BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Octagon House -- Exhibit: 50 Years After Whitney Young Jr.

DC -- Octagon House -- Exhibit: 50 Years After Whitney Young Jr.:

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Description of Pictures: Few individuals have had as lasting an impact on AIA as civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr.
From his monumental AIA speech in 1968 to the architecture award that bears his name, Young’s legacy continues to challenge architects to create a more responsible and equitable field.
Exhibit on https://www.50yearsafterwhitneyyoung.org/

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. OCTYOU_180517_004.JPG: 50 Years After Whitney Young Jr.
2. OCTYOU_180517_019.JPG: "One need only take a casual look at this audience to see that we have a long way to go in this field of integration of the architects." -- Whitney M. Young, Jr., 1968 AIA National Convention, Portland, Oregon
3. OCTYOU_180517_023.JPG: Breaking the "thunderous silence" Whitney Young and the speech that woke up architecture Legendary civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr. didn't mince words during his keynote speech at the 1968 AIA National Convention in Portland, Oregon. The preceding decades witnessed monumental progress in America's troubled road toward racial equality. But as he stood at the podium before the nation's leading architectural organization, Young gazed upon a sea of almost entirely white, male faces. He saw an AIA that appeared unfazed by the changing world around it and seized the opportunity to start a conversation that carries on to this day. "One need only take a casual look at this audience to see that we have a long way to go in this field," he told a crowd teeming with some of the most prominent figures in architecture. "You are not a profession that has distinguished itself by your social and civic contributions to the cause of civil rights . . . You are most distinguished by your thunderous silence." These pointed remarks hit home as Young spoke in June of 1968. Just weeks before the AIA convention, presidential hopeful and noted civil rights supporter Robert Kennedy was gunned down in California. And earlier that spring, an assassin's bullet took the life of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, sparking race riots and violent protests in more than 50 U.S. cities. Even the specter of late President John F. Kennedy loomed at the convention, with Ladybird Johnson herself making an appearance to promote environmental conservation. At the heart of Young's frustration with architecture was the ongoing growth of stark highrise housing projects towering above the nation's toughest urban neighborhoods. For him, these "vertical slums" marked a failure not only for city governments, but also for the field of architecture as a whole.
4. OCTYOU_180517_031.JPG: Building new perspectives AIA takes advice to heart; begins forging a more equitable architecture profession During the fiery AIA speech, Whitney Young almost dared the crowd to take immediate action or else risk doing "a disservice to the memory of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Bob Kennedy and, to yourselves." But by the close of his keynote, the civil rights leader took a more subdued tone to offer a blueprint to tackle what architects and city planners had dubbed "the urban crisis" by the late 1960s. To channel new minority voices into mainstream architecture, he promoted a dedicated diversity scholarship program as well as on-the-ground efforts to better connect architects with the communities they shape. In a manner of weeks, AIA officials rose to Young's challenge, launching a task force on equal opportunity to open the profession to minority groups and develop architecture programs to improve lives in impoverished urban neighborhoods. This group would partner with VISTA, a precursor to AmeriCorps, to create dozens of community design centers (CDCs) in U.S. cities and also work with the Urban League to improve professional opportunities for minority architects. In 1970, thanks to an initial three-year grant from the Ford Foundation, a new AIA diversity scholarship began to find talented young designers once largely cut off from the field. The program also aided the accreditation process for a number of architecture schools serving minority populations. An award, a legacy Young's call to action continues, shaping the profession for five decades Since 1972, the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award has distinguished an architect or organization that embodies social responsibility and actively addresses a relevant issue, such as affordable housing, inclusiveness, or universal access. This social engagement isn't restricted to architecture -- it can be expressed in any area of the nominee's life or work. AIA chapters and Knowledge Communities, as well as members of the national AIA Board of Directors and the Strategic Council, may submit nominations. Living recipients of the Whitney Young Award are automatically elevated to Fellowship, Honorary Membership, or Honorary Fellowship in the institute, as eligible.
5. OCTYOU_180517_044.JPG: The Whitney M. Young Jr. Award | 1972-1980 1972 Robert J. Nash, FAIA BASED Washington, D.C. RECOGNITION Community development, professional outreach The inaugural recipient of the Whitney Young Award, Robert J. Nash, FAIA, was the first African American architect elected to national AIA office, and was named to the AIA Task Force on Equal Opportunity following Whitney Young's 1968 public challenge for architecture to chart a more socially-responsible path. After graduating from Howard University in 1952, Nash launched his architectural career in Nigeria, using indigenous materials and experimental construction techniques to design low-cost housing and schools. After two years in Africa and another two years with the Army Corps of Engineers, he opened his own office in Washington, D.C. Always socially active, he firmly believed in close ties between architecture and the community -- a stance further reinforced following the 1968 riots in the nation's capital. Nash later served at the first co-chair of the AIA Human Resource Council with Nathaniel Owings, FAIA, implementing the organization's three main equal opportunity initiatives: Establishing community design centers, improving the design and construction of affordable housing, and increasing diversity within architectural education. Nash also became an AlA liaison for the Urban League's Black Executive Exchange Program, facilitating African American professionals to visit architectural schools at historically black colleges and universities. 1973 Architects Workshop BASED Philadelphia RECOGNITION Community development, urban planning The 1973 Whitney Young Award recognized the Architects Workshop of Philadelphia for its efforts to bridge neighborhood groups and city planning agencies. Comprised of volunteer architects and other allied professionals, the workshop aimed to help citizens become active participants in the design of their own communities. "If we are to try to save the inner cities, or stave off their rapid deterioration, it is necessary that the people presently living there have some say in the refurbishing process," wrote Architects Workshop executive director Augustus Baxter during the award nomination process. Sponsored by AIA Philadelphia, the workshop served as a prototype of some 100 such groups in the United States, known as Community Design Centers (CDCs). The Philadelphia Architects Workshop received nationwide accolades for its ability to incorporate community ideas and concepts into the overall planning process of the city and region. Operating in a neutral professional role, the workshop and counterpart CDCs played essential roles in helping community clients break deadlocks in governmental programs. 1974 Stephen Cram BASED Washington, D.C. and eastern Kentucky RECOGNITION Community development, urban planning The 1974 Whitney Young Award was awarded posthumously to Stephen Cram, recognizing a tragically short career dedicated to bringing the power of design to communities that need it most. A graduate of Cornell University's School of Architecture in 1968, Cram began his work in architecture as a volunteer in eastern Kentucky for Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the antipoverty program originated by John F. Kennedy which served as a precursor to AmeriCorps. Working closely with local residents in Pikeville, Kentucky, he led a program to develop a construction method for affordable housing, which was later used as a prototype for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1969, Cram joined the AIA national staff as VISTA coordinator and immediately urged the development of Community Design Centers (CDCs), an AIA program that brought volunteer architectural and planning services to neighborhoods that could not otherwise afford them. A part of numerous AIA outreach efforts, he worked to diversify the architectural profession with scholarships, training, and mentorships, while continuing his interests in designing affordable housing. Upon his death in February 1973, Cram was an architectural designer with Robert J. Nash and Associates in Washington, D.C. 1975 Van B. Bruner Jr., FAIA BASED New Jersey RECOGNITION Community design, professional outreach The 1975 Whitney Young Award was bestowed upon Van Bruner Jr., FAIA, as a voice for broadening diversity in architecture and advocating for community participation in urban planning projects. The principal of a small New Jersey architectural firm, Bruner devoted a large share of his time to professional and public concerns. AIA vice president from 1973 to 1975, he served on the AIA Task Force on National Growth Policy, helping to direct positive change for the organization's future. He chaired the AIA Community Services Commission, bringing growing numbers of minority professionals into the organization's structure and outreach activities. As a member of AIA West Jersey, Bruner launched a community design center that brought free and low-cost architectural services to neighborhoods and nonprofit groups. The center worked within several Camden, New Jersey communities to improve affordable housing and also led a team of designers that converted a vacant theater into a neighborhood church building. In addition to his design center work, he participated as a lecturer at historically black colleges and universities in a joint project between AIA and the Urban League. 1976 Wendell J. Campbell, FAIA BASED Chicago RECOGNITION Community development, professional advocacy The first president of the National Organization for Minority Architects (NOMA), Wendell Campbell, FAIA, received the Whitney Young Award for his dedication to helping citizens maintain a stake in the planning initiatives targeting their own communities. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Campbell attended Indiana University and later Illinois Institute of Technology, where he majored in architecture and minored in city planning. Following a decade with a redevelopment group in his hometown of East Chicago, Indiana, he opened his own firm to work with neighborhood groups tackling urban renewal and community development issues. In 1971, he was one of a dozen African American architects who laid the foundation for what was to become NOMA. Serving as its inaugural president, he partnered with AIA to find ways architects could alleviate social problems. In his role, he also advocated for greater involvement of minority architects in shaping AIA's conversations on economic, civic, and social development. Campbell chaired the AIA Community Services Commission, and also served as a director with AIA Chicago, the Chicago Architectural Assistance Center, and the National Urban League Development Foundation. 1980 Leroy M. Campbell BASED Washington, D.C. RECOGNITION Community development, professional outreach Leroy Campbell posthumously received the Whitney Young Award for his use of architecture as a tool for building community and promoting positive neighborhood revitalization. After receiving an undergraduate architecture degree from Howard University and working at several area practices, he established his own successful firm, Sulton Campbell & Associates along Georgia Avenue -- then known for having the offices of more black architects than any street in the world. Much of the firm's work would focus on community planning projects as well as affordable housing solutions. Before an untimely death at age 50, Campbell proved a powerful instrument of change. After the 1968 riots in the nation's capital, his firm led restoration efforts to rebuild damaged neighborhoods. He was a charter member and president of the National Organization of Minority Architects, served as a board director for several Washington, D.C. planning associations, and worked with the National Urban League's Black Executive Exchange Program to offer volunteer architecture lectures at historically black university and colleges.
