Martini was initially rejected by some ninety firms in her search for architectural work, on at least two occasions because the firms refused to have women in their drafting rooms.[2][4] She then changed her approach: she went to business school and obtained a secretarial job at an architectural firm, a position she leveraged to shift into drafting. She ended up working as a draughtsperson for a number of Chicago-area architects including John B. Sutcliffe, who specialized in churches.[3] In 1913, when she took and passed her Illinois licensing exam, she was the only woman of the 86 applicants; and, following the departure of Marion Mahony Griffin in 1914, she would for some years be the only woman architect licensed in private practice by the state of Illinois.[2]
Martini opened her own office in 1914, becoming the first woman who was sole owner of an architectural firm in Chicago.[2] The bulk of her work was commissions for residences, but she would also do rush work for other local architects.[3] Her largest commission was a 1928 church complex, St. Luke's Lutheran in Park Ridge, Illinois, the design of which is an adaptation of English Gothic architecture. In lieu of a flat fee, Martini received $60 a month for life.[1]
In 1921, Martini put an ad in a paper reading: "Only girl architect lonely. Wanted—to meet all the women architects in Chicago to form a club."[2] Out of this came the Chicago Drafting Club, which later merged with the Women's Architectural Club, which in turn merged with the still-extant organization Chicago Women in Architecture.[2]
In 1934, Martini moved her architectural practice to Bangor, Michigan, and became a member of the American Institute of Architects.[3]
Martini died in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee, at the age of 98.[1]