; Colter decorated, but did not design, the El Tovar Hotel. The four “Mary Jane Colter Buildings”, as a group, were listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1987. She worked with Pueblo Revival Style architecture, Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, Mission Revival Style architecture, Streamline Moderne, American Craftsman, and Arts and Crafts Movement styles, often synthesizing several together evocatively. (text from her wikipedia visit that to learn more or I personally enjoyed reading this biography on her) (side note- Colter also would hire Native American artisans to create a lot of the art in the hotels/structures she designed)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m670iqWW501qzzxxno1_r1_500.jpg)
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Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter was an American architect and designer.
In 1901, the Fred Harvey Company (of the famous Harvey Houses) offered her the job of decorating the Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque. Colter began working full-time for the company in 1910, moving from interior designer to architect.
For the next thirty years, working as one of few female architects and in rugged conditions, Colter completed 21 projects for Fred Harvey. She created a series of landmark hotels and commercial lodges through the southwest, including the La Posada, the 1922 Phantom Ranch buildings at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and five structures on the south rim of the Grand Canyon: the Hopi House (1905), Hermit’s Rest (1914), the observatory Lookout Studio (1914), the 70-foot Desert View Watchtower (1932) with its hidden steel structure, and the Bright Angel Lodge ](1935); Colter decorated, but did not design, the El Tovar Hotel. The four “Mary Jane Colter Buildings”, as a group, were listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1987. She worked with Pueblo Revival Style architecture, Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, Mission Revival Style architecture, Streamline Moderne, American Craftsman, and Arts and Crafts Movement styles, often synthesizing several together evocatively. (text from her wikipedia visit that to learn more or I personally enjoyed reading this biography on her) (side note- Colter also would hire Native American artisans to create a lot of the art in the hotels/structures she designed)