6. OCTYOU_180517_052.JPG: The Whitney M. Young Jr. Award | 1981-1986 1981 Robert T. Coles, FAIA BASED Buffalo, New York RECOGNITION Community outreach, architecture eduction Buffalo architect Robert T. Coles, FAIA, received the Whitney Young Award for his professional, social, and political leadership. Heading what was then the only African American-owned firm in Western New York, Coles offered unparalleled opportunities for aspiring designers of color throughout the region. Noted projects included facilities for the Buffalo YMCA and a recreation complex for the State University of New York at Buffalo, as well as the creation of numerous community outreach initiatives. A native of Buffalo, Coles received an undergraduate architecture degree from the University of Minnesota and a master's in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After studying in Europe, he returned to Buffalo in 1960 to open his own practice and advocate for social, political, and economic improvement for minority communities. During the early 1970s, Coles served on several AIA housing committees before joining the national chapter for two years as AIA Deputy Vice President for Minority Affairs. He also was an early and active member of the National Organization of Minority Architects, serving as treasurer, vice president, and on its board of directors. Coles returned to his own practice full-time in 1976, continuing outreach work that would lead to faculty positions at the University of Kansas, Buffalo State University College, and Boston Architectural College. 1982 John S. Chase, FAIA BASED Houston RECOGNITION Professional advocacy, public service After receiving an undergraduate degree from Hampton University, John Chase, FAIA, traveled to the University of Texas at Austin, becoming the first African American to graduate from the school's architecture program in 1952. Unable to find work in Austin's strongly segregated architecture firms, he accepted a teaching position at the historically black Texas Southern University in Houston and opened his own firm. He was the first African American licensed to practice architecture in Texas and accepted into the Texas Society of Architects and AIA Houston. Business boomed for Chase in Houston, where he designed the state's first black owned bank and nearly half the buildings on Texas Southern University's campus. His firm would open offices in Dallas, Austin, and Washington, D.C., designing the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia and an administration building at Tuskegee University. A founding member and later president of the National Organization of Minority Architects, Chase advanced equality in architecture through several national committees. He served as director of AIA Houston from 1973 to 1975, promoting planning solutions and engaging local architects with the city's diverse communities. In 1980, he was named by President Carter to serve a four-year term on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, during which time he reviewed plans for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 1983 Howard H. Mackey Sr., FAIA BASED Washington, D.C. RECOGNITION Architecture eduction, professional outreach A noted architect and educator, Howard H. Mackey, FAIA, was honored with the Whitney Young Award for his five decades of influential work at Howard University's architecture school. Born in Philadelphia in 1901, Mackey earned an undergraduate and a master's degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1924, when few African Americans held degrees in architecture, Mackey joined the architecture faculty at Howard University. Weathering the Great Depression and Howard's near-closure of building science programs, Mackey was appointed head of the school's architecture department in 1937. He led the program into national accreditation by 1950, making the university the first historically black school in the U.S. with a fully recognized architectural program. During his tenure, Mackey grew the department from three students in 1924 to more than 300 by 1970. After a sabbatical working as a planning consultant in South America, he returned to Howard to establish a program that prepared students for architectural work in the tropics. In 1962, Mackey became the second African American architect -- after Paul R. Williams, FAIA, in 1957 -- to be elected to the AIA College of Fellows. In 1980, Mackey was awarded an honorary doctorate from Howard University. 1984 John Louis Wilson, FAIA BASED New York City RECOGNITION Housing rights advocacy, mentorship For the 1984 Whitney Young Award, AIA leadership selected John Louis Wilson, FAIA, not only for his list of major architectural achievements, but also "for the 50 years his office served as a training ground for young architects." Born in 1898, Wilson, the son of a Methodist minister, moved from Mississippi to New Orleans to study classics at what is now Dillard University. A chance conversation with noted Louisiana architect Moise H. Goldstein, FAIA, helped motivate the young student to follow his interests in architecture. In the next decade, Wilson would become the first African American graduate of Columbia University's architecture program, a pioneer of urban design, and a leader for New York City housing rights. Upon completing architecture school, Wilson worked as an inspector for New York City's Housing Department as well as the Board of Transportation. After opening his own firm in 1931, he was later appointed to a group designing the famous Harlem River Houses. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the project remains a hallmark in the history of affordable multifamily housing, with modern architectural notions of space, environment, and community. Maintaining an office in heart of Harlem, Wilson spent his career working closely with minority students and young architects from across the city, concentrating on projects that bolstered neighborhoods and supported equitable housing opportunities. 1985 Milton V. Bergstedt, AIA BASED Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota RECOGNITION Civil rights advocacy, community development A devoted civil rights activist since the 1940s, Milton V. Bergstedt, AIA, was honored with the Whitney Young Award for what the nomination committee called his "assaulting the barriers of prejudice, bigotry, segregated housing, exclusionary employment, and similar evils that prevailed in the United States at the end of the World War II." Bergstedt served on the board of the St. Paul Urban League in the 1940s and was president of the St. Paul Council of Human Relations from 1953 to 1954. During those years, he lobbied St. Paul City Council and the Minnesota State Legislature to protect the rights of all citizens. As a result, St. Paul became one of the nation's first cities to pass a fair employment ordinance. While president of the St. Paul Downtown YMCA Men's Club in the late 1940s, Bergstedt was successful in eliminating the club's segregation policy by sponsoring his friend, Whitney M. Young Jr., who was a staff member of the St. Paul Urban League at the time. A native of St. Paul, Bergstedt received his a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Minnesota in 1931 and then served his apprenticeship under notable area architects such as Edward Lundie, FAIA, and Thomas Ellerbe, FAIA. In 1951, Bergstedt founded the St. Paul firm known today as BWBR Architects to take on numerous community projects and help mentor a new generation of like-minded designers. 1986 Rev. Richard McClure Prosser BASED Buffalo, New York RECOGNITION Social advocacy, community development Presbyterian clergyman and social worker Richard McClure Prosser posthumously received the Whitney Young Award for his innovative community efforts throughout the greater Buffalo area. Before his death in 1984, Prosser launched a series of outreach projects ranging from grassroots organizing to historic preservation advocacy, all beyond the duties of managing a large congregation. For 10 years, Prosser served as associate and executive director of the Community Planning Assistance Center for Western New York -- a community design and development center established by AIA Buffalo and Western New York in partnership with the architecture school of the State University of New York at Buffalo. Prosser also established a nationwide network of community design centers, and was a founding director of the National Community Design Center organization in Washington, D.C. His 20 years of community service included serving as executive director of Friendship House in Lackawanna, New York, and organizing community development groups in the Midwest and central Africa. He also helped create the Preservation League of New York State, an early leader in the preservation movement, and launched an organization that developed new affordable housing in downtown neighborhoods.
7. OCTYOU_180517_056.JPG: Bergstedt served as president of the St. Paul Downtown YMCA, eliminating the organization's segregation policy and designing several facilities, including the St. Paul East Branch. (AIA Archives)
8. OCTYOU_180517_060.JPG: The Whitney M. Young Jr. Award | 1987-1993 1987 J. Max Bond Jr., FAIA BASED New York City RECOGNITION Social advocacy, community development New York architect and educator Max Bond, FAIA, was honored with the 1987 Whitney Young Award for his long-standing service in the public sector. With an undergraduate degree and M.Arch from Harvard University, Bond was a professor of architecture at Columbia University for 16 years. He chaired the division of architecture at Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, where he was known for his sought-out design studios and a dedication to his students. At Columbia and then as a dean at City College, he promoted a more global perspective on architecture, expanding architectural history curricula and hosting design faculty from all corners of the world. During the late 1960s, Bond served as executive director of the Architects Renewal Committee in Harlem, leading a campaign for urban revival and affordable housing in Harlem. He later would serve on the New York City Planning Commission in the 1980s as its only architect member. Bond's private practice has echoed this concern for socially-responsible architecture, particularly in his designs for the award-winning Bolgatanga Library in Ghana and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center for Nonviolent Change in Atlanta. 1988 Habitat for Humanity BASED Worldwide RECOGNITION Affordable housing, community development Founded in 1976 by lawyer and businessman Millard Fuller, Habitat for Humanity has hand-built nearly a million affordable homes for more than four million people. The 1988 Whitney Young Award recognized the organization's successful approach to housing -- the involving of future occupants in the construction process, the building of homes with donated materials and volunteer labor, and the selling of completed houses to participating families at cost. "We want to be a conscience to eliminate poverty housing in the United States and the world over," Fuller told Parade Magazine in 1986. "This is the richest country in the world, and it's a shame and disgrace when over 20 million of our citizens live in subhuman conditions or, in many instances, have nowhere to live at all." Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter became Habitat's high-profile supporter in the mid-1980s, joining the board of directors and helping to expand the organization's global reach. "Habitat for Humanity has successfully removed the stigma of charity by substituting it with a sense of partnership," said Carter in the Parade interview. "The people who will live in the homes work side by side with the volunteers so they feel very much that they are on an equal level." 1989 John H. Spencer, FAIA BASED Norfolk, Virginia RECOGNITION Architecture eduction, community development John Henri Spencer, FAIA -- an architect, landscape architect, and educator -- was named the recipient of the 1989 Whitney Young Award for his efforts to create a more diverse architecture field. Based in Norfolk, Virginia, Spencer spent much of his design career volunteering his services to develop architecture programs at Howard University, Southern University, Tuskegee University, and Prairie View A&M University. An active member on the Council of Black Architectural Schools, he was instrumental in initiating the Title III grant proposal that offered federal funding to support architecture programs at historically black schools. Born in Liberia, Spencer earned an architecture degree with highest honors from Hampton University in 1956. After studying and teaching landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he became the director of architecture at Hampton University, where he revamped curriculum and grew enrollment from 56 students in 1970 to 210 by 1982. "In a quiet but aggressive way, he has raised the consciousness of architects and related professional organizations toward greater involvement of minorities in educational institutions and related professional organizations," said former AIA President R. Randall Vosbeck, FAIA, in a letter nominating Spencer for the award. 1990 Harry G. Robinson III, FAIA BASED Washington, D.C. RECOGNITION Architecture eduction, urban design Architect and urban design professor Harry Robinson, FAIA, was honored with the Whitney Young Award for bringing new recognition to the contributions of African American architects. As dean of Howard University's School of Architecture and Planning during the early 1980s, he established an international study program and created an award-winning career program in design for area high school students. During Robinson's tenure, Howard would become a center for dialogue and research on African American architects. In 1989 he organized the Howard University Leadership Awards in Architecture program. Before joining Howard's faculty, Robinson directed Morgan State University's graduate program in city planning. During his six years there, he developed new professional degree programs in architecture, landscape architecture, planning, and urban design. From 1968 to 1972, Robinson was project architect for the D.C. Redevelopment Land Agency's Shaw and 14th Street urban renewal areas, the epicenter of the 1968 civil rights disorders in the nation's capital. Robinson holds a master's degree in urban design from Harvard University, as well as a master's in city planning and B.Arch from Howard. A Vietnam veteran, he was awarded the Bronze Star as well as a Purple Heart. 1991 Robert Kennard, FAIA BASED Los Angeles RECOGNITION Mentorship, diversity advocacy Founder of one of Los Angeles' oldest African American-owned architecture firms, Robert Kennard, FAIA, received the Whitney Young Award for his long-standing mentoring efforts as well as his promotion of social responsibility in architecture. Because of the frustration he experienced as an African American trying to obtain his first architecture job, Kennard vowed he would never close his door to any architecture student or recent graduate of any color. Throughout his career, which spanned five decades, Kennard served as a role model for his colleagues in the profession and as a mentor to those who wish to pursue a career in architecture. After graduating from the University of Southern California School of Architecture in 1947, Kennard dedicated his energy toward using architecture as a tool to improve the basic fabric of society. For Los Angeles public schools, he filmed a documentary on the role of architects of color and developed an enrichment program for high school students to learn about architecture. He also advised architecture programs at California Polytechnic University, University of Southern California, and University of California, Los Angeles. 1992 Curtis J. Moody, FAIA BASED Columbus, Ohio RECOGNITION Mentorship, diversity advocacy After graduating from The Ohio State University School of Architecture, Curtis Moody, FAIA, began his Columbus-based firm in 1982 with one employee, a local graduate architecture student. Ten years later, the firm would boast 52 employees in architecture and civil engineering capacities, as well as a reputation for close collaboration and careful consideration for social issues, no matter how large or small the project. Moody's body of work focuses on public spaces, including major works like Port Columbus International Airport, Columbus' award-winning Martin Luther King Jr. Library, and the Cleveland School of the Arts. He also designed numerous smaller-scale projects to create affordable housing, community centers, and neighborhood medical facilities. Throughout his career, Moody and his firm have encouraged new voices to enter architecture by reaching out to area high school students, hosting education events, and maintaining a permanent scholarship endowment at The Ohio State University. He served on the AIA Minority Resource Committee and as president of the Ohio Association of Minority Architects and Engineers, forging partnerships amongst a diverse set of designers. 1993 David Castro-Blanco, FAIA BASED New York City RECOGNITION Professional outreach, community development Former president of AIA New York, David Castro-Blanco, FAIA, received the Whitney Young Award "not only by assuming his professional responsibility toward the social issues of today, but by challenging the rest of society through his inspiring example," in the words of his nomination. As founder of one of New York City's earliest and largest Latino-owned architecture firms, the Colombian-born architect dedicated much of his career to fostering diversity in architecture. He has sponsored programming to encourage young designers of all backgrounds to join the profession. In 1967, Castro-Blanco founded the Institute of Puerto Rican Urban Studies to help provide leadership to the Puerto Rican community and procure grants for housing rehabilitation. As an active force in affordable housing and as volunteer architect to numerous neighborhood groups, Castro-Blanco has gone beyond his professional duties to offer advice and encouragement through the most daunting of projects. Castro-Blanco eventually expanded his firm's scope to tackle work on transportation infrastructure, including the conversion of Boston's landmark South Station into a multi-modal transportation center. He has been honored by various organizations and federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Commerce and White House Conference on Small Business, and has chaired the AIA Minority Resources Committee.
9. OCTYOU_180517_070.JPG: The 1993 Whitney Young Award recipient, David Castro-Blanco, FAIA, reimagined Boston's landmark South Station into a multi-modal transportation center. (AK-Bino/Wikimedia Commons)
10. OCTYOU_180517_072.JPG: The Whitney M. Young Jr. Award | 1994-2000 1994 Ki Suh Park, FAIA BASED Los Angeles RECOGNITION Community development, urban planning Architect Ki Suh Park, FAIA, was selected for the Whitney Young Award for architecture and planning contributions that embraced a diverse clientele and maintained a strong commitment to equal rights. Born in South Korea, Park arrived in the United States in 1953 under the sponsorship of author James Michener and artist Norman Rockwell, who each read a letter he posted in the Los Angeles Times about wanting to study architecture after seeing the destruction of the Korean War. After receiving architecture and planning degrees from University of California, Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Park joined legendary Southern California firm Gruen Associates in 1961. Known for his exacting mind and social conscience, he focused on active public participation for a range of community projects, including a replenishment housing program following construction of the I-105 freeway through Los Angeles. Park became a managing partner at Gruen in 1981 and the first Korean American architect elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 1986. With the firm, he led high-profile projects for the Los Angeles Convention Center and Cedars Sinai Medical Center. As a member of the Rebuild L.A. Executive Committee, Park helped re-establish neighborhoods after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, strongly promoting a multi-perspective approach to community development amidst great social tension. 1995 William J. Stanley III, FAIA BASED Atlanta RECOGNITION Community development, education outreach A past president of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) and a former chancellor of the AIA College of Fellows, William Stanley III, FAIA, received the Whitney Young Award for a career-long commitment to education outreach and positive community building throughout the Atlanta area. The first African American graduate of Georgia Institute of Technology's College of Architecture, Stanley became the south's youngest African American ever to become registered as a licensed architect in 1975. Stanley launched a highly successful practice in 1978 with his wife, business partner, and future Whitney Young Award recipient Ivenue Love-Stanley, FAIA. Aiming for design excellence in every project, regardless of size, the firm produces a range of healthcare, public housing, educational hospitality, government, library, religious, and athletic facilities. Major projects include the 1996 Olympics Aquatic Center at Georgia Tech and the Ebenezer Baptist Church Sanctuary/Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Building. A fourth-generation Atlantan, Stanley offers outreach and pro bono design services to numerous community organizations, such as the National Black Arts Festival, Sweet Auburn Area Improvement Association, as well as area schools. 1996 John L. Wilson, FAIA BASED Boston RECOGNITION Affordable housing, community outreach Recognizing a growing problem throughout his city, John Wilson, FAIA, launched the Boston Society of Architects Task Force to End Homelessness in 1985. Uniting 200 professionals across disciplines, the task force designed more than 80 projects in its 20-year existence, during which Wilson would be honored with the Whitney Young Award. After receiving a master's from Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Wilson joined Boston's Payette Associates in 1966. Eventually a principal and studio director, he led the firm's health care team, designing projects from Maine to Ethiopia. In creating the Task Force to End Homelessness, Wilson applied design-thinking beyond the architect's studio. As the task force's cochair, he assembled multidisciplinary teams to solve specific problems, from a cash-strapped church building a soup kitchen to a bank opening a drop-in center for people experiencing homelessness. 1997 Alan Y. Taniguchi, FAIA BASED Austin and Harlingen, Texas RECOGNITION Diversity advocate, architecture education AIA awarded the 1997 Whitney Young Award to Texas architect Alan Y. Taniguchi, FAIA -- a dedicated educator, committed social activist, and ardent advocate for diversity in architecture. "As Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas, Alan Taniguchi was one of the first to respond to Whitney Young's keynote address to the AIA in 1968," his nomination stated. "He immediately joined the initial AIA Task Force on Equal Opportunity and Social Responsibility that grew out of Young's address." Spanning almost five decades, Taniguchi's career promoted a broad concept of social responsibility in architectural education, private practice, and a variety of professional posts. As a member of the National Architectural Accrediting Board, he assisted architecture schools at historically black colleges and universities in securing accreditation. As an architect, he worked to create more humane and environmentally-sensitive cities, which manifest itself in Fort Ringgold Campus Recycle Project -- a historic Texas fort reimagined as a community school with the work of 100 unemployed local farmers. 1998 Leon Bridges, FAIA BASED Seattle and Baltimore RECOGNITION Community development, professional outreach Leon Bridges, FAIA, won the Whitney Young Award for his "unselfish service to the betterment of the profession, to the health of the community and to the encouragement for future architects." Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bridges' love of architecture began in high school, when he met the man who became his mentor -- legendary architect Paul R. Williams, FAIA. Earning a B.Arch from the University of Washington in 1960, he soon made his name as an architect throughout Seattle. He delivered the opening convocation at the 1968 AIA convention in Portland, Oregon, witnessing Whitney Young's challenge for architects to tackle social issues. The speech proved a catalyst for Bridges to focus on socially-minded architecture. Heavily involved in the civil rights movement, Bridge would draw his activism into his architectural work. Through AIA, he secured funding from the Ford Foundation to create what would become the AIA Diversity Advancement Scholarship. He would become an early and active member of the National Organization of Minority Architects, in which he held every elected office, including president in 1980. 1999 Charles F. McAfee, FAIA BASED Wichita, Kansas RECOGNITION Social activism, affordable housing With a career dedicated to eliminating discrimination against all citizens, Charles F. McAfee, FAIA, received the 1999 Whitney Young Award with a nomination citing the architect's body of work as a model for social action. "I've lived a life with a very honest approach, molded by the patterns of my childhood and young adult life," McAfee explained in 1999. "All of these patterns involved discrimination and segregation, which have in many ways resulted in my compassion for people as I design buildings and help others to design their own career paths." After graduating with an undergraduate architecture degree from the University of Nebraska, McAfee passed up promising job offers on both the East and West Coasts to open a practice in his native Wichita. He became the first African American architect registered in Kansas. An advocate for using architecture to battle social inequalities, McAfee considered not only individual buildings, but also the design of entire neighborhoods. He devised a unique modular approach to affordable housing and opened a manufacturing plant that hires and trains people from within the community to make building components. McAfee's firm expanded to Atlanta and Dallas, with ownership passing to his daughters, both prominent architects themselves, in 2006 2000 Louis L. Weller, FAIA BASED Albuquerque, New Mexico RECOGNITION Civil rights advocacy, community development Louis Weller, FAIA, founded his eponymous firm in 1980, soon garnering a reputation as the leading Native American-owned firm in the Southwest. Providing design services to more than 30 tribes in 12 western states, Weller Architects specializes in health care, educational buildings, and community facilities. A steadfast activist in support of bettering Native American living conditions, Weller has chaired numerous government committees and business groups on behalf of his goal. Of Oklahoma Caddo and Cherokee Tribal descent, Weller became the first Native American to enroll in the University of New Mexico's School of Architecture, graduating in 1959. Coming of age in the politically turbulent 1960s, he sensed a growing desire to empower fellow Native Americans. It was through architecture, he felt, that these communities could find a new, relevant, and uplifting voice. "The Indian Health Service used to provide the facilities and design for the hospitals and clinics that were scattered around the reservations, and there was no input from the native community as far as their culture in the designs," Weller commented at the time of the award. As such, Weller Architects would incorporate designs that reflect traditional Native American culture and structures. The Picuris Health Center in Taos, New Mexico -- for which Weller won several design awards -- provides state-of-the-art health care facilities within a distinctly Pueblo environment.
11. OCTYOU_180517_076.JPG: The Whitney M. Young Jr. Award | 2001-2006 2001 Cecil A. Alexander, FAIA BASED Atlanta RECOGNITION Social justice, affordable housing Architect and activist Cecil Alexander, FAIA, was honored with the Whitney Young Award for his lifelong contributions to equality. After finishing Yale University with a bachelor's in architecture, Alexander continued his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Putting school on hold to serve as a pilot in World War II, he completed a graduate architecture degree at Harvard University before returning to his native Atlanta. Alexander's outspoken advocacy for the elimination of city slums in 1957 led to his appointment as the first chair of Atlanta's Citizens Advisory Committee for Urban Renewal. In 1964, Alexander partnered with Whitney Young Jr. himself to create Resurgens Atlanta -- a group of civic and business leaders dedicated to improving race relations -- taking its name from the city's motto, which means "Atlanta reborn." While maintaining an award-winning architecture career, Alexander would continue his fight for civil rights on various governmental and nonprofit committees and councils, including the Atlanta Housing Resources Committee and the state housing committee. Beyond architecture, his redesign of the Georgia flag -- for which he greatly reduced the prominence of the Confederate battle flag -- flew above the state capital from 2001 to 2003 until officials finally adopted a flag free of Confederate symbols. 2002 Robert P. Madison, FAIA BASED Cleveland RECOGNITION Diversity advocacy, professional outreach Pioneering Ohio architect Robert P. Madison, FAIA, received the Whitney Young Award in recognition of a distinguished career devoted to social responsibility and mentorship. After serving as a second lieutenant in World War II, Madison earned a B.Arch from Case Western Reserve University and M.Arch from Harvard University. Following time at the �cole des Beaux Arts in Paris on a Fulbright scholarship and an assistant professorship at Howard University, he returned to his hometown of Cleveland in 1954 to open his own practice -- the first in Ohio owned by an African American. With major works including the U.S. Embassy in Dakar and Cleveland Browns Stadium, Madison's award-winning firm has made time to mentor a diverse pool of talent, helped to counsel careers and directly advising young designers on projects. An AIA member since joining a student chapter as an undergraduate at Case Western, Madison has pushed the organization to reconsider its role in shaping communities. He served on major AIA committees for years, and as president of AIA Cleveland in 1973. In 1999, Madison was confirmed by the AIA Board of Directors as chair of the National Ethics Council, the highest judicial authority for overseeing the professional behavior, conduct, and architectural practice. 2003 Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA) BASED Chicago RECOGNITION Diversity advocacy, professional outreach Founded in 1979, the Hispanic American Construction Industry Association (HACIA) works to ensure equitable participation throughout the Chicago-area building industry. AIA honored the organization with the Whitney Young Award as a role model for professional groups assuming responsibility for social issues. Originally created to combat discriminatory practices against Latino workers in construction, HACIA soon grew to embrace a wide range of issues and disciplines across the architecture and building industries. Through outreach, support, and seminars, the organization creates ongoing dialogues between its members and local community leaders, and helps to promote and protect diversity in the workforce. While it represents the full scope of the building industry, HACIA maintains a commitment to advancing diversity throughout architecture. The organization's scholarship foundation supports students of various backgrounds pursuing degrees in the building industry, with 75 percent of funds allocated for architecture. HACIA's Professional Services Committee, meanwhile, represents scores of women- and minority-owned architecture firms. And through its partnership with AIA, the organization works to support diversity among local architectural leadership. 2004 Terrance J. Brown, FAIA BASED Albuquerque, New Mexico RECOGNITION Native American advocacy, disaster mitigation Architect and activist Terrance J. Brown, FAIA, received the 2004 Whitney Young Award for his decades-long efforts to preserve Mayan and Native American cultures through architectural projects as well as grassroots community organizing. "This remarkably talented man has demonstrated what a single architect can do to change the world and make the global community a better place to live," wrote former AIA Vice President Barbara Nadel, FAIA, in her nomination letter. A decorated Vietnam War officer, Brown traveled across Latin America working with the U.S. Peace Corps and United Nations on efforts to improve conditions of struggling indigenous villages. While in Guatemala, he helped launch a Mayan language preservation initiative and oversaw emergency relief efforts after a devastating earthquake in 1976 -- the first of many disaster assistance projects he would undertake throughout his career. Upon returning to the United States, Brown began working with Weller Architects, the Native American-owned practice in New Mexico founded by 2000 Whitney Young Award winner Louis Weller, FAIA. Partnering closely with tribes and pueblos, Brown designed affordable housing and health facilities that responded to communal needs while honoring and respecting native beliefs. Collaborating with tribal leaders throughout the Western states, Brown has used this design sensitivity to uplift the built environment and improve the lives of some the most underserved communities in the U.S. In 2016, Brown received the AIA Edward C. Kemper Award for his service within AIA and the profession at large. 2005 Stanford R. Britt, FAIA BASED Washington, D.C. RECOGNITION Professional advocacy, community planning Architect Stanford R. Britt, FAIA, won the Whitney Young Award in recognition of his work to ensure that architecture benefits all people and that the profession remains open to anyone who wants to design better communities. Britt's professional commitment to socially-minded projects began as an undergraduate architecture student at Drexel University, where he helped redevelop vacant lots for affordable housing. As a graduate architecture student at Columbia University, he worked with the Architects Renewal Committee of Harlem to introduce high school students to the architecture profession. After completing his education, he would organize an urban planning charrette that brought together two communities -- one predominantly Jewish, the other predominantly African American -- to design one of the largest urban revitalization projects in Maryland. In 1975, Britt joined the practice cofounded by 1980 Whitney Young Award-winner Leroy Campbell, AIA, and eventually became a partner and president. Believing a diverse profession is created by encouraging diverse people to join, Britt worked to bring more people of color into the field. He has been a leader of the National Organization of Minority Architects for more than 40 years, serving as treasurer, vice president, and president. An active AIA member, he has chaired the AIA Minority Resource Committee and led countess diversity programs. 2006 Theodore Landsmark, PhD, Assoc. AIA BASED Boston RECOGNITION Professional advocacy, architecture education An architect, attorney, and academic, Theodore Landsmark, PhD, Assoc. AIA, received the Whitney Young Award for a multifaceted career dedicated to justice and inclusivity. As a young civil rights lawyer, Landsmark was thrust into Boston's racial turmoil in 1976 when he was walking to City Hall and was speared by a man wielding an American flag during a demonstration. The attack was captured in a well-known photograph and broadcast across the nation. Landsmark refuses to let that image define him. "My life has been a lot more interesting than the 20 second moment captured in that picture," he told the Boston Globe in 2005. Landsmark graduated from Yale University in 1973 with degrees in both architecture and law. When faced with the decision of which field to enter, he chose law after doubting the possibility of receiving a fruitful architecture internship, due in large part to his background. As an attorney concentrating on architectural law, he continued to watch the profession make little progress toward building a diverse workforce since his days as a young architecture graduate. Landsmark has worked with major architecture organizations to open doors for underrepresented groups. As president of the Boston Architectural Center from 1997 to 2014, he initiated a high school mentoring program to address the lack of diversity within the design field. As chair of the AIA Diversity Committee, he established a data system to track diversity in the architecture profession and helped to initiate diversity programs for AIA chapters.
