Marcia Mead and her partner gave priority to building elements usually ignored by male architects and, in community planning, they took into account street layouts and open space.
In addition, they approached community planning and design holistically, taking into account not just individual residences but also street layouts, store locations, and open space. They planned to work from "the feminist side" of things, giving priority to matters like closets, clothes chutes, and water pumps that they felt made a world of difference in women's lives but were often neglected by male architects. Mead and Schenck may have begun working together as early as 1912. When they formed the partnership of Schenck & Mead in early 1914, they were (incorrectly) hailed by the New York Times as the first firm of women architects in America; that milestone had actually been set two decades earlier by Gannon and Hands. 
