Archinect - News

ACSA issues joint statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion censorship in education

2023-09-21T17:39:00-04:00

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has joined its sibling organizations in landscape architecture and planning in opposing the concerted efforts of far-right lawmakers to prevent the inclusion of race and racism topics into curricula in states including Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, South Dakota, and Virginia.

"This united declaration stands as a strong objection to the legislation that silences educators from sharing the histories of the architectural profession. Practitioners, educators, and students must be granted access to the complete narrative. Being privy to only a portion of the story significantly disadvantages us all," Mo Zell, the 2023-24 ACSA President, said in a statement.

"The boards of directors of the three organizations representing university programs and educators in architecture, landscape architecture, and planning — ACSA, CELA, and ACSP, — jointly communicate our opposition to any legislation that prevents educators from teaching and shari...

Unpacking 2022's highs and lows of social justice, equity, and representation in professional practice and architectural academia

2022-12-25T08:00:00-05:00

As the architecture industry reviews another year filled with a range of ups and downs, it's an important time to reflect on what progress has been made when it comes to important topics such as social justice, activism, equity, and diversity initiatives within architecture. While we've already highlighted this year's controversies, it's important to ask: Has the architecture industry made advances toward social justice, diversity, and inclusion in 2022?

Effective change takes time. Continuing with our 2022 year in review, let's look back at the challenges, obstacles, and successes that the industry faced surrounding inclusive design, diverse leadership, social justice, and representation.

Architecture organizations aiming to make change

Image courtesy of the AIA.

AIA issues a supplementary guide addressing issues in architectural education

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) worked together with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) to establish a set ...

UK architect banned after making antisemitic comments towards colleagues

2022-11-10T14:16:00-05:00

The UK’s Architects Registration Board (ARB) has found a British architect guilty of unacceptable professional conduct after the architect made “a series of offensive and antisemitic comments and gestures.” The architect, Justin Rooney, was also found guilty of making “a series of inappropriate and offensive and antisemitic public posts on his Instagram profile.”

Rooney stood accused of the charges while employed at London-based GRID Architects in 2021, where he was recruited as a temporary architect through an agency. A complaint was submitted by GRID to ARB’s Professional Conduct Committee in December 2021 in relation to Rooney’s comments.

The committee accepted evidence from two witnesses who claimed Rooney said he had “joined a practice of f*cking Jews” and that he had been placed within the office “with f*cking Jewish freaks.” Colleagues also accused Rooney of telling on...

More accusations of bullying at The Bartlett plague UCL ahead of leadership transition

2022-08-09T13:37:00-04:00

Weeks before its next Director steps into office, another faculty at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture has fallen into scandal after The Guardian recently leaked new accusations of bullying and harassment from within the School of Sustainable Construction.

A group of nine school faculty members was reportedly the signatories of the damning letter, which includes accusations of nepotism in addition to further complaints about the same kinds of harassment, age-based discrimination, racism, bullying of older staffers, and other tactics that have embroiled The Bartlett since last summer.

“We have seen our own academic careers and lives and those of our colleagues destroyed through bullying, harassment and other predatory practices and know that any effort to raise the issues of misconduct or fraudulent behaviour would lead to retaliation endangering our own careers and lives,” a portion of their statement reads.

Earlier on Archinect: UCL issues an apology and published report on the...

A dearth of BIPOC Boston-area construction workers reveals the industry's ugly 'caste system'

2022-08-03T15:26:00-04:00

The Boston population has grown increasingly diverse over the past few decades, with people of color accounting for more than half of the city's current residents and Black people making up 24% of all residents. But the city's construction workforce has not kept pace, according to Boston city data. The data also shows a kind of caste system in construction. The higher up you go in a building under construction, the less likely you are to find workers of color.

The Hub’s long history with racism is felt in practically every other area of the built environment in the city, including its underserved mass transit system and arcane zoning policy’s harsh afterburn. Workers on various large construction projects such as the new Winthrop Center are seeing the effects even as the industry faces labor shortages.

According to WBGH, Boston’s citywide construction workforce is 63% white, with instances of high-demand skilled roles registering at 88% and 89% white. Perhaps predictably, the data set showed some more dangerous job functions (such as asbestos removal) being staffed by upwards of 75% BIPOC laborers.

