Betsy Frederick-Rothwell

Betsy is the Curator of the Environmental Design Archives (EDA), the research facility within the CED that holds more than 200 historical collections documenting the built and landscaped environment. She is responsible for the acquisition, preservation, and provision for access to the EDA’s unique collection of primary-source materials recording design heritage in Northern California and beyond.

Betsy Frederick-Rothwell received her M.Arch from the CED in 2002 and fell in love with historic buildings while working as an archivist at the Environmental Design Archives after graduation. She ventured away from the CED to work as a preservation specialist for the U.S. General Services Administration, but maintained ties by co-editing the 2009 book Design on the Edge: A Century of Teaching Architecture, 1903–2003, chronicling the history of the Department of Architecture. Betsy went on to obtain her MS in Historic Preservation and Ph.D. in Architecture (architectural history/historic preservation) at the University of Texas at Austin.

Before returning to the Bay Area, she served as a lecturer in architectural history and a preservation project reviewer for the Texas Historical Commission in Austin, Texas. Her current research interests include the historical intersections between physiological theories and building environmental systems, the human-rights implications of building technologies, and preservation’s role in environmental movement.