She served as Curatorial Assistant for Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1946 to 1950. She received a Fulbright Scholarship, which enabled her to travel in Italy and research Italian architecture and engineering. Given this opportunity, she left MoMa. In 1958, she also received a Guggenheim Fellowship to research the structural and design advances of American architecture. She was a contributing editor to "Progressive Architecture" and "Art in America" from 1950 to 1963 before being named the first architecture critic at "The New York Times", a post she held from 1963 to 1982. Her architectural writings were about the humanistic meaning and artistic power that also involved her displeasure for projects that were missing civic engagement. She made architecture a more prevalent part of the public dialogue by appearing on the front page of "The New York Times". From 1968 to 1971, her public opinion was found so successful that it was commemorated in "New Yorker" cartoons. She received grants from the Graham Foundation for a number of projects, including the book "Will They Ever Finish Bruckner Boulevard?". She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1974.