This is particularly worrisome as the city has been pushing equity mandates that require 40% BIPOC employment on all sites totaling more than 50,000 square feet. Women aren't fairing much better in the local workforce either: A fall survey of Boston's 150 biggest projects found none that met the same requirement, which calls for only 12% empl...

Maya Lin discusses her new Museum of Chinese in America design in PBS special

2022-06-13T16:42:00-04:00

The famed Vietnam Wall Memorial designer and 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient took a studio visit with PBS correspondent Jeffrey Brown to discuss her designs for the new Museum of Chinese in America following its partial destruction due to fire in January of 2020.

“I don’t think you can be an Asian-American in 2022 and not be acutely aware of the anti-Asian sentiment,” Lin said at the outset, speaking of the appalling rash of hate crimes that have tormented communities both large and small, from coast to coast as part of our constantly deteriorating social fabric over the past two-plus years since the pandemic.

Personally, I found the concept for the expanded museum rather promising in spite of the criticisms that were wielded against it following the publication of the first batch of project renderings in early April.

The museum's structure gives a simultaneous nod to the universal task of ...

Former KKK auditorium to be reborn as a cultural arts center in Fort Worth

2022-05-20T15:28:00-04:00

A Texas-based, non-profit by the name of Transform 1012 N. Main Street (Transform 1012) has announced the purchase of a former Ku Klux Klan auditorium in Fort Worth, Texas. It will be converted into The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing, a new cultural hub and space for reconciliation and reclamation for the community.

The auditorium, located at 1012 N. Main Street, originally opened in 1924, when Fort Worth had one of the largest KKK memberships in the United States. It served as the group’s headquarters in Texas and was designed to intimidate Black, Hispanic, and immigrant residents returning home from the city center.

The acquisition served as the driving force behind the formation of Transform 1012 in 2019. The non-profit is a coalition of local arts, grassroots, and service organizations as well as pro bono partners and individuals. The purchase of the building was made possible by a significant donation from the former owners and a grant from the Rainwater Char...

New AIA report investigates bias in the architecture profession

2021-12-08T17:29:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects has partnered with the University of California Hastings College of the Law to release a new report that details the impacts of bias in architecture.

The study covers the experiences, perceptions, and opinions of women, people of color, and other historically underrepresented demographic groups in the field. It examines how bias plays out in architecture, how it impacts workplace processes, and how it affects outcome measures. As stated in the institute's announcement: “AIA’s goal in conducting the study is to build awareness in firms of bias to help architects recognize and address issues that may be occurring in firms.”

The report also offers strategies and resources that can help firms address bias in the workplace. These tools, as detailed by the AIA, are the same ones that businesses use to solve any major problem: evidence, goals, and metrics. Specifically, the AIA calls on the implementation of “Bias Interrupters,” which are adjustments ...

Researchers call for dismantling of 'racist infrastructure' to improve U.S. neighborhoods

2021-09-07T17:54:00-04:00

A group of researchers from Northeastern University and Tufts University has called for funds from President Biden’s infrastructure bill to be diverted to dismantling “racist infrastructure” which is currently disproportionally impacting minority neighborhoods in the United States. The stance is set out in a new thought piece on The Conversation written by Joan Fitzgerald, a Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, and Julian Agyeman, a Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University.

The researchers focus on the network of urban highways built across the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, which the team posits was deliberately run through neighborhoods occupied by Black families, and other people of color, thus physically distancing the communities from jobs, opportunities, and urban connectivity. Scholars identify the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act as the beginning of a trend whereby transportation planners used highways to form...

Controversial D.W. Griffith-inspired white elephants removed as part of major Hollywood & Highland makeover

2021-08-04T13:55:00-04:00

Two white elephants, a connection to the early days of filmmaking at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles, have finally been removed by the city as part of a timely $100 million makeover that began earlier this year.

Variety is reporting that new owners of the center have decided to remove the statues this week over their explicit connections to one of the more notorious figures of Old Hollywood’s racist past.

