First, she spent eight weeks gaining practical experience as a bricklayer’s apprentice and in a carpenter’s workshop. Starting in the fall, she attended the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) for one semester as a guest student in the architecture class taught by Oskar Strnad. As a career aspiration she stated: Interior design!

Her first commission was the renovation of a private children’s home in Laa an der Tulln, municipality of Neulengbach, which was generously financed by the composer and violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler and his wife Harriet. She also worked for exhibitions in Vienna and Germany, had private commissions and became known for her articles and lectures in women’s clubs.

In 1922 she married and soon the first of her two sons was born. As a married woman and mother, practicing the unusual profession of architect was met with astonishment, recognition and scepticism from the public.

In Vienna, her passion for acting soon returned. Through her acquaintance with Max Reinhard, who encouraged her, she took acting lessons. From 1930 she already had engagements, she played in six Austrian and German films.

Lilia’s husband Erich Louis Polak was Jewish. In the 1930s, as the Nazi threat grew, they both decided to adopt their mother’s non-Jewish name – Skala. In 1938, after the Anschluss, the situation in Austria became too risky for Erich Skala. After being imprisoned, he managed to leave the country. Lilia also managed to escape with her children to England, where the family reunited. In 1939 they emigrated to the USA.

She had to start all over again under the name of Lilia Skala. She took on odd jobs to earn money which helped her to learn the English language quickly. Eventually she managed to gain a foothold as an actress, first on Broadway and later in film and television. She became a well-known and excellent film actress. Her most successful film was the 1963 drama Lilies of the Field. In 1964, she was nominated for both the Golden Globe and the Oscar in the category of Best Supporting Actress. Lilia Skala continued to perform on stage and make films into old age. In her last film, made in 1991, she was already 95 years old.

She has given the few memories of her time as an architect to the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA) at Virgina Tech USA. Here you will find her student works and a portrait from her youth.