Jansone, Vera
Biographical Note
Born in Latvia, Vera Jansone studied architecture, engineering, and art history at the University of Latvia. Following World War II, Jansone left her homeland to accept a scholarship to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts from 1945-1949, after which she worked full time in the Atelier Le Corbusier on the reconstruction of Paris. Upon receiving her French license, Jansone started practicing with J.L. Humbaire working mostly on schools, housing, hospitals and commercial buildings. In 1950 Jansone was awarded full tuition and travel expenses under an American Association of University Women (AAUW) scholarship to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she studied under Mies van der Rohe. Jansone received her MS in Architecture from IIT in 1952.
After returning briefly to Paris, Jansone moved to the United States, first living in New York for a short duration and later moving with her husband to California in the early 1960s, where job opportunities were much more abundant for women architects. Some of her projects include The Fox Plaza while working with Victor Gruen Associates; underground stations for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system while working with Ernest Born; the Mt. Shasta Mall in Redding CA while working at Robert B. Liles, Inc.; and the Sycamore Medical Building, while working with T. Liles & Assoc.