The elephant sculptures were originally meant as a tribute to the set design for D.W. Griffith’s 1916 film Intolerance, which was meant as a rebuttal to criticism of his earlier film The Birth of a Nation. A large arch with Babylonian-themed reliefs will be given an art deco upgrade while a fiberglass daybed sculpture by the artist Erika Rothenberg will also be permanently removed after being taken down in 2017 in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Gensler is leading the redevelopment aimed at transitioning the center from a tourist-laden shopping district t...

Un-professional handbooks: graphic standards and crime prevention through environmental design

2021-07-12T18:24:00-04:00

Like other professions, such as law and medicine, architects rely on technical publications to do our jobs. Thus, we frequently turn to volumes such as Architectural Graphic Standards, which is authored by The American Institute of Architects (AIA). Promoted by its publisher, Wiley, as “the architect’s Bible since 1932,” the $260 handbook is presented as “the written authority for architects.” Nevertheless, not all of the information presented in Graphic Standards is unbiased, or even that technically sound.

It was therefore with quite a bit of interest that I discovered, while recently leafing through my twelfth edition in search of a framing detail, that it contains a short article on “Crime Preventions through Environmental Design” (CPTED). Included in the third chapter on “Building Resiliency,” alongside “Sustainability,” “Good Practices in Resilience-Based Architectural Designs,” and “Lifecycle Considerations in Resiliency-Based Designs,” CPTED is a bit like architecture’s “Bro...

Former students complain of racism and sexism at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture

2021-06-02T11:47:00-04:00

21 former students of UCL (University College London) have voiced complaints over alleged sexism and racism at the Bartlett School of Architecture. The complaints, first reported by The Guardian, stretch back over a decade. The ex-students' complaints include inappropriate comments on race and appearance, which they describe as “systemic” within the school.

The stories of the 21 ex-students were compiled into a dossier by former student Eleni Kyriacou and shared with the Guardian, who subsequently spoke to several recent graduates. Stories told by the graduates include one who said staff were “damaging primarily female students.” The graduate, of south Asian descent, claims that a staff member told a fellow student he could not tell that the graduate was “brown” as “she acted and spoke like a white person.”

Previously on Archinect: NOMA leadership echoes the need to 'fight all systems of bias, oppression, and prejudice' following the guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial

Another st...

NOMA leadership echos the need to 'fight all systems of bias, oppression, and prejudice' following the guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial

2021-04-26T17:37:00-04:00

On Wednesday, April 20th, the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd brought a ripple effect of response and emotion across the nation. While this verdict is a step, it is not a "static pivot," explained by NOMA's current President Jason Pugh and former NOMA President Kimberly Dowdell. As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to spark awareness and action, architecture schools, firms, and organizations across the nation responded with support to stand with the Black community and to demand racial justice within the industry.

After hearing the trial results, it led me to reflect on the statements and plans from the architecture community shared in 2020. Since last year, what tangible results have occurred since architects, firms, and institutions addressed the need to dismantle systemic racism and white supremacy? While steps towards anti-racism are a daily affair, how deep can these statements and reform plans go before we see a change?

Prev...

The author of 'Architecture in Black' delivers an exhibition that depicts Blackness as a 'process of unraveling and becoming'

2021-04-12T14:59:00-04:00

In 2000, distinguished scholar, designer, inventor, and teacher Darell Wayne Fields, Ph.D. published "Architecture in Black." His book is a theoretical treatise that expands on the historical, philosophical, and semiotic texts regarding race in architectural discourse. It argues "architecture, as an aesthetic practice, and blackness, as a linguistic practice, operate within the same semiotic paradigm." Through this extensive examination, Fields curated On Solitude which is described as a "contemporaneous anthology" that shadows Architecture in Black.

Image © Michael Vahrenwald. Courtesy of Princeton University School of Architecture.

I thought Blackness’s intersection with architecture represented epic struggle and conflict. The conflict remains true in what the exhibition has to say (to me), but there’s a critical difference. The artifacts, interacting together, signify and witness architecture’s subtle, yet persistent, unraveling. - Darell Wayne Fields

Image © Michael Vahrenwald....

The Importance of Asking Why: The ACSA's research series, 'Where Are My People?', addresses race and its inequitable relationship with architecture

2021-03-16T19:51:00-04:00

The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) has dedicated its efforts towards architectural education and research by "empowering faculty and schools to educate increasingly diverse students, expand disciplinary impacts, and create knowledge for the advancement of architecture."

