Poldi Hirsch

Poldi Hirsch (; March 24, 1926 – July 22, 1987) was a German-born American architect who applied modernist principles to suburban houses and buildings in Havre de Grace, Maryland.

Early life and education Poldi Rothenberg was born on March 24, 1926, in Remscheid, Germany, the daughter of Isak Rottenberg and Malka Rottenberg. In 1939, she and her family fled Nazi Germany for Mandatory Palestine. She graduated from Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv in 1946 and, encouraged by her father to pursue architecture, studied the subject for two years at the Hebrew Technical College, Haifa.

She met Günther Hirsch playing tennis in Tel Aviv in 1943. In 1948, she left college to join him in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was studying medicine, and they married. In Switzerland, she finished her architecture schooling: she attended the École d’Architecture in Geneva and the Uni-École Polytechnique of Lausanne, earning a Diplome d’Architect and receiving a license to practice architecture in Switzerland

In 1953, the Hirschs moved to Sewickley, Pennsylvania in the United States, where Hirsch worked as a model maker for H. Bradley-Patterson & Burgner Architects and her husband was a medical resident and earned a master's in public health.

Havre de Grace

In 1955, the Hirschs permanently settled in Havre de Grace and began practicing in their respective professions. She designed a number of small homes, duplexes, and apartment buildings inspired by Le Courbusier's Unité d'habitation principle, combining modern design with affordability.

According to Selena Bagnara Milan, in the 1970s Hirsch's work show the influences of Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto. "...he embraced the so called ‘vernacular style,’ combining geometry with bold colours and organic elements. She fused technology with tradition and craft, bringing to the design of her interiors a regional flavour, taking advantage of site, natural light, and ventilation." After his wife's death, Günther Hirsch served two terms of mayor of Havre de Grace and wrote two books, From Exile to Life and Sick! Patients First.