12. OCTYOU_180517_082.JPG: Partnering with Moshe Safdie, FAIA, Britt designed one of the six final proposals for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (Courtesy of the architect)
13. OCTYOU_180517_086.JPG: Partnering with Moshe Safdie, FAIA, Britt designed one of the six final proposals for the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (Courtesy of the architect)
14. OCTYOU_180517_089.JPG: The Whitney M. Young Jr. Award | 2007-2012 2007 National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) BASED Nationwide RECOGNITION Professional advocacy, mentorship Thirty-eight years after Whitney Young's call for action and 35 years after its creation, the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) was honored with Young's namesake award for its unfailing dedication to increasing diversity among architects. Founded to address the impact of racism while civil right issues continued to rock the nation, NOMA sought to acknowledge and address the negative influence of socioeconomic conditions in the build environments of disenfranchised Americans. At the 1971 AIA Convention in Detroit, 12 African American architects formed the organization to voice dissatisfaction with the status quo and begin the task of equalizing opportunities for African American designers. Decades later, NOMA remains the preeminent voice for minority architects and aspiring designers. Student outreach and mentorship remain a focal point for NOMA, which provides young designers the opportunity to interact with professional architects for portfolio review, advice, internships, and career guidance. The organization also makes inroads in primary education to discuss architecture careers and partners with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to support a national high school competition for students interested in architecture and design. 2008 Norma Merrick Sklarek, FAIA BASED Los Angeles and New York RECOGNITION Public works, professional advocacy The career of Norma Sklarek, FAIA, was marked by breaking barriers. She was the first African American woman to graduate from Columbia University with a B.Arch, and one of the first registered female African American architects in the nation. In 1980, she became the first African American woman elected into the AIA College of Fellows. Five years later, she headed the first architecture firm formed and managed by an African American woman -- Siegel, Sklarek, Diamond. In his letter of support, Jack Travis, FAIA, wrote, "Norma Merrick Sklarek's whole professional life has been a series of pioneering efforts advancing not only her cause, but the cause for minority involvement in mainstream matters of the profession and of the AIA." After graduating from Columbia University and briefly working for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Sklarek relocated to Los Angeles to join Gruen Associates. During her 20-year tenure with Gruen, she completed the Fox Plaza in San Francisco, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and the Queens Fashion Mall in New York. From 1980 to 1985, she was a vice president at Welton Becket & Associates, designing Terminal One at Los Angeles International Airport. After heading Siegel, Sklarek, Diamond for four years, she became a principal with the Jerde Partnership, where she worked on the Mall of America in Minneapolis. 2009 Clyde Porter, FAIA BASED Dallas RECOGNITION Architecture education, professional advocacy Dallas architect Clyde Porter, FAIA, received the 2009 Whitney Young Award in recognition of his efforts to encourage students from underserved communities pursue careers in architecture-related fields. "Porter has always charted a course that allowed room for those whose paths are fraught with obstacles, and our culture and profession are better for it," wrote Jeff Potter, FAIA -- former president of the Texas Society of Architects and current chair of the Architects Foundation -- in a 2008 letter supporting Porter's nomination. As vice-chancellor of facilities for Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD), Porter oversees planning and building programs at seven different campuses for approximately 100,000 students, the largest undergraduate enrollment in Texas. This work has allowed him to create facilities that offer many students and families their first experience of post-secondary education. A cofounder of the Texas chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects, Porter has built a legacy of reaching out to emerging minority architects into the profession. At the DCCCD, he established an internship program and regularly recruited from his alma mater, Prairie View A&M University. As chair of AIA Dallas' Minority Resources Committee, Porter began a summer internship program for a diverse pool of architects. He also has made regular outreach efforts to introduce architecture to elementary students. 2010 J. Benjamin Vargas, FAIA BASED Puerto Rico RECOGNITION Architecture education, professional advocacy A native of Puerto Rico, Vargas established a presence within AIA, advocating to remedy the lack of diverse participation in the organization and in architecture at large. He has worked to bring more Hispanic and Latino voices into the profession and facilitated numerous professional collaborations across the Caribbean. "Ben was the dependable and thoughtful originator of concepts and working papers designed to develop and bring into architecture the talents of aspiring Latino and Hispanic architects, and to recognize the practitioners who too often had been unrecognized even within their own firms," wrote past Whitney Young Award honoree Theodore Landsmark, Assoc. AIA, in Vargas' nomination letter. A leader for diversity within AIA, Vargas oversaw the creation of demographic analysis program to better diversify participation in architecture. In 2005, he helped draft the organization's position statement on diversity, and in 2007 took part on the planning committee for the AIA Diversity Plenary. In 2009, he helped create the AIA Diversity Recognition Program, which highlights architects for contributions to diversifying the profession, was instrumental in the appointment of an AIA Director of Diversity and Inclusion, and has pushed to codify diversity as one of AIA's primary strategic initiatives. 2011 Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton, FAIA BASED Seattle RECOGNITION Architecture education, professional advocacy Architect and scholar Dr. Sharon Egretta Sutton, FAIA, received the Whitney Young Award for a wide-ranging career that uses the tools of architecture and city planning to fight for diversity and justice. Originally from Cincinnati, Sutton began her professional life as a classical musician. After losing all three of her childhood homes to urban renewal projects, her interest in preservation and affordable housing began to compete with her music career. Renovating and redeveloping a Manhattan brownstone in between her music work, Sutton soon opened a new chapter as an architect and designer. She enrolled at the Parsons School of Design to study interior design, and following the infamous 1968 student-led uprising at Columbia University, she was recruited by its architecture program. Stanford Britt, FAIA, the 2005 Whitney Young Award recipient, was Sutton's classmate at Columbia and remembers her tenacity. "She questioned the kind of projects we were assigned to design. She ruffled feathers, insisting we have the option to choose assignments relevant to the communities in which we would be working." After opening her own office to focus on renovation and adaptive reuse, Sutton held adjunct teaching appointments at Pratt Institute and Columbia University. Her academic work led to additional advanced degrees in philosophy and psychology, and solidified the third leg of her professional life as a scholar and researcher. 2012 Mortimer M. Marshall Jr., FAIA BASED Washington, D.C. RECOGNITION Public works, professional advocacy Mortimer M. Marshall Jr., FAIA, was honored with the Whitney Young Award for his continued dedication to architecture as a vehicle for leadership and service. After receiving an undergraduate architecture degree from Tuskegee University, Marshall rose through the ranks of the military. Eventually appointed director of design on the staff of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, he guided the military's multi-billion-dollar design and construction program from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. During his directorship, he remained committed to including small businesses and minority-owned firms in public projects. Following his military position, Marshall founded the Marshall Group outside Washington, D.C., in 1982, offering architectural, engineering, and construction services for public and private clients. Heavily involved in numerous professional organizations, he was the first African American board member of the National Institute of Building Sciences and an active member of the National Organization of Minority Architects. Through the Marshall Group, he has launched a mentorship initiative to partner architects with teachers and students and foster design-related learning.