2020 sparked a resurgence in the importance of addressing the social and political injustices within architectural academia and professional practice. Last year, ACSA Director of Research and Information, Dr. Kendall A. Nicholson, Assoc. AIA, NOMA posed a pertinent question that has turned into an impactful research series. By examining architecture's history and its ties to race both in the past and the present, we can begin to understand steps towards sustained reform and social equity for architects who identify as Black, Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander, and Native Indigenous.

Where Are My People? is a research series that investigates how architecture inte...

Why the National Register of Historic Places lacks a diverse history

2021-01-08T14:04:00-05:00

Less than 8% of sites on the National Register are associated with women, Latinos, African Americans or other minorities. [...] The reason for this underrepresentation is an overly technical, legalistic approach to determining what merits designation.

Sara Bronin, a University of Connecticut Law School professor specializing in historic preservation law, penned an LA Times op-ed about the technical hurdles that have hindered many non-white historic sites to be designated for the National Register of Historic Places.

"Preservationists have started to see past the formalities that have too long prevented us from recognizing diverse histories," writes Bronin. "But we must go further to tackle the legal structures that devalue the stories we all need to hear."

Read also V. Mitch McEwen's latest op-ed on Archinect: Form Follows Fascism Redux.

The inaugural Anti-Racist School of Architecture Virtual Symposium will explore the intersection of architecture, race, and education

2021-01-07T16:58:00-05:00

The Anti-Racist School of Architecture Symposium 2021 will shine a spotlight on the intersection of architecture, race, and education. The Symposium aims to address the following topics:

Injustices Black, Indigenous, and People of Color face in the architecture and design education system
Antiracism by design discussions on social justice and our roles as design students and professionals
The global perspective of Architecture, Race, and Education
Explore what an anti-racism university looks like to students and professionals across the world

The Symposium will open on Monday, January 18th with an opening keynote from Bryan Lee, Founder and Principal at Colloqate Design. There will be a panel discussion moderated by Wandile Mthiyane, CEO and founder of Ubuntu Design Group, which will be followed by a second keynote from Dr. Kwesi Daniels, Department Head of Architecture at Tuskegee University.

Previously on Archinect: DAP: Design Justice for Black Lives initiative seeks to streamline pr...

Remembering the built environment of segregated America

2020-12-07T13:22:00-05:00

Vestiges of racism and oppression, from bricked-over segregated entrances to the forgotten sites of racial violence, still permeate much of America’s built environment.

For the NYT, photojournalist Richard Frishman shares powerful images of sites, buildings, and places throughout the United States along with their almost forgotten, sometimes preserved, stories from America's segregated past.

"All human landscapes are embedded with cultural meaning," Frishman writes. "And since we rarely consider our constructions as evidence of our priorities, beliefs and behaviors, the testimonies our landscapes offer are more honest than many of the things we intentionally present."

Join Archinect for an important panel discussion, "Creating a More Diverse Future in A&D"

2020-11-04T15:46:00-05:00

Do the architecture and design industries represent the same diversity as the population it serves? This panel takes a look at this critical issue, and will address ways to make positive changes to ensure we push towards justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in A&D.

We invite you to join us for a special discussion this upcoming Monday, November 9th, from 1-2 pm EST / 10-11 am PST, featuring a panel of industry leaders that have dedicated their work towards reshaping our industry into one that better represents the communities at large.

Distinguished panelists include Karen Compton, Principal at A3K; Kimberly Dowdell, President at NOMA; Julia Gamolina, Founder at Madame Architect; Todd Heiser, Managing Director at Gensler; & Ann Rolland, Partner at FXCollaborative. The panel will be moderated by Paul Petrunia, Archinect's Founder/Director.

To RSVP for this virtual panel, please click the "reserve" button at this link. Space is limited and registration is required to attend.

...

AIA New York pushes for actionables against racism within criminal justice system

2020-10-02T15:22:00-04:00

AIA New York released a statement showing initiative towards impactful reform. The letter urges to create actionable steps to dismantling racial and social injustice issues sustained by the criminal justice system. The Chapter addressed they will no longer "reward or highlight work that perpetuates harmful and unjust systems, including criminal justice facilities in the current US context."

