Justin Blanco White

Margaret Justin Blanco White OBE ARIBA (11 December 1911 – 1 November 2001) was a Scottish architect.[1]

Justin Blanco White
Born11 December 1911 Edit this on Wikidata
Kensington Edit this on Wikidata
Died1 November 2001 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 89)
ChildrenDusa McDuff Edit this on Wikidata

Early life and education

Margaret Justin Blanco White was born at 30 Pembroke Square, Kensington, London, on 11 December 1911. Her father was George Rivers Blanco White KC, and her mother was writer Amber Reeves.[2] Her brother was Thomas Blanco White, an intellectual property lawyer. She had an older half sibling Anna-Jane whose father was H.G. Wells. Her maternal grandparent were William Pember Reeves and Maud Pember Reeves.[3]

She was educated at St Paul’s Girls’ School, London between 1926 and 1929.

Blanco White trained at the Architectural Association School of Architecture from 1929, alongside students and close friends Judith Ledeboer, Jessica Albery, and Mary Crowley (later Medd), where they developed a commitment to housing reform and social concerns which impacted their later careers.[4][5][6][7]

Career

Justin Blanco White designed Shawms, Conduit Head Road, Cambridge in 1938.[8] The building was listed Grade II in 1996, and is built in the Modernist style, although using timber as a facing material.[9]

She worked on low cost housing, housing for the elderly, and hospitals when she was Superintending Architect of the Scottish Office.

Also attributed to Blanco White is 12 Landsdowne, Cambridge, built 1961-1968 in collaboration with David Croghan. Commissioned by Pat Merton in 1958, the building was demolished in 2003 according to the condition of sale to its new owners.[10]

In the 1973 Birthday Honours she was appointed an OBE for her work.

Personal life

She married biologist Conrad Hal Waddington in 1936. They had two daughters, Caroline (married name Humphrey, subsequently Dame and Lady Rees, 1943–), an anthropologist, and Dusa (married name McDuff, 1945–), a mathematician.

References
  1. Goold, David (30 September 2017). "Dictionary of Scottish Architects - DSA Architect Biography Report". scottisharchitects.org.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  2. Oxford dictionary of national biography. British Academy., Oxford University Press. (Online ed.). Oxford. ISBN 9780198614128. OCLC 56568095.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. Darling, Elizabeth (11 July 2019), "White [married name Waddington], (Margaret) Justin Blanco (1911–2001), architect", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112261, retrieved 2 October 2021
  4. Darling, Elizabeth (11 July 2019), "White [married name Waddington], (Margaret) Justin Blanco (1911–2001), architect", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112261, retrieved 2 October 2021
  5. Walker, Lynne (11 July 2019), "Albery, Jessica Mary (1908–1990), architect and town planner", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.112259, retrieved 2 October 2021
  6. "Medd [née Crowley], Mary Beaumont (1907–2005), architect and educationist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/104202. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  7. "Ledeboer, Judith Geertruid (1901–1990), architect and public servant". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/66415. Retrieved 2 October 2021.
  8. Bradley, Simon (2015). The buildings of England, Cambridgeshire. Yale University Press. p. 343.
  9. "Celebrating Women Architects". www.english-heritage.org.uk. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  10. "Cambridge 2000: Lansdowne Road: 12". www.cambridge2000.com.
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