Thanks for posting, TO. There is some amazing and beautiful work in there.

This topic is interesting for two reasons. First, of course, is the tragedy of a group being targeted for annihilation because of their bloodline.

Second is the concept of (relative) professional anonymity. Many in our field aspire to become well known, but few ever will. Most of us will labor in relative obscurity in terms of renown. But we will be doing a lot of the work, creating much of the built environment. Famous or not, we should always be trying to do the best work possible.

african-american architects are probably more forgotten
...just my opinion

so instead of throwing zingers, show some of them, soulbrother. this is the place.

i agree with you, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this presentation has some beautiful work by people whose names we haven't heard. i'd love to see a more inclusive run of names and work.

anyone?

"throwing zingers" is not my intention. Simply giving my opinion.

many black architects don't have a lot of work out there because by-in-large they've been unable to scratch the surface of the private sector. Check the work of Paul R. Williams from L.A. He did a lot of work from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. For those who are curious, this exclusion of black architects is substantiated (as if it needs to be) in the book,"Structural Inequality, Black Architects in the United States."

it's worse for black female architects. the cover of architecture magazine was devoted to this issue, and according to them black female architects only make up .2% of all architects.

also, only 1 of my 70 or so classmates was black. why don't more black students enroll in architecture school? is it because architecture's always been seen as a "white man's" game?

ech, i just realized...

sorry for hijacking, toasteroven. thanks for posting that link. there's some really nice work there.

soulbrother, there are several threads regarding black architects on this forum.

here's one of the latest ones.

Blacks make up less than 2% of the nation's architects. I think it's because it's not a profession to which a lot of us are exposed. I told a friend of mine that I hadn't seen in years, that I was a grad student studying architecture. He asked me, "Oh so what, you gonna be a contactor or something?" The only reason I knew architects existed was because of a math/science program for "inner city"(read: black) youth in which I participated as a teen.
I once heard someone say that ,demographically speaking, when white America gets a cold, black America gets the flu. So for many in America, architecture in general is not something that the average Joe knows. For African-Americans there's even less familiarity. For a lot of us, we don't know enough about architecture to know it's a "white man's" genre. I live in one of the 30 largest cities in the U.S., with thousands of architects, and only one firm has a black principal. It's a matter of exposure.

I've heard that too, but it went like this - when American gets a cold, the rest of the world gets the flu. Think it's a rather poignant phrase given the economy of late. Never thought of it in terms of race. Often I've wondered why it seems the black and hispanic races have somewhat been excluded from architecture. Knowing my local peers I can thing of countless asian and jewish counterparts, but cannot name one black or hispanic. Same goes for college. That said, I don't think it's completely a product of socio-economic class. I myself wouldn't say I came from a priveledged class. Can cite my own experience running into the "silver spoon" ivy league grads in the job competition in New England. Went to college with several people who were the first college grads in their bloodline. Some even had stories of Christmas w/out gifts, etc. So, architecture is something that's attainable for those on the lower rungs on the economic ladder. I'm just confused why in particular the black population doesn't have a bigger influence in architecture. God knows I've had too many Friday afternoon cocktails to speculate, but I think there's a reason out that that the non-black population isn't privy to.

aqua, here in california, hispanics and asians will (hopefully) be making up a larger percentage of architects in the future.

of my same class of 70 (with only 1 black student), the majority were hispanics and asians. whites were actually the minority, consisting of only about 20% of the class. in fact, spanish was almost lingua franca around the studios.

i don't know how things are on the east coast, or even the middle of the country.

I'm in the South were there seems to be more hispanics and asians with the makeup of classes. But black architects today are definitely the "forgotten" ones.

aqua, I think it is simply a cultural issue. Architecture isn't something that is talked about much in black culture. When American architecture was developing it's own identity in the late 1800's, slavery had just ended. For many, an appreciation for the arts hadn't developed as well as he rest of the nation. A lot of us were concerned with just having a dwelling, let alone it's form. Culture develops over generations and is not synonomous with wealth, but is related to the freedoms you have. There are still educators today that tell black kids that their career options are limited and that their intelligence is lesser. Exposure helps a lot though. If you don't know anyone who has studied architecture or even cares about it, then you probably don't think it's important. It's about your cultural surroundings. A lot of people don't take the time to have a rational discourse about the spaces, places, buildings, etc. that are a part of their everyday lives. My guess would be that an even small er % are black....and all of this is before you mention discrimination in the field.

dread and soulbro

I asked this question to a candiadate for dean of my alma matter...

according to her (an African American woman), the reason that there arent more black architects is that those kids (African American) that show a high level of intellegence at a young age are usually steered into the medical and law professions. Also, many young African Americans (especially those is 'urban' settings) dont have many positive views of architecture

mdler, I would agree that many are steered in a certain direction, but it's not that many black kids don't have positive views of architecture, it's that they don't have ANY views of architecture in many cases.