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Norma Sklarek, FAIA, Selected as 2008 Recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award
First African-American woman to become a registered architect and an AIA Fellow
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For Immediate Release |
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Washington, D.C., December 18,
2007 — The American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced today Norma
Merrick Sklarek, FAIA, has been named the 2008 recipient of the
Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, given to an architect or
architecturally oriented organization exemplifying the
profession’s responsibility toward current social
issues.
The award honors civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr.,
proponent of social change and head of the Urban League from 1961
until his death in 1971. At the 1968 AIA Annual Convention, Young
challenged architects to more actively increase participation in
the profession by minorities and women. Sklarek becomes the 37th
recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, which was established
by the AIA in 1972. She will receive the 2008 Whitney M. Young Jr.
Award at the AIA 2008 Annual Convention in Boston in May.
2008 AIA President Marshall Purnell, FAIA, the first African
American to hold that position raised his voice in support of
Sklarek, “She made me possible,” Purnell said. “She
is mentally the strongest person in this profession that I know.
Everywhere she went she was first.” AIA Board member Anthony
Costello, FAIA, called Sklarek the “Rosa Parks of
Architecture.”
Sklarek’s career has been marked by breaking barriers and
expectations of what an African-American woman could do. She was
the first African-American woman to graduate from Columbia
University in 1950 with a BArch, as well as becoming the first
registered African-American female architect in the entire nation.
In 1980, she became the first African-American female Fellow of the
AIA. Five years later, she was at the head of the first
architecture firm to be 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, Sklarek had a brief stint working
for Skidmore Owings and Merrill, then relocating to Los Angeles to
work for the Gruen Firm. During her 20-year tenure there, Sklarek
completed some of her most important projects, including Fox Plaza
in San Francisco, the American Embassy in Tokyo and the Queens
Fashion Mall in New York. From 1980 to 1985, she was a vice
president at the Welton Becket firm, where she designed the
Terminal One building at Los Angeles International Airport. After
that Sklarek headed her own firm for four years, and in 1989, she
became a principal with Jon Jerde Inc., now known as the Jerde
Partnership, where she worked on the Mall of American in
Minneapolis, the largest shopping center in the nation.
“I am thankful to Norma Sklarek for being Norma Sklarek,”
wrote Gail Kennard, the daughter of Robert Kennard, FAIA, the 1991
Whitney Young Award winner, in her letter of support. “She is
an accomplished and generous professional whose quiet determination
in the face of adversity has made it seem so much easier for those
who have come after her.”
About the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award
Established in 1972, the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award has honored
architects and organizations that exemplify the profession’s
proactive social mandate, ranging from issues such as affordable
housing, minority inclusiveness, and access for persons with
disabilities. The award is named after the civil rights-era head of
the Urban League who confronted the AIA’s absence of socially
progressive advocacy head-on at the 1968 national convention. Past
winners have included J. Max Bond, FAIA (1987), Habitat for
Humanity (1988), Curtis J. Moody, FAIA (1992), and the National
Organization of Minority Architects (2007).
About The American Institute of
Architects
For 150 years, members of The American Institute of Architects have
worked with each other and their communities to create more
valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings and
cityscapes. AIA members have access to the right people, knowledge,
and tools to create better design, and through such resources and
access, they help clients and communities make their visions real.
www.aia.org
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