Catherine Bauer Wurster

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Catherine Bauer (May 11, 1905 in Elizabeth, New Jersey – 1964) was a leading member of a small group of idealists who called themselves "housers" because of their commitment to improving housing for low-income families. In her lifetime, she dramatically changed the concept of social housing in the United States and inspired a generation of urban activists to integrate public housing into the emerging welfare state of the mid-20th century.

After spending one year as an architecture student at Cornell University, she transferred to Vassar College from which she graduated in 1926.

In the late 1920s, Bauer spent time in Paris, where she befriended Fernand Léger, Man Ray, and Sylvia Beach. Back in New York, she fell under the spell of American urban critic Lewis Mumford, who, as a mentor and lover, profoundly influenced her life. It was at his urging that she became involved with the architects of change in post-World War I Europe, among them Ernst May, André Lurçat, and Walter Gropius. Convinced that good social housing could produce good social architecture, and moved by the visible ravages of the Depression, she became a passionate leader in the fight for housing for the poor. She co-authored the Housing Act of 1937 and advised five presidents on urban strategies. Her book, Modern Housing, published in 1934, is regarded as a classic. After her marriage to San Francisco area architect William Wurster, Bauer Wurster was also involved in founding the progressive architectural research group Telesis.

A bust of Catherine Bauer Wurster is located in the Environmental Design Library in Wurster Hall at UC Berkeley. The same sculpture can be found in the lobby of the HUD office in Washington D.C.