Ada Louise Huxtable, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic, died on January 7. She was most recently the architecture critic for the Wall Street Journal. As the New York Times reported in its obituary, Ms. Huxtable considered Avery Library her "most treasured academic home."

She covered Avery Library exhibitions and events in many pieces for the Times, and was always generous in her praise, as in this 1980 review of a special exhibition celebrating Avery Librarian Adolf Placzek and this 1972 essay, "A Place of Genuine Joy".  In this 1977 article on the library's recent renovation, Ms. Huxtable recalled visiting Avery and holding some of the world's greatest treasures of architectural literature in her hands.

In addition to being a champion of buildings, Ms. Huxtable was a champion of libraries, and she will be missed.

Image credit:
Ada Louise Huxtable with Walter Severinghaus and Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, at the Mayor's Press meeting on Convention Center, February 13, 1973.
Bunshaft papers (Box 5:21), Drawings and Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library