African-American architects

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The US Bureau of Labor Statistics [2005] estimates that there are about 100,000 Architects licensed in the United States, and licensed African American Architects - both male and female -represent about 1.5% of all US licensed architects - 1,571 in all [1]. A mere 186 of the 1.5% are African American Women. "If there is any kind of profession that's gotten away with a kind of benign neglect of diversifying itself over the course of last 30 years, it's architecture," says Ted Landsmark. [2]

Contents

[edit] Global Diversity in Architecture

At a time when there is a greater global need for designers, and when architectural firms are eager to tap into new markets, the nation can't continue to ignore the African-American talent pool. Today, 40% of black architecture school graduates are from the half-dozen historically black college and university programs (aka HBCU), suggesting that the majority of our 116 accredited programs are doing relatively little to recruit and nurture the next generations of architects of color. Overall, maybe 40 African Americans become licensed in any given year with the largest concentrations of African American licensed architects to be found in New York City, Washington, DC, Atlanta and Los Angeles. A number of states, to date, have no resident African American architects: Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Dakota. And while women constitute half of our architecture school students, they still represent less than 20% of licensed practitioners.

The Missing Link

Melvin Mitchell, president-elect of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), suggests that Black Architects were a "Missing Link" stating, "When we had our first big, cultural renaissance during the Harlem Renaissance, African American Architects were missing from that. ".... our generation did not see themselves as privileged and having the authority to pursue culture [and] as a result, instead of entrenchment in Black culture (as seen of the arts through the Harlem Renaissance), architecture has generally been a bit outside of the Black culture; looked upon as inaccessible and therefore not desirable. Among other solutions, African American Architects of today must recongnize that they are the pioneers of the field and must work to increasing awareness of architecture career. It is the responsibility of the today's African American Architect to be committed to showing young people that architecture is a creative alternative that they can choose for a career.

Shaping American Architecture

The "Invisible Trio" of American Architecture: Julian Francis Abele, Hilyard Robinson, and Paul R. Williams [3]

This trio of African Americans still remains largely invisible within the history of architecture and architects in the United States, even as their work increasingly become known in the black community. Rectifying this invisibility would surely be consistent with the current and appropriate emphasis on our society's "multicultural" character, if, by that term, we mean to encourage a fundamental reconceptualization of whom we have been and who we are as a people. The potential benefits for architectural education of including the work of these three in "the cannon" are significant. Whereas we are accustomed to inferring vision from almost exclusively from aesthetics, their individual approaches to the practice of the social art of architecture also attest to vision. Each was highly skilled and rooted in the American experience, and each made an important mark on the built environment of the United States.

[Three] men very much of the American times in which they lived, all were successful in their efforts to assimilate and synthesize, in architectural language, the myriad and complex elements of the world around them: Julian Abele, who was apparently absorbed in his work, and whose own designs were credited to the name of another man. Robinson, whose career was a reflection of his close ties to the black community and his social responsibility to balance aesthetics and other concerns and Williams who place his enormous talents into servicing the dreams of his clients.

  • Julian Francis Abele

Most notable works: The Philadelphia Museum of Art (the famous scene in the movie, Rocky, where Balboa charges up the steps of the museum and vows to beat his opponent). During his career as chief designer for the firm of Horace Trumbauer from 1909 to 1938, Abele was architect for several building at Duke University in North Carolina.

In 1902, Abele became the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture. He furthered his education at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris which was underwritten by his employer, Horace Trumbauer. There, he studied Greek and French Classical Styles, drawing upon those traditions in his approach to both architecture and painting. His structures were gracefully scaled and in proportion with their "civic importance" and his designs gave no insight into the tension between his formal European classicism education and his own cultural influences.

Hilyard Robinson is best known for the design of the Langston Terrace Dwellings, built in 1936. In 1987, the dwellings were listed on the National Registration of Historic Places and, the following, was the subject of a 1988 television documentary. Robinson also designed the Army training base of the infamous Tuskegee Airmen. Hilyard Robinson's career engaged the dialogue between European Internationalism and American Modernism. His works rose out of the movement to provide safe and sanitary housing for working-class and poor people, while uplifting the spirit of its residents. He incorporated social realism and Modernism to create a communal interdependence through the relation of well-designed open spaces, sensitively scaled details and artwork that depicted working-class subjects in heroic poses.

