De Blois was born in Paterson, New Jersey, into a family of three generations of engineers. She was interested in architecture from an early age, saying in 2004, "I was selected to be the one that would go into art. I told my father that I wanted to be an architect from the age of ten or twelve." She attended the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, and received an architecture degree from Columbia University in 1944. While at Columbia, she worked at Babcock & Wilcox during the summer and for Frederick John Kiesler.
Architectural career
De Blois began her career at a New York firm, Ketchum, Gina, and Sharpe, but was fired after "rebuff the affections" of one of the firm's male architects, who asked for her to be fired. She then joined the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. While working at SOM, De Blois became known as a "pioneer" as a female architect in the "male-dominated world of architecture." She designed a number of major business buildings on Park Avenue in New York City, including the Pepsi building and the Union Carbide Building. She worked with Gordon Bunshaft on the Pepsi building, which was completed in 1960 and was "praised by critics for its gem-like, seemingly levitating exterior walls of gray-green glass and aluminum." She transferred to the Chicago branch of SOM in 1962, continuing to work on skyscrapers in Chicago until 1974. While there, she founded the Chicago Women in Architecture. Richard Tomlinson, the managing partner of SOM's Chicago office, believes it's the "best thing that ever happened to us", and De Blois was eventually promoted to associate partner in 1964. Her works in Chicago include the Equitable Building. De Blois joined Neuhaus & Taylor in Houston in 1974. In 1980, she began teaching at the University of Texas School of Architecture, and was a faculty member until 1993. She died at age 92 in Chicago. In 2014, De Blois was recognized for her work designing the Pepsi Cola World Headquarters and Union Carbide Building, winning sites of Built by Women New York City, a competition launched by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation during the fall of 2014 to identify outstanding and diverse sites and spaces designed, engineered and built by women. Willis is quoted as saying "There wasn't anybody in the country quite like Natalie, because there was no one else working for a firm quite like Skidmore."
Notable projects
Union Carbide Building, 270 Park Avenue, New York - Completed 1960, de Blois Senior Designer
