ABSTRACT
Urmila Eulie Chowdhury (or Eulie as she was popularly called) was born in Shahjehanpur, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. She got her Cambridge School Certificate from Kobe, Japan, and studied architecture and music in Sydney, and also acquired a diploma in ceramics from Englewood, New Jersey.1 After receiving her BArch from the University of Sydney in 1947, Chowdhury moved to the United States where she found a job with a good salary. However, she decided to return to India in 1951 when she found an opportunity to work with Le Corbusier on Chandigarh. She was with the project almost from the beginning, dealing with a virgin site, becoming one of the rare Indian women in architecture to work on the large project. She began with the High Court, the first building to be designed by Le Corbusier, and was soon actively involved, along with Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry, in the city that was taking shape. She spoke French, so she grew close to Corbusier, winning his respect and friendship. She became his interpreter and also took care of his correspondence with Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. She also worked closely with Jane Drew during the years Jane lived in Chandigarh.
