Not every architect has the opportunity to build skyscrapers. In Pennsylvania, architect and industrial designer Anna Wagner Keichline used her talents to improve the lives of her neighbors by designing their houses and gathering places. She adopted a gently accommodating architectural style in the shadow of her hometown, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and its high Victorian lacery, and she designed sturdy churches, theaters, homes, schools and recreation facilities in the town that still stand well and firmly in their context.

The Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation presents the extraordinary story of Keichline (1889-1943) in a new episode of its New Angle: Voice podcast, titled Anna Wagner Keichline: The Legacy of Invention.

The first registered woman architect in Pennsylvania, Keichline was also among the first registered women architects in the United States. With a legacy of designing dozens of commercial and residential buildings and numerous industrial products, Keichline’s seven patents for her innovative residential and building designs include one for The Building Block (1927), popularly known as the K-brick, a forerunner of today’s concrete block.

Following its successful first season, BWAF’s illuminating and often provocative New Angle: Voice episodes have won critical acclaim and major grants from the NEA and Graham Foundation as well as fast-growing international audiences. The illuminating story of Keichline adds to the second season’s debut episode on Ray Eames, along with the trailblazing African American architect Amaza Lee Meredith (1895-1984) and the architect and famed Wall Street Journal architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable (1921-2013).

The pioneering audio series New Angle: Voice is created and produced by BWAF and its executive director, Cynthia Phifer Kracauer, who is joined in conceiving and producing the audio documentaries by noted writer and editor Alexandra Lange, Ph.D., and acclaimed producer Brandi Howell. The primary sponsor of New Angle: Voice is MillerKnoll, a collective of dynamic brands and an influential modern design company.

Listen to the latest New Angle: Voice episodes wherever you stream podcasts or on BWAF’s website.