Milka Bliznakov

Milka Tcherneva Bliznakov, founder of the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA), was born in Varna, Bulgaria, on September 20, 1927. She attended the State Polytechnic Institute of Sofia, graduating with a master’s degree in architecture in 1951. Bliznakov worked as a senior researcher for the Ministry of Heavy Industry in Sofia (1950–53) and held a private practice in Bulgaria (1954–59). She married Emile Bliznakov in 1954, and in 1959, they escaped Bulgaria to France, emigrating two years later to the United States. In New York City, Bliznakov worked as a designer for Perkins & Will (1963–67) and later as a project architect for Lathrop Douglass until 1971, when she earned her Ph.D. in architectural history from Columbia University. Bliznakov began her academic career at the University of Texas in 1972, where she co-founded the Institute of Modern Russian Culture. In 1974, after her divorce, she became a professor at Virginia Tech's College of Architecture and Urban Planning. In 1985, Bliznakov founded the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA), serving as the Chair of the Board of Advisors from 1985 to 1993. When Bliznakov retired in 1998, she established the Milka Bliznakov Research Prize, awarded annually by the IAWA Center to foster research conducted with material preserved in the IAWA collections and further knowledge of women’s contributions to architecture and design. Bliznakov continued to acquire and donate works to the IAWA until her passing on November 4, 2010.