Elizabeth Ayer and Edwin Ivey photograph collection, approximately 1911-1970

Elizabeth Ayer and Edwin Ivey Jr. were architects operating in and around Seattle, Washington starting in 1911 when Ivey founded his firm, and ending in 1970 when Ayer retired. Ivey was born in 1883, the son of a British immigrant and early Seattle resident. In 1910 he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and started his own office a year later in Seattle. Elizabeth Ayer was born in 1897 on a farm in Thurston County, Washington. She enrolled in the University of Washington's Architectural program, despite the resistance of the staff and students because she was a woman in 1916. She graduated in 1921, and was registered as first female architect in Washington State in 1930. In 1919, she was hired as a student by Andrew Willatsen, and worked for him off and on, living in New York from 1922 to 1923. She joined Ivey's firm in 1924, and the two collaborated together for 15 years. Between 1926 and 1927, Ayer traveled in Europe for a year to gain inspiration. In 1940, Ivey was killed in a seven car pile-up on the Pacific Highway. Ayer was promoted to partner of the firm, where she eventually merged with the firm of Ronald Lamping (another University of Washington graduate and student of Ivey) to create Ayer & Lamping. The two briefly ceased practice in 1942, with Ayer working for the U.S. Engineers Office for the duration of World War II. After nearly five decades, Ayer retired in 1970 and moved to Lacey, Washington, where she served on the Planning Commission until 1980. She died in 1987. During the 1920's, the firm mostly worked on Colonial Revival houses within the Broadmoor and The Highlands neighborhoods, and then transitioned into more open floor plans in the 1930's, fusing traditional and modern styles. Ayer moved to smaller residential projects after Ivey's death. Disparaging modernist architecture, she focused entirely on Colonial Revivalism, fusing that with modern functionality when necessary.