Arts from the American University in Washington, D.C.

Cecille married Phillip Sirotkin in 1945, and they moved to Boulder in 1957. She worked with architect Tician Papacristou to design the family’s home at 575 Euclid Ave. Completed in 1959, the house is one of Boulder’s most important and earliest examples of contemporary architecture. It was designated as an individual City of Boulder landmark in 2025 as the Sirotkin-Woodman House.

Cecille was also a leader in the development of the arts in Colorado. She is credited with researching and writing the legislation that helped fund original art in all public buildings and helped coordinate the first “Colorado Women in the Arts” program in 1979.

Mary Sue Mullins was born Mary Sue Capps in 1926 in Winters, Texas, and was raised on the Capps family ranch near Tipton, Oklahoma. Her younger brother, Senator Gilmer N. Capps, ran the ranch and served in the Oklahoma State Senate for 36 consecutive years until retiring in 2006. Mary Sue, who went by “Sue” married L. Frank Mullins in 1944. They moved to Midland, Texas where they formed Mullins Construction in 1948. The family moved to Boulder in 1960 and continued to design and build houses together.

Although not a trained architect, between 1948 and around 2010, Sue designed approximately 100 residential and commercial buildings, with Frank constructing them. In Boulder, these houses include 501 13th Street and 7310 Island Circle, both originally designed for the Mullins family.

Sue learned the technical side of architectural design through architecture classes at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Her work was also heavily influenced by architects she admired, including Frank Lloyd Wright, E. Fay Jones and Cliff May. She championed a style of architecture that was focused on the needs of family living and became known as a designer who understood and responded to the practical expectations of women who, at the time, spent most of their time in the home.