Susan Maxman

Susan A. Maxman (born 30 December 1938) is an American architect who founded a firm called Susan Maxman Architects in 1985, which she expanded to Susan Maxman & Partners Ltd in 1995. Her firm is associated with a large number of projects involving a wide spectrum of architectural services, including design of old and new buildings, restoration and rehabilitation works, master and site planning, feasibility reports, programming, historic preservation, and interior design. She was the first woman elected as president of the American Institute of Architects in 1992. Her expertise in adoption of the "principles of sustainable design" in her projects has received national appreciation, and in 2011 Maxman was nominated by President Barack Obama to the board of directors of the National Institute of Building Sciences.

Early life Maxman was born on 30 December 1938 in Columbus, Ohio, to Gussie Seiden of Palm Beach and Richard J. Abel of Miami Beach. Her older siblings were twin sisters. When she completed her high school studies at the Columbus School for Girls, Maxman continued her education at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, graduating in two years. She married Leonard Frankel in 1958 and, subsequently, they had three children: Andrew, Thomas, and Elizabeth. In 1965 the couple commissioned Philadelphia architect Louis Sauer, to design a weekend home for them in New Jersey, an event that would be instrumental to Maxman's decision to eventually pursue architecture herself.

Maxman and Frankel later divorced and she married William Maxman, father of three children from an earlier marriage. The six children lived together and were compared to the "blended family" of The Brady Bunch. called Maxman Sutphin Architects, but in 1985 she opened a solo firm called Susan Maxman Architects. After a decade, she expanded the firm to Susan Maxman & Partners Ltd, associating four architects with the business. and was honored by an AIA Award. The recognition led to other contracts from the Episcopal Church and the Girl Scouts and to many projects from NGOs, academic institutions, government organizations, and cultural organizations, which established her expertise in "sustainable design". Restoration of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service's Cusano Environmental Education Center in Philadelphia are some of the notable projects executed by her firm. These houses did not differ in their looks from other in situ-built houses in the neighborhood. William Maxman had died in 1997 and in 2001 she remarried. Her new husband, Rolf Sauer, was an architect from Philadelphia and had one daughter by an earlier marriage. In 1992, she represented the AIA at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Recognition and awards Maxman's firm has received many awards and recognition for their designs. Of their 65 awards, 14 were AIA design awards and another 14 were honored for their environmental importance.

Maxman's professional recognition of membership and awards include the following: College of Fellows, AIA Honorary fellow, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Member of Honor, La Federación de Colegios de Arquitectos de la República Méxicana Honorary doctorate, Ball State University Honorary doctorate, University of Detroit-Mercy Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania Thomas U. Walter Award (first recipient), AIA Philadelphia Pennsylvania's Best 50 Women in Business Award Shattering the Glass Ceiling, Women's National Democratic Club Ruth Carter Stevenson Chair, School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin