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The MIT Department of Architecture & Robert R. Taylor Network, Inc. Presents: |
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 “Is there a Black Architect in the House?" is a question which needs to be asked now and often. Given the 1% of registered black architects in the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the statistics beg the question: Are black architects few in numbers because of the profession, the educational experience, cultural formations, or client opportunities? If we can't see black architects then maybe we can't see the problem. This conference-workshop will touch on a range of significant issues about race, ethnicity, blackness and professionalism, but with architectural academe as its central focus. The conference does not aim for a comprehensive overview on the subject, but rather hopes to ask how we can bring the issue more into the mainstream of architectural discussions. Understanding why and how the black architect is seen, especially through their educational and professional journey, from all vantages - student, client, designer, and critic - will allow us to appreciate what we have taken for granted and nurture what is unique. It will also allow us to discuss how to be more proactive in the face of this problem. As the alma mater of Robert Robinson Taylor (class of 1892), the first professionally-educated black architect in the US, MIT is in a position to help lead the discussion, especially since many of its more recent African-American alumni have risen to importance in the architectural profession. These include: Robert T. Coles (1955), Charles A Cofield (1972), Gerald W Billes (1972), Philip G Freelon (1977) William A Gilchrist (1977), Diane J Peters-Hoskins (1979). We aim to invite these alumni to the conference. The conference, seeks, however, to go beyond the question of MIT, and to this effect will bring together a group of noted educators and practitioners as catalyst for the discussion. This conference, on the MIT campus, will be organized around the topic of "work," "education," and "profession." Presentations will be given by Janet Helms, Professor at Boston College and the founding director of the Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture at Boston, and by Melvin Mitchell, professor at University of the District of Columbia, and author of The Crisis of the African-American Architect: Conflicting Cultures of Architecture and (Black) Power. Ted Landsmark, Director of Boston Architectural College and a nationally-recognized advocate of African-American issues in academe, will give the keynote address on Friday night. Practitioners Robert T. Coles, Charles Bradley and Gordon Kipping and educators Darell Fields (University of Kentucky), Yolande Daniels (Columbia University), Ellen Weiss (Tulane University) Wes Henderson (Florida A&M University), Kelly Charles (African American STEM Academy) and Larry Sass (MIT), will also speak as well as Eric Sheppard, Dean of the School of Engineering and Technology of Hampton University. The conference will be concluded with a discussion. The conference is free and open to the public with special thanks to our MIT sponsors: Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Provost's Office, Chancellor's Office, the Committee on Campus Race Relations, and the Friends of HTC, and from outside of MIT: The National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA).
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 Charles W. Bradley III, AIA is Founder and Principal of The ARCH Professional Group, Inc. Mr. Bradley has over twenty years of experience practicing and teaching architecture in the areas of residential, commercial, institutional, and educational building and construction projects. Bradley has won both international and national awards and competitions for his conceptual and implemented design work. He has taught college and graduate level students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Wentworth Institute. Kelly J. Charles is a doctoral student at Morgan State University. Her doctoral research is on the Self-efficacy, Locus of Control and Triarchic Intelligence of African American undergraduate students of architecture. Kelly is currently a principal of a private PK through 6th grade African American STEM academy in Baltimore, MD. She holds a Masters of School Administration, and both a Masters and Bachelors of Education. She has over 20 years of education and community learning experience with a focus on under-represented students. Robert T. Coles is President of the firm Robert Traynham Coles, Architect, established in 1963. It is the oldest African-American owned architectural firm in New York State and the Northeast. Coles received his Bachelor from the University of Minnesota, and a Master's degree from MIT in 1955. He received the AIA's Whitney M. Young Jr. Citation in 1981 for his contributions to the cause of social justice. He has received numerous other awards including the AIA New York State Chapter in 2004 to recognize a lifetime of notable contributions by an architect to the profession. The work of the firm includes such major commissions as the Frank Reeves Municipal Center in Washington DC, the Ambulatory Care Project for Harlem Hospital, and the Frank Sedita Middle School in Buffalo. Coles is also an educator. He was the Langston Hughes Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Kansas in 1989 and between 1990 and 1995 an Associate Professor of Architecture at the Carnegie Mellon University. Yolande Daniels, Assistant Professor of Architecture, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, received her M. Arch. from Columbia University (1990) and her B.S. Arch. From the City College of the City University of NY, 1987. She has published essays that deal with the spatial politics of race and gender in anthologies such as: Crime and Ornament (YYZ Press, 2002), White Papers, Black Marks (Athlone Press, 2000), and Grey Areas (Chalkham Hill Press, 1999). From 1996-98, Ms. Daniels was a Helena Rubinstein Critical Studies Fellow at the Whitney American Museum of Art and a participant in the Independent Studio Program in New York. She received a research grant from the NY chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1996 for a project documenting ‘slave spaces' in Brazil. In 1995 she founded the firm, studioSUMO, in partnership with Sunil Bald. Darell W. Fields, after graduating from the University of Texas at Arlington, pursued a Masters degree at the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University, graduating in 1988. He then worked in Dallas for RTKL Associates. From 1989 until 1995, Fields taught at several institutions, including the GSD, Arizona State University, and Northeastern University. During this time, his practice shifted to more conceptual projects with sites in New York, Boston, and Tokyo. In 1993, Fields, co-founded the journal, Appendx—an interdisciplinary project focused on issues of race in the field of architecture. During the same year he produced a video montage of New York City entitled "Co-Lateral Damage," presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 1995 he received his PhD from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard. The aesthetic underpinnings of this phase and future speculations are represented in his book, Architecture in Black (2000). He is also the editor of Carlos Jimenez: House and Studio (2003) and his "House for Josephine Baker: A parody Series" was exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem (January-April 2004). Fields joined the School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas in Fall 2005, where he is working to reestablish a new iteration of the journal, APX (a.k.a. Appendx) as an interdisciplinary venue for criticism, scholarship and creative activity as they relate to the discipline of architecture. Janet E. Helms is the Augustus Long Professor of counseling psychology and director of The Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture at Boston College. Dr. Helms is a Fellow in Division 17 (Counseling Psychology) and Division 45 (Ethnic Diversity) of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a member of the Association of Black Psychologists. Helms serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Psychological Assessment and the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development. She has written over sixty empirical and theoretical articles and four books on the topics of racial identity and cultural influences on assessment and counseling practice. Her Books include A Race Is a Nice Thing To Have and (with Donelda Cook) Using Race and Culture in Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theory and Process (MA: Allyn & Bacon). Dr. Helms has been acknowledged for her work with numerous awards which include an engraved brick in Iowa State University's Plaza of Heroines and the "Distinguished Career Contributions to Research" award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues, awarded at the APA convention. Wes Henderson earned a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Design with a minor in history in 1974 and then a Master of Architecture degree from MIT in 1976. He returned to his home state Texas and taught at Prairie View A&M University, from 1976 to 1986. He became a licensed architect in Texas in 1981. He earned a doctoral degree from UCLA in the history of architecture in 1992.,After which he taught at the University of Texas in Austin until 1999 and Texas A&M University in College Station until 2003. He is current teaching at Florida A&M University. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and the National Organization of Minority Architects. He was assistant editor for the recently published Dictionary of African American Architects 1865-1945. Darian C. Hendricks, who received a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Benjamin Franklin Programme Diploma from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Science-Po), has over 17 years experience working in both professional consulting and product companies, especially in the financial and energy services, retail, not-for-profit, technology and telecommunication sectors. Hendricks has been a Director and consultant for Sapient Corporation, Cambridge, MA, and a Senior Product Designer at Lotus Development Corporation, Cambridge, MA. Hendricks has started a business and design consultancy in 2003 called Manwarin Scott, Inc. d/b/a havens indesign studios. The company helps businesses create value for the clients and customers by designing integrated digital and analog experiences that create paradigm shifts within their industries. He currently serves as a President and Executive Director, Robert R. Taylor Network, Inc. (RRTN); Member