Paul Willims commission included the Theme Building for the Los Angelos International Airport. Williams first assignment, as an architect, was a house for Frank Sinatra. In 1931, he was commission to design a house for [[E.L. Cord], manufacturer of Cord Automobiles which further enhanced his prominence among California architects. Commonly known as the "Architect to the Stars" Williams is the most prolific African American Architect, to date, designing homes for a substantial client list that included Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Lon Chaney, Tyrone Power, Martin Landau, William "Bonjangles" Robinson, Zsa Zsa Gabor and other movie stars as well as Jay Paley, William Paley and Walter Winchell.

[edit] Making History

For Immediate Release - http://www.aia.org/release_061506_purnell_president

1st African American President in AIA History - Marshall E. Purnell Elected 2008 AIA President

Washington, DC, June 15, 2006 - Delegates to The American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2006 National Convention and Design Exposition elected Marshall E. Purnell, FAIA, to serve as the 2007 First Vice President/ President-elect / 2008 president.

"To lead effectively during my term as AIA president, I plan to listen and respect, empower and encourage, act and inspire,"Purnell said. "I care deeply about this profession because I believe architecture has the potential to empower people in ways that can significantly change their lives. AIA members can bring the leadership of our cities together and create an action plan for substainable, livable, healthy communities."

[edit] African American Women in Architecture

http://www.architectmagazine.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=1006&articleID=456447

The number of African American women licensed to practice Architecture in the United States has quadrupled over the past 15 years, yet, they still account for only 0.2% of the total population of approximately 91,000 licensed architects. However, according to the National Architectural Accrediting Board, women now represent as much as 4% of the school of architecture graduating population. Unfortunately, the rise in enrollment will not, necessarily translate into an increase in the number of licensed Black women architects. Women and minorities, in general, seem more likely to forego licensure, choosing alternate careers that offer more flexibility and balance, such as Project Management and other Construction-related careers.

Weight the costs of living with the expense of schooling and interning, and the salary of intern architects cannot match the paycheck of some of the alternative careers or subsets of an architecture education. For most women, in general, the road to licensure is simply not rewarding enough to pursue. "The education, internship and licensure process, in general, is long as hell, and the resulting salaries are crazy low compared to other professions" states Yamandi Henandez of blogspot: www.strangebungalow.blogspot.com.

When black women trained in the architecture profession chose to not pursue licensure, the future of the profession is at risk. In a study conducted by the AIA in a 2005 report called, " Demographic Diversity Audit", it concluded that "the concept that diversity is of critical concern to the future of the architecture profession" and warned that "the consequence of not [diversifying] is that the profession will occupy a diminished niche within the larger built environment and come to be seen to be providing services only to corporate and wealth individuals, rather than the much wider range of people who are affected by good architecture".

In response to the study and in an effort to reflect the multicultural community that is served by the architecture profession, many architecture programs are trying to diversify their faculties and curriculum. The University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Planning, offers two new courses called, "Social Change and the Architect" and "Gender Architecture", and they also hired an African American Urban Planner (June Manning Thomas) who lectures on race, ethnicity and gender.

"It is safe to say that witin the next decade, most of the clients will not look like what most architects look like today," says Theodore Landmark, AIA Diversity Committee Chair - 2005.

[edit] Famous Firsts for Black Women Architects

  • Beverly Greene is believed to have been the first African American woman licensed to practice Architecture in the United States. (African American Architect - A Biographical Dictionary 1865 - 1945, by Wilson, Drek Spulock ). In 1936, Beverly Greene became the first African American woman to receive a bachelor's degree in Architectural Engineering, from the University of Illinois at Ubana Champagne and from the same university, received a Master's of Science degree in City Planning one year later. In 1945, Beverly Greene graduated from Columbia University with a Masters of Architecture. She broke through both gender and race barriers in 1938 when she was hired by the Chicago Housing Authority, and is believed to be the first African-American woman to receive a license to practice architecture in the United States.
  • Norma Sklarek, in 1954, was certified to practice Architecture in New York City and is credited with becoming the first African American woman licensed to practice Architecture in the United States. She was the first African American woman director of architecture at Gruen and Associates in Los Angelow. In 1966, she was the first woman to be elected Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Twenty years later, in 1985, she became the first African American women to form her own architectural firm: Siegel, Sklarek, Diamond, which at the time was the largest woman-owned and mostly woman staffed architectural firm). Norma Sklarek is a graduate of the Benard College (part of Columbia University), in 1950.[4]
  • Patricia Harris, in 1994 became the first African American woman licensed to practice Architecture in North Carolina and is one of the first 30 African American woman to licensed to practice Architecture in the United States. Patricia Harris received her Masters of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1986. [5]

