Barrier-Breaking African American Architects We Should Be Celebrating
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Norma Sklarek (1926-2012)
Once called “the Rosa Parks of architecture” by AIA board member Anthony Costello, Harlem-born Norma Merrick Sklarek overcame racism and sexism to become the first licensed black female architect in New York in 1954, the first black female member of the AIA in 1959, the first licensed black female architect in California in 1962, the first black female Fellow of the AIA in 1980, and cofounder of the nation’s largest woman-owned architecture firm (Siegel Sklarek Diamond) and the first black woman to co-own an architecture firm in 1985. As an architecture student at Barnard College and Columbia University, she was one of two women and the only black student in her 1950 class, and upon graduation was passed over for several jobs (“They weren’t hiring women or African Americans, and I didn’t know which it was [working against me],” she is quoted as saying to a local newspaper) until she landed a role with the Department of Public Services, then at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and then Gruen Associates in Los Angeles. She collaborated often with Caesar Pelli on iconic structures such as the Pacific Design Center (pictured) and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, before cofounding her own practice with Margot Siegel and Katherine Diamond. “Architecture should be working on improving the environment of people in their homes, in their places of work, and their places of recreation," Sklarek said of the practice. "It should be functional and pleasant, not just in the image of the ego of the architect.”
Photo: Getty Images/Education Images
These historic trailblazers paved the way for future creatives of color—and improved the practice of architecture for everyone
