Maria Cotescu

Maria Cotescu was born in 1896 in Romania to Maria (née Tufelcică) and Dumitru Cotescu [ro], a general in the Romanian Army during World War I.

[1] She graduated from the High School of Architecture in Bucharest in 1922[2] and in 1924, she was one of only six women, who had been allowed membership in the Romanian Architects Society, the others being Irineu Maria Friedman, Virginia Andreescu Haret, Maria Hogas, Antonetta Ioanovici and Ada Zăgănescu.

[3] Some sources indicate that she also later attended the Superior School of Architecture in Bucharest, graduating after Henrieta Delavrancea did so in 1926–1927.

The Griviţa building was one of the first to use red brick, to be designed in a modern style and to use functional technology, making it a model for later works by other architects.

[7] In addition to design and construction work, Cotescu published articles on architectural theory,[2] which appeared in such journals as Technology Magazine (Romanian: Revista Tehnica), the Polytechnic Society Bulletin (Romanian: Buletinul Societatii Politehnice), Architecture (Romanian: Arhitectura) and Symmetry Magazine (Romanian: Revista Simetria).