Below is an excerpt from their Criminal Justice Facilities Statement:

For too long, architects have been complicit in upholding intrinsic racism within the American criminal justice system. While many architects have attempted to mitigate injustice by applying their professional skills to associated built structures, ultimately, it is beyond the role of design professionals to alleviate an inherently unjust system. Until more comprehensive policy changes are made on a national scale, good design alone is not enough to remove or overcome the racism inherent within the criminal justice system. It ...

South African CEO partners with NOMA and AIAS to offer architecture students a masterclass in community-led design

2020-09-24T11:50:00-04:00

You might remember Wandile Mthiyane from Archinect's recent profile on him, Undoing Apartheid Architecture. In that profile, Wandile talked about a pioneering new program his organization, Ubuntu Design Group, has developed. Called the Ubuntu Architecture Summer Abroad Program (UASA), the new initiative will teach college students a community-centered approach to architecture through a design-build studio course that will be led by Wandile.

Students will experience a unique educational experience to design & build dignified and culturally-influenced homes for resilient families in South Africa. “Students will be designing and building a home for a family that has been affected by apartheid architecture,” Wandile explained. “They will come to South Africa and learn first-hand the role of architecture in systemic racism, it’s history, and what its impacts are today. And they will get to be a part of the solution we are pursuing.”

According to Wandile, partnerships have already been se...

Leading architects donate creative works to support racial justice

2020-07-29T18:07:00-04:00

Launched July 1st by a group of students and alumni from the Harvard GSD, Design Yard Sale is a month-long fundraising event that "sells and auctions creative works to support [Colloqate Design and The Bail Project], two organizations fighting systemic, and anti-Black racism." Creative works by people like Frank Gehry, Billie Tsien, and Denise Scott Brown have been donated to the effort and are available for auction. The pursuit has already raised over $80,000 and has a goal od reaching $100,00 by the end of the month.

Frank Gehry, Beekman Street Housing print.

Some highlights of items up for auction include blueprints of Robert Venturi’s Vanna Venturi House, donated by Venturi’s longtime engineering partner, Keast & Hood. Additional objects include a collage by Tsien, signed prints of Scott Brown’s historic 1960s-era photos of Las Vegas exclusive to Design Yard Sale, a concrete stool by Jerome Byron, and a limited-edition signed lithograph of a Gehry drawing.

Jerome Byron, Concrete...

SoCal NOMA launches Diversity Equity and Inclusivity Challenge

2020-07-15T11:22:00-04:00

In a joint statement from the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Chapter (AIALA) and the Southern California Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (SoCal NOMA), a new tool to expand inclusion has been announced: the SoCal NOMA Diversity Equity and Inclusivity Challenge. In describing the new initiative, the statement reads:

The SoCal NOMA DEI Challenge is a ten-point plan that delivers a pathway to diversity for Los Angeles firms through touchpoints including: mentorship, recruitment and promotion, and pro bono services to underserved communities. The results of its clear implementable actions will be tracked, in the same way as the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2030 Challenge, to determine areas where improvement continues to be needed and to identify successes in reaching these critical goals.

The 10 "actions" that firms can undertake as a part of this challenge each have a scoring threshold with a maximum of 100 potential points to be achi...

Houston realtors retire use of "master bedroom"

2020-06-30T12:15:00-04:00

The Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) will no longer use the term "master" to describe the primary bedroom of a home on their housing listings. The term "master" has roots in slavery, and HAR says the topic of removing it from realty terminology has been debated for years. Now, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) platform that HAR uses for listings, will use "primary bedroom" and "primary bath," HAR said in a statement to CBS News.

"The origin of the terms is debated, and we are not saying they are rooted in slavery. Others didn't personally view them as sexist or racist but believed we should change the terms for anyone else who might find them objectionable. The consensus was that Primary describes the rooms equally as well as Master while avoiding any possible misperceptions," a statement by HAR reads as reported by CBS News.

Highways: Another enduring monument to American racism?

2020-06-24T17:58:00-04:00

The aftermath of George Floyd’s death while in police custody has created a moment for radical truth-telling. So here’s some ugly truth about the city of Los Angeles: Our freeway system is one of the most noxious monuments to racism and segregation in the country.