[edit] Top 20th Century Female Architects

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_n10_v50/ai_17360998

Many of the women representing the first African American women licensed to practice Architecture in the United States are also history makers, because a good number of them represent first African American woman licensed in their respective states.

  • Kathryn Tyler Prigmore, was the 16th African American woman to become licensed in the United States and the 5th to be elevated to Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She holds a dual Bachelor of Science in Building Science and Bachelor of Architecture degrees, from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a Master of Science in Engineering Administration from The Catholic University of America. For a number of years she both practiced and taught in the Howard University School of Architecture and Planning and between 1992 and 1998, held the position of Associate Dean.
  • Cheryl L. McAfee, is the President of Charles F. McAfee, FAIA, NOMA, PA, Architecture, Engineering Planning and Interiors
  • Beverly K. Hannah, is the Founder and CEO of Hannah & Associates, Inc., an Architecture and interior design firm based in Detroit MI.
  • Ivenue Love-Stanley, is Co-Prinicpal (with her husband William J. Stanley III) of the Atlanta-based firm, Stanley, Love-Stanely, PC.
  • Roberta Washington, is the Founder of Roberta Washington Architects, PC which provides full architectural design and planning services to public and private sector clients throughout the New York metropolitan area.
  • Laurette M. LeGendre-Purse, is the President of Legendre-Purse Architects, PC located in White Plains NY.
  • Donna Carter, is the Sole Proprietor of Carter Design Associates, a multi-disciplined architectural and planning firm located in Austin, TX.
  • Donna Criner, is Partner and Co-founder (with her husband, Robert C. deJohgh) of deJongh Associates, Architects & Planners, located in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
  • Michaele Pride-Wells, is Sole Proprietor of RE: Architecture, in Marina del Rey, CA
  • Herminie E. Ricketts, is Founder of HER Architects, Inc located in Coral Gables, FL (founded in 1986)
    • Alma Mater – Howard University

[edit] Young African American Female Architects

A new generation of young African American female architects are on the horizon. These architects have enthusiastic ties to their communities, and they understand the need to reassess architectural practices and the existing built environment that affect people, neighborhoods, domestic housing and public spaces in order to create integrated functional design.

June Grant is founder and principal architect of BLINK-lab [7], an urban research lab located in Oakland CA, [8]. One goal of the lab is to understand the urban landscape through the practice of architecture by directly focusing on the average individual. The idea of architectural space being a catalyst for positive change lead Blink-Lab to participate in the VACANT LOT[9] project. Grant and Blink-labs are devoted to the idea that architects can make the world a better place to dwell. "Communication occurs between people and place."

Vacant Lot Project

Vacant Lot Rendering

Vacant Lot 3D

Vacant Lot Section

About the VACANT LOT project, in 2004, Blink-lab was commissioned to undertake a study in Richmond, CA [10], a city geographically close to Oakland, CA. The purpose of the study was to propose strategies for the City of Richmond's over 500 vacant lots. The clients were an African American developer who had partnered with the largest church congregations in Richmond. The church was becoming more politically active and realized that in order to solve the problems of its high-crime districts, it had to be more creative. What this team of developer and church lacked was an ability to grasp the idea that by simply filling vacant lots with typically styled single-family houses would not change the economical cultural context of these neighborhoods. While the end-goal was to create a better neighborhood, the client believed the best answer was to fill the space.

Change required a researched approach to discover the forces at play in the home, street, and city. Studies revealed that the majority of lots were adjacent to each other. The fact that the lots neighbored each other was a key component to the design of group housing. Multi-lot family zoning would allow ready-made caregiving to occur by removing the need for distance travel, thereby increasing savings for families. Multi-unit family zoning would introduce a neighborhood matriarch/elder. This is a very crucial concept, as it directly addresses the continued existence of the matriarch family structures in the African American community. That voice typically extends the sense of ownership and authority beyond the walls of the house to include street-life. However, this fact did not negate the need for individual privacy.

