During our Living Lab, which is our end of day Friday Event at STA, one of our employees was presenting her thesis project. The project is a high school that promotes the architectural awareness, education and training for African American youth, to promote a career in architecture and design as a career option. During her opening remarks and basis for her thesis she explained that only 2% of the 113,000 architects, in the US, are African American or identify as African American. This was an eye-opening factoid. I guess I never thought about it as I was raised in what I like to call “a colorless world”. So, this nugget of information made me do some of my own research. The following is what I learned.
The fact that only 2% of the registered architects in America are African American is true and female African American architects make up only .3% of the total number. In early days African American students were barred from attending the educational institutions that granted degrees in architecture and were also excluded from hiring at firms solely based on race.
This may explain the beginnings of why, for a young African American, becoming an architect is not a first-choice career path in a mostly white male dominated profession. But instead of writing this about the racist aspects of what has happened, I instead want to highlight some early African American Architects who broke the barrier…
Paul Revere Williams
Born in 1894 he was the first African American architect to become a member of the AIA in 1923 and he subsequently was inducted into the College of Fellows of the AIA, in 1957. His work was largely residential and in Sothern California, but he also designed many public buildings, including the Music Corporation of America (MCA) Building in Beverly Hills and the iconic Stanley Mosk Courthouse.
He also designed many residences for some of Hollywood’s elite, like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball. He is known for the ability to be able to create renderings and drawings upside down, a skill he perfected because many of his clients felt uncomfortable sitting next to him.
Julian Francis Abele
Born in 1881 he was educated at the University of Pennsylvania. He was the first African American student to be admitted and in 1902 became the first African American to graduate from that department. He was the chief designer for the firm of Horace Trumbauer, his mentor and financial sponsor for his tour through Europe before joining that firm. His work is attributed to over 400 buildings including the Weidner Library at Harvard and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Following Horace’s death in 1938 he co-headed the firm.
Beverly Loraine Greene
Born in 1915, she was the first African American women to become registered as an architect in the US, in 1942. She started her career in Chicago but facing racial prejudices, relocated to New York City and worked on the design for the Stuyvesant Town housing project, which did not allow African American residents at the time. She went on to work with Marcel Breuer on the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
Norma Merrick Sklarek
Born in 1925 she is the first African American woman to be registered in the State of California. A graduate of Columbia University she also became the first African American woman to join the AIA and the first to be inducted into the College of Fellows of the AIA. Early in her career, she was passed over for numerous jobs until landing a job at SOM in New York City and then Gruen Associates in Los Angeles, where as director of architecture, she collaborated with Caesar Pelli on the Pacific Design Center. She was the former Vice-President at Welton Becket Associates before starting her own practice, Siegel Sklarek Diamond, the largest woman-owned practice in the U.S.
I’ve always believed that there is an inner drive the makes people need to become an architect. The people who are highlighted here, and many more like them, had within them not only that drive to become architects but the courage to overcome many obstacles that I cannot even fathom.
-Tom