Mattew Fleischer, Senior Digital Editor of The Los Angeles Times pens an editorial for the newspaper highlighting the indefensible, racist legacy of highway construction in American cities.

Citing historical research regarding the ways in which highway construction and urban renewal practices helped to institute and literally cement racial and income segregation, Fleischer writes, "Local officials rerouted the elaborate designs of freeway engineers — often at considerable expense — to destroy thousands of homes in racially diverse communities."

These highways, Fleischer explains, continue to fuel environmental racism and other negative impacts for communities of color. Should they be torn down too?

London Metropolitan University renames its School of Art, Architecture and Design to dissociate from slave trader John Cass

2020-06-11T18:27:00-04:00

In a statement issued this week, London Metropolitan University announced the decision to rename its Art, Architecture and Design School and remove the name of John Cass, an English merchant who was instrumental in the early development of the slave trade in the late 17th and early 18th century.

The name change follows widespread protests against racial injustice around the world, including a reevaluation of public realm landmarks, statues, and monuments as announced by London Mayor Sadiq Kahn.

Read the full statement issued by the university's vice-chancellor Professor Lynn Dobbs below:

Following consultation with the Students’ Union, staff, and our Board of Governors we have taken the decision to remove the name of Sir John Cass from our Art, Architecture and Design School. We recognise that the use of Sir John Cass’ name contributes to the redemption of a man without acknowledging the enormous pain he caused as a major figure in the early development of the slave trade, and the ...

Architect provides downloadable "Black Lives Matter" street mural template amid cities adding the piece to its centers

2020-06-11T12:33:00-04:00

Following the now famous Black Lives Matter street mural in Washington D.C., activists later painted one in Oakland, California. This urban activism has garnered the attention of another city as well, Berkeley, who plans to paint a new street mural on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, in front of Old City Hall.

Berkely architect Yes Duffy was one of many participants who helped paint the Oakland mural and after learning his city was considering a mural, created a template that he sent to Berkeley's mayor and councilmembers, reports Berkelyside.

Architecture and design community creates "pencils down protest" in solidarity with Movement for Black Lives

2020-06-10T13:09:00-04:00

An unaffiliated group of architects, designers, theorists, urbanists, teachers, students, and built environment workers have joined together to spearhead a "pencils down protest" as an expression of solidarity with Black Lives Matter. "This moment demands a direct confrontation with architecture and design's participation in systemic racism," the group writes.

The group sees the act of withholding labor as a form of protest. On their website pencilsdownprotest.com, those who desire to participate can pledge the amount of hours they are "willing and able" to withhold. Pledgers are encouraged to take action during their pencils down time. The group provides a google doc link to resources for those who need guidance.

The protest takes place as a national #ShutDownSTEM engages in a university and STEM-focused strike in support of the movement, as well.

Minneapolis, Tackling Housing Crisis and Inequity, Votes to End Single-Family Zoning

2018-12-14T00:36:00-05:00

In a bold move to address its affordable-housing crisis and confront a history of racist housing practices, Minneapolis has decided to eliminate single-family zoning, a classification that has long perpetuated segregation.

Artists reimagine monuments celebrating the Confederacy

2018-08-17T16:02:00-04:00

After the tragedy, [a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Va.] and another honoring Stonewall Jackson were shrouded, but only temporarily. Around the country, similar monuments have been removed. In some cases, only their pedestals remain. We asked artists to contemplate these markers of our country’s racist and violent history — the space they take up, physically and psychically — and imagine what should happen when they are gone.

Around the US many statues and monuments celebrating racism in our country's history have been removed, either partially or fully. The question currently remains on what we as a culture should do concerning the spaces these historical monuments inhabit[ed]. The New York Times asked artists to reimagine these spaces as possibilities for the future.

Reimagined monument by Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design. Image: Studio Ijeoma/Michael Yarinsky Design.

Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design proposed a spiraling structure around the remaining pedestal where a Robert E. Lee monument in New Orleans once stood. The design includes staining the pedestal with colors corresponding to the years of slavery, segregation, and inequity in US history.

Reimagined monument by Studio Ijeoma and Michael Yarinsky Design. Image: Studio Ijeoma/Michael Yarinsky Design.

Located atop the spiraling stairs is a glass sky room where participants are able to stand where the Confederate general's stat...