The live program at the Bonnet House in Ft. Lauderdale will feature an introduction by Claire Vickery, Founder of Grace Arts Center and producer of this documentary, followed by a screening of the short 2022 documentary film (24 min.), “Two Women & Pavilion on the Water,” highlighting especially Roberts’ role in Ryan and Roberts’ design for the 1924 bandstand at Orlando’s Lake Eola Park.
The film is about Frank Lloyd Wright’s first female employee, Isabel Roberts, who eventually closed FLW’s Oak Park Chicago office and moved to Florida to join another female architect, Ida Ryan, who was the first female to receive a Masters in architecture degree in the U.S., which was from MIT. Their firm was commissioned by the City of Orlando to design a futuristic pavilion in the middle of Lake Eola in 1924 and their work was part of the City Beautiful Movement championed by Orlando in the early twentieth century.
The film and discussion will highlight the achievements of these two remarkable women and the obstacles they faced as architects in a profession in which women continue to be in the minority. Click here to view the trailer.
The film was produced in 2022 by the Grace Arts Center with support from a Florida Historic Resources Board grant and the Orlando Foundation for Architecture (OFA) and features Central Florida historians and architects.
Click on the link below to register either to attend in person or the zoom presentation. If you sign up for the zoom event, you will receive an email with the link after you sign up.
Also keep watch on our OFA website for additional opportunities to view this film. If we get accepted in the Orlando International Film Festival in August, we will post information on our site for that date and time.