--Lalth001 02:45, 17 May 2008 (UTC) L Amerson

[edit] Famous Firsts for Black Male Architects

  • John S. Chase , in 1952, became the first African American to enroll and graduate from the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and later became the first African American male licensed to practice Architecture in the state of Texas. In addition, he was also the first African American admitted to the Texas Society of Architects and the Houston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). In 1970 John S. Chase became the first African American Architect to serve on the United States Commission on Fine Arts and in 1970, he co-founded the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), (along with 12 other black architects) [11]
  • Marshall E. Purnell, in 2007, was elected to serve as the 2007 First Vice President/ President-elect / 2008 President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Washington, DC. Purnell, an AIA regional director from the Mid-Atlantic Region and design principal of Devrouax+Purnell Archtiects and Planners PC, Washington, DC, has been involved in numerous AIA activities, including service on the Board Advocacy and Diversity committees, as well as on the AIA Scholarship, Historic Resources and Housing committees. He has also been involvoced in leadership at the local compnent level throgh the AIA Distirt of Columbia chapter and is a felloe of the National Organization of Minority Archtiects (NOMA), of which he was elected president, and to several other executive positions.
  • Robert R. Taylor was the first African American admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Architecture and the only African American among 19 first-year students in the architecture atelier of the first school of architecture in the United States. In 1892, he became the first African American to earn a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from MIT ("African American Architects - A Biographical Dictionary 1865- 1945).
  • Walter T. Bailey was the first African-American graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to received a bachelor of science degree in Architectural Engineering in 1904 and an honorary master's degree from the same school in 1910. Bailey assisted in the planning of Champaign's Colonel Wolfe School before being appointed head of the mechanical industries department at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he supervised planning design and construction of several campus buildings.[12]
  • Paul Revere Williams ,in 1921, became the first African American Architect west of the Mississippi. He served on the first Los Angeles City Planning Commission in 1920 and was the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) joining the Southern California Chapter in 1923. In 1957, Paul R. Williams became the first African American to be voted an AIA Fellow.
  • Clyde Porter ,in 2007, became the first African American Architect elected to the Collge of Fellows in Texas, since John S. Chase.

[edit] References

  • Directory of African American Architects - [13]
  • African American Architects - A Biographical Dictionary 1865 - 1945 by Wilson, Drek Spulock (2004).ISBN 0-415-92959-8
  • "Still Here" by Max Bond – Harvard Design Magazine, Summer 1997, Number 2 [14]
  • Architecture Race Academe – The Black Architect's Journey [15]
  • "Black Architects: embracing and defining culture" by Kimberly Davis, Ebony Magazine, 2005 [16]
  • The Crisis of the African American Architect: Conflicting Cultures of Architecture and (Black) Power by Melvin Mitchell (2002) ISBN 978-0595243266
  • African American Registry - [17]
  • "Top Women Architects", Ebony Magazine, 1995 [18]
  • "Top 10 Black American Architects" from Jackie Craven, About.com: Architecture [19]

[edit] Further Reading

  • Howard University Moorland -Spingarn Research Center's "Archive of African American Architects" (the largest archival repository with information on African American Architects).
  • "For a historic Penn grad, a murky legacy" by Zoe Tillman, the Daily Pennsylvanian [20]
  • "Young African American Women Architects sharpen ties to their communities" by Stephen A. Kilment, FAIA, 2007 [21]
  • "Research project spotlights African American Architects from University of Illinois" by Melissa Mitchell, 2006 [22]
  • "20 on 20/20 vision: Perspectives on Diversity and Design" by Linda Kiisk, AIA, 2003 [23]
  • "Isolation and Diversity in Architecture" by Ted Landmark, [24]
  • Video: "Is there a Black Architect in the house?" [25]
  • Paul R. Williams, Architect: A Legacy of Style by Karen E. Hudson, 1993, Rizzoli International Publications. ISBN 978-0847822423
  • The Will and the Way: Paul R. Williams, Architect by Paul R. Williams, 1994, Rizzoli International Publications. ISBN 978-0847817801
  • "Williams the Conqueror" by Shashank Bengali [26]

[edit] External links