15. OCTYOU_180517_096.JPG: The Whitney M. Young Jr. Award | 2013-2018 2013 Harvey B. Gantt, FAIA BASED Charlotte, North Carolina RECOGNITION Public service, community development Honored with the 2013 Whitney Young Award for a lifelong commitment to civil rights, public service, and socially-conscious architecture, Harvey Gantt, FAIA, has remained a well-known public figure since the early 1960s, when he became the first African American student admitted to Clemson University. Following a master's in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Gantt settled in Charlotte, North Carolina. After working as an architecture lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Clemson, he opened Gantt Huberman Architects in 1971. Politically active since he was a teenager, he was appointed in 1974 to Charlotte City Council, holding the seat until he was elected as the city's first African American mayor in 1983. Finding success in the fields of both architecture and politics, Gantt used his platform to educate the public about architecture and urban issues, paving the way for aspiring architects of color. He would run two high-profile (though unsuccessful) campaigns against U.S. Senator Jessie Helms, lead the National Organization of Minority Architects as elected president, and chair the National Capital Planning Commission under President Bill Clinton. "He has literally opened doors, provided opportunity, and personally mentored generations of design professionals and civic leaders through his life's work," wrote AIA South Atlantic Region directors William J. Carpenter, FAIA, and Jane Frederick, FAIA, in Gantt's nomination letter. 2014 Ivenue Love-Stanley, FAIA BASED Atlanta RECOGNITION Professional outreach, community development The 2014 Whitney Young Award recognized Ivenue Love-Stanley, FAIA, and a career dedicated to bringing architecture to underserved communities and making design education accessible to all. From humble beginnings in Meridian, Mississippi, Love-Stanley was the first African American woman to graduate from Georgia Institute of Technology's College of Architecture and later became the first African American woman licensed as an architect in the Southeast. In 1978, she cofounded Atlanta-based Stanley, Love-Stanley with her husband, William Stanley, FAIA, who received the Whitney Young Award in 1995. An advocate for a more diverse and community-oriented architecture profession, she forged a lasting partnership between AIA and the National Organization of Minority Architects to help mentor minority students pursuing architectural degrees. As member of Atlanta's City Zoning Review Board, she worked to direct architecture projects toward neighborhood redevelopment revitalization. Regularly offering her services pro bono, Love-Stanley has led the revitalization effort in the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic District and designed an exhibit and performance titled "Celebrate Africa" for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. 2015 Auburn University Rural Studio BASED Hale County, Alabama RECOGNITION Affordable housing, community design The 2015 Whitney Young Award honored Auburn University's Rural Studio -- the almost legendary design studio that set the blueprint for today's socially-conscious architecture. Founded in 1993 by D.K. Ruth and Samuel Mockbee, FAIA, Rural Studio builds homes and community buildings throughout western Alabama, where nearly 40 percent of citizens subsist below the poverty line. Undergraduate architecture students from Auburn University work within communities to define solutions and fundraise, and then design and build a new project. Living on-site in Hale County, Alabama, students partner directly with area residents to determine how good design can benefit the community. To date, Rural Studio has built more than 170 projects and trained more than 800 "citizen architects" in the region. The studio also works to develop replicable low-cost housing solutions costing $20,000 or less. The small houses are suited to their context and climate, with a large front porch for passively ventilating and cooling the interior. In its early years, the Rural Studio became known for ethos of recycling, reusing, and remaking. After the passing of Mockbee in 2001, architect Andrew Freear succeeded him as director, expanding the scope and complexity of studio projects and focusing largely on community-oriented work. The studio has completed museums, park spaces, chapels, and even a fire station -- the first new public building in Newbern, Alabama for more than a century. For his work, Mockbee was posthumously awarded the 2004 AIA Gold Medal. 2016 R. Steven Lewis, FAIA BASED Detroit RECOGNITION Professional advocacy, architecture education The AIA Board of Directors selected R. Steven Lewis, FAIA, for the Whitney Young Award in recognition of his advocacy for social justice and diversity within architecture, where less than two percent of the nation's licensed architects are African American and less than three-tenths of one percent are black women. The son of an architect who practiced during the Civil Rights era, Lewis witnessed firsthand the challenges that faced black architects working in what he described as a "white gentlemen's profession." His career has been dedicated to helping people of color enter and navigate the profession as it evolves to be more inclusive than even a generation ago, and to documenting the stories of those who have fought to make it so. After cofounding and leading the Los Angeles-based RAW International in 1984, Lewis now works an urban design director for the City of Detroit. He has served as president of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) -- editing its magazine and profiling pioneering African American architects -- during which time he played a key role in forging a committed partnership between NOMA and AIA. After completing a Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Lewis organized a symposium exploring architecture's deep-seated structural inequalities. 2017 Detroit Collaborative Design Center BASED Detroit RECOGNITION Architecture education, community design The 2017 Whitney Young Award recognized the Detroit Collaborative Design Center (DCDC) for its creative broad-based approach to community engagement, neighborhood revitalization, and architectural mentorship. Housed in the School of Architecture at the University of Detroit Mercy, DCDC is modeled after a teaching hospital, where one to four student interns work closely with seven full-time architecture, landscape, planning, and urban design professionals. The center brings its design expertise to local stakeholders often left outside of such conversations. Together they are able to define innovative architectural and urban solutions while enabling communities to face the future on their own terms. DCDC purposefully positions itself at the center of Detroit's land use debates, promoting what it calls "grassroots and grasstops" decision-making. Its projects run the gamut from physical structures to how-to guides for communities. For its Detroit Future City initiative, the center engaged more than 90,000 residents through street teams and neighborhood events to develop a 50-year urban planning framework for the city. In 2016, DCDC worked with area high school seniors and community members to redevelop a former city department site into a public open space, complete with a kids' climbing mound, raised garden beds, apple orchard, and a signature solar-powered stage and pavilion. 2018 Tamara Eagle Bull, FAIA BASED Lincoln, Nebraska RECOGNITION Native American advocacy, community development Tamara Eagle Bull, FAIA, received the 2018 Whitney Young Award for her preservation and respectful representation of Native American culture within tribal-built environments. A member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, Eagle Bull is the first Native American woman to become a licensed U.S. architect. She serves as president of Encompass Architects in Lincoln, Nebraska, which she cofounded with her husband and design partner Todd Hesson, AIA. Eighty percent of the firm's portfolio concentrates on work for Native tribes. "[W]hether it is gas station or government building, the tribes always want culture to be a part of it," Eagle Bull said in an AIA interview. "A lot of non-Native architects go to tribes and expect them to open up and share everything right off the bat . . . Knowing how to ask those questions in a respectful way is key." Eagle Bull's projects include the Gila River Indian Community Governance Center in Sacaton, Arizona, and the Justice Center in Kyle, South Dakota. Her firm also designed proposals on behalf of the Oglala Sioux Tribe for a forthcoming memorial at the Wounded Knee Massacre site. Eagle Bull is an executive board secretary at the American Indian Council of Architects and Engineers, where she helped establish a partnership with the National Organization of Minority Architects.
16. OCTYOU_180517_103.JPG: Boardroom activist The short life and long impact of Whitney M. Young Jr. Whitney Moore Young Jr. was born in 1921 just west of Louisville, Kentucky on the campus of Lincoln Institute -- an African American high school where his father was head principal and president. Young graduated from the school as class valedictorian, before earning an undergraduate degree in social work from Kentucky State University in 1941. During World War II, he was trained as an electrical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later assigned to a road construction crew of African American soldiers supervised by Southern white officers. Promoted from private to first sergeant in just three weeks, Young faced hostility from both groups. Despite the tension, he would serve as a bridge between the white supervisors and black soldiers angry at their poor treatment. Young credited the situation as sparking his lifelong interest fighting for civil rights. After the war, Young earned a graduate degree in social work at University of Minnesota in 1947 and worked with the St. Paul branch of the National Urban League. After a directorship with the Urban League's branch in Omaha, Nebraska, he served as dean of Clark Atlanta University's social work program and became active in the Atlanta National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1960, he was elected president of Georgia NAACP and studied at Harvard University under a Rockefeller Foundation grant. In 1961, the 40-year-old Young was selected as executive director of the National Urban League, taking charge of the organization as civil rights protests began to sweep across the United States. While the Urban League still maintained its founding mission -- supporting the African American workforce -- Young would transform the organization into a major civil rights group. Young used his position with the League to pressure major corporations to hire more African Americans. A close ally of Martin Luther King Jr., Young helped organize the March on Washington and fostered closer relations within the federal government. Uninterested in entering politics himself, Young advised Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and turned down a potential cabinet post offered by President-elect Richard Nixon. Young led the Urban League until his death at 49 during a 1971 swimming accident in Lagos, Nigeria.
