In October, the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) hosted their 47th Annual NOMA Conference in Brooklyn. With more than 1,200 registered attendees, this year's event was the largest for the organization. 

To conclude the conference, the organization celebrated a banquet dedicated to architecture leadership and excellence awards. With NOMA President Kimberly Dowdell, AIA, NOMA, NCARB, LEED AP presiding over the evening, the special event highlighted some of NOMA's long-time members, such as NOMA’s last surviving founder, Jeh Johnson, an architect who has made tremendous contributions to the organization and the industry.

A highlight of the evening was recognizing the work of beloved architect, industry leader and long-time NOMA member Phil Freelon, who recently passed away, with the inaugural Phil Freelon Professional Design Awards. Other NOMA leaders like Kenneth E. Casey were recognized and honored for their services and commitment to the profession. New fellowships and scholarships such as the Foundation Fellowship program for recent graduates and the Betty and Mort Marshall Scholarship Fund were announced. In addition to honoring NOMA's distinguished members, newly licensed members were also recognized and honored. 

Dowdell shares in a press statement, “The awards banquet creates a very special time where we can recognize the many great accomplishments of NOMA members over the past year. To recognize industry greats, including Phil Freelon and all those who came before us, is a way to remind us where we’ve come from and what we need to continue to strive for — in terms of design excellence and community leadership — to honor our founders’ strength, courage and vision.” 

With the passing of Freelon in July NOMA renamed the prestigious design awards to honor him and his career as "one of the most influential African American architects of our time." The event was a wonderful celebration of progress, inclusivity, and dedication the organization has established for the architecture community.

Awards were presented to the following NOMA member firms: 

• Vision Category - Honor Award: Vines Architecture, Cleveland Public Library–Martin Luther King Jr. Branch, Columbus, Ohio 

• Built Category - Honor Award: Moody Nolan, The Legacy House Project, Columbus, Ohio  

• Historic Preservation, Restoration & Renovation Category - Honor Award: Holly Street Studio, Phoenix College Physical Science Building, Phoenix, Arizona 

• Unbuilt Category - Honor Award: Perkins and Will, Destination Crenshaw, Los Angeles, California 

• Small Projects Category - Honor Award: Ian Smith Design Group, Tufas Boulder Lounge, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

According to NOMA, "Each year, the organization also hosts a student design competition for the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS). Of the 75 NOMAS student chapters around the country, 39 competed in this year’s competition, with a prompt for a community development proposal for Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood. Design considerations included gentrification, housing equity, and preserving the local culture and aesthetics."

The 2019 NOMA Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition winner was Syracuse University School of Architecture. Second place was awarded to Cornell University, and third place went to the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Preparing for 2020, next year’s conference will take place in Oakland, CA on October 14-17, 2020. NOMA’s 49th annual conference will be held in Detroit in 2021, celebrating 50 years since the organization’s founding, which stemmed from the AIA Convention in Detroit in 1971.