Esther Baum Born

Esther Baum Born (May 31, 1902 – May 2, 1987) was an American architect, author and architectural photographer who lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, and Mexico. With her husband, Ernest Born, she wrote The New Architecture in Mexico, which also includes an article on the painting and sculpture by Justino Fernández. She traveled in Mexico for 10 months, photographing and drawing historic and modern buildings, ultimately attracting global attention to the dawn of Mexico's modern architecture. Working mostly behind the scenes, she was integral to the success of the Ernest Born architecture firm.

Esther Baum (Born) was born 1902 in Palo Alto, California, as the oldest of three daughters of Frank A. Baum, an electrical engineer and inventor, and his wife, Mary, nee Dawson. She grew up in Piedmont and graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1920. She studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley under John Galen Howard, earning a bachelor's degree in 1924. As recommended by Professor Howard for all his students, she stayed on for graduate studies. She also worked for architect Henry H. Gutterson until she traveled for a year in Europe to study languages and history of art. In 1926 she married architect Ernest Born.

After their marriage, the Borns traveled and studied in France and Italy before they settled in New York. From 1929 to 1936 they both worked in various architectural offices and established their own studio with associate Carl Bertil Lund, who continued to work with them for more than forty years. One of their first projects was the New York Offices and Tasting Room for wine importers Bates & Schoonmaker, which was published in Architectural Forum and Architectural Review. Ernest was credited as the architect; Esther as the photographer. In early 1933, Esther Born took an intensive course in architectural photography with photographer Ben Rabinovitch and later showed her work in a group exhibition and solo shows at the Rabinovitch Gallery. She also took graduate classes in architecture at Columbia University.

Through the friendship with their neighbors, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the Borns became interested in Mexico. Born traveled to Mexico to photography modernist architecture between 1935 and 1936 and this portion of her archive is held at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. Esther photographed historic and modern architecture, landscapes and people, and Ernest assisted her with the collection of data and the layout. Her article The New Architecture in Mexico was published in the Architectural Record as well as in book form by W. Morrow and Company. The book contained architectural photos, essays, an article on the painting and sculpture by Justino Fernández, and portraits of Mexican architects Juan O'Gorman and José Villagrán García. In later years, she photographed Frank Lloyd Wright and Bernard Maybeck.

In California, around 1940, she photographed Northern California Usonian houses designed by Wright, the Paul and Jean Hanna House and the Sidney and Louise Bazett House. From 1938 to 1940, she documented the Golden Gate International Exposition, which took place on Treasure Island near San Francisco.

In 1942 during World War II, they temporarily closed their office. Esther worked for the San Francisco Housing Authority with co-director John Savage Bolles on the acquisition of properties for housing war industry workers while Ernest worked on a government project in Brazil.

Esther and Ernest Born's partnership was creative and productive. He participated in many civic activities including service on the San Francisco Art Commission and taught architecture at the University of California from 1951 to 1958 and 1962 to 1974. Esther ran the office and collaborated on the firm's vision, helped execute its commissions and handled the finances. She honed her business skills by taking a summer course in business administration at the University of California Berkeley in 1958.

The firm closed in 1971 when Esther’s health prevented her from continuing to work. Ernest continued to collaborate with Walter Horn on their research of the monastery of St. Gall. Soon after they sold their house in 1984, they moved to San Diego to live close to their daughter. Esther died there in 1987.

With the publication of her photographic images, she contributed to Ernest Born’s reputation and public recognition. However, she was not acknowledged in the firm's name "Ernest Born Architect", possibly because she was not a licensed architect. In the publication of their own house at 2020 Great Highway, San Francisco, she is listed as Associate Architect.