17. OCTYOU_180517_111.JPG: 1968 Convention Program
18. OCTYOU_180517_139.JPG: Norma Merrick Sklarek, FAIA New York and Los Angeles A career of "firsts" helps pave the way for future designers
19. OCTYOU_180517_146.JPG: National Organization of Minority Architects Nationwide Leveling the professional playing field
20. OCTYOU_180517_160.JPG: Tamara Eagle Bull, FAIA Lincoln, Nebraska Leading a new wave of Native American architecture
21. OCTYOU_180517_169.JPG: Julia Morgan, FAIA San Francisco Technological expert with an unparalleled eye for design
22. OCTYOU_180517_185.JPG: Paul R. Williams, FAIA Los Angeles Pioneering architect who defined Southern California style
23. OCTYOU_180517_197.JPG: The American Institute of Architects & Diversity Designing, serving, and reflecting society at large The American Institute of Architects believes that a diverse profession mirrors the society it serves. We celebrate the contributions of all architects, recognizing that diversity encourages fresh approaches and perspectives to guide the profession through an ever-changing world. This exhibit highlights those who pushed architecture in new directions -- not only through their compelling design work, but also through their steadfast efforts to build a better society.
24. OCTYOU_180517_201.JPG: 1850s to 1950s The slow march begins with giant steps Timeline adapted from the original by Marga Rose Hancock, Hon. AIA. Images courtesy of AIA or AIA Archives unless noted otherwise. 1857 The American Institute of Architects is founded in New York City to "elevate the standing of the profession" and "promote the scientific and practical perfection of its members." 1888 Buffalo architect Louise Blanchard Bethune, FAIA, becomes first woman to hold AIA membership. 1890 Sophia Hayden becomes the first academically-trained woman architect in the United States, graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which opened the first school of architecture in the United States in 1865. 1892 Robert R. Taylor graduates from MIT with a degree in architecture, becoming the first academically-trained African American architect in the United States. 1923 Paul R. Williams, FAIA, becomes the first African American AIA member. 1931 Lois Lilley Howe, FAIA, is the first woman elected to the AIA College of Fellows. She founded her own practice in 1903 and joined two other female graduates of MIT for commissions include the Fitchburg Art Museum in Massachusetts. 1936 Beverly Greene becomes the first African American woman to receive an architectural engineering degree, graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she received a master's in city planning a year later. 1957 Paul R. Williams, FAIA, becomes the first African American elevated to the AIA College of Fellows. With buildings like the La Concha Motel in Las Vegas, Williams soon transitioned to a more modernist mode. 1959 Norma Merrick Sklarek, FAIA, becomes the first female African American AIA member.
25. OCTYOU_180517_206.JPG: 1960s to 1980s Waking up and forging a new, relevant profession 1968 Addressing the AIA National Convention in Portland, Oregon, civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr. challenges the organization to stand for social responsibility. 1970 AIA officials launch the Minority Disadvantaged Scholarship (renamed "Diversity Advancement Scholarship" in 2014) to help create a more diverse and relevant profession. 1971 Twelve prominent African American designers found the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) at the 1971 AIA Convention in Detroit. 1972 Following the death of Whitney M. Young Jr. in 1971, AIA creates an award in his honor to recognize architects and organizations engaged in relevant social issues. 1973 Leaders at the AIA National Convention in San Francisco pass a resolution "to integrate women into all aspects of the profession as full participants." 1974 Robert T. Coles, FAIA, serves as first AIA Deputy VP for Minority Affairs. With Leon Bridges, FAIA, and Marshall Purnell, FAIA, he creates the AIA Commission on Community Services. 1974 Judith Edelman, FAIA -- as head of the newly-formed AIA Task Force on Women in Architecture -- presents a report showing that only 1.2 percent of registered U.S. architects are women. At the time, only coal miners and steelworkers have a lower proportion. 1980 Los Angeles-based architect Norma Merrick Sklarek, FAIA, becomes the first African American woman elevated to the AIA College of Fellows. 1985 Arquitectos: The Society of Hispanic Professional Architects is established in Chicago.
26. OCTYOU_180517_212.JPG: 1968 Addressing the AIA National Convention in Portland, Oregon, civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr. challenges the organization to stand for social responsibility.
27. OCTYOU_180517_217.JPG: 1971 Twelve prominent African American designers found the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) at the 1971 AIA Convention in Detroit.
28. OCTYOU_180517_220.JPG: 1974 Judith Edelman, FAIA -- as head of the newly-formed AIA Task Force on Women in Architecture -- presents a report showing that only 1.2 percent of registered U.S. architects are women. At the time, only coal miners and steelworkers have a lower proportion.
29. OCTYOU_180517_223.JPG: 1990s Acknowledging the past and looking to the future 1991 Bradford C. Grant and Dennis Alan Mann publish the first edition of the Directory of African American Architects. 1992 Meeting in Indiana, the new AIA Diversity Task Force develops the "New Harmony Accords," advancing the premise that the "organization commands strength in proportion to its inclusiveness." 1992 Susan Maxman, FAIA, (left) is elected first woman AIA president, and L. Jane Hastings, FAIA, serves as first woman chancellor of the AIA College of Fellows. 1993 Publication of Paul R. Williams: A Legacy of Style (by Karen E. Hudson, Rizzoli) reintroduces the pioneering work of a legendary African American architect to a new generation. 1994 Robert T. Coles, FAIA, is elected as the first African American architect to serve as chancellor of the AIA College of Fellows. 1994 The inaugural Diversity Conference is held in Washington, D.C. with the title, "Breaking the ICE: Building New Leadership." 1995 Denice Johnson Hunt, AIA, serves as the nation's first woman of color to hold the highest elected office in an AIA local chapter, as president of AIA Seattle. 1996 Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA, becomes the first woman to receive the AIA Topaz Medallion, which recognizes outstanding individual contributions in architectural education. 1997 Raj Barr-Kumar, FAIA, becomes the first elected architect of color to serve as AIA president.
30. OCTYOU_180517_227.JPG: 2000s to today Self-reflection leads to action and progress 2002 California architect Gordon Chong, FAIA, serves as first elected Asian American AIA president. 2007 Washington, D.C. architect Marshall Purnell, FAIA, serves as the first elected African American AIA president. 2008 Norma Merrick Sklarek, FAIA, becomes the first woman to receive the Whitney Young Award. 2010 AIA board acts unanimously to adopt the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, prohibiting discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. 2011 Architect Barbie makes a controversial debut at the 2011 AIA National Convention in New Orleans. A related AIA contest to design Barbie's "dream house" causes a similar stir. 2013 California architect Julia Morgan, FAIA, posthumously becomes the first woman to receive the AIA Gold Medal. 2017 Paul R. Williams, FAIA, posthumously receives the AIA Gold Medal, becoming the first African American architect honored with the award. 2018 Whitney Young Award honors Tamara Eagle Bull, FAIA, the first Native American woman registered as an architect and the first to win the AIA award. 2019 Pittsburgh architect William J. Bates, FAIA, serves at the second elected African American AIA President.
31. OCTYOU_180517_231.JPG: 2011 Architect Barbie makes a controversial debut at the 2011 AIA National Convention in New Orleans. A related AIA contest to design Barbie's "dream house" causes a similar stir.
32. OCTYOU_180517_234.JPG: 2010 AIA board acts unanimously to adopt the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, prohibiting discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
33. OCTYOU_180517_237.JPG: 2013 California architect Julia Morgan, FAIA, posthumously becomes the first woman to receive the AIA Gold Medal.
34. OCTYOU_180517_241.JPG: 2017 Paul R. Williams, FAIA, posthumously receives the AIA Gold Medal, becoming the first African American architect honored with the award.
35. OCTYOU_180517_244.JPG: 2018 Whitney Young Award honors Tamara Eagle Bull, FAIA, the first Native American woman registered as an architect and the first to win the AIA award.
36. OCTYOU_180517_254.JPG: 50yearsafterwhitneyyoung.org
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