U.S., March 21 -- The Barbizon Hotel for Women was built in 1927 as a residential hotel and clubhouse for single women who came to New York for professional opportunities. Designed by the prominent hotel architects Murgatroyd & Ogden, the 23rd-story Barbizon Hotel is an excellent example of the 1920s apartment hotel and is notable for its design quality. The Barbizon's design reflects the influence of architect Arthur Loomis Harmon's enormous Shelton Hotel in New York. Harmon, who would help design the Empire State Building a few years later, made visionary use of the city's 1916 zoning law to admit light and air to the streets below.

In the period following World War I, the number of women attending college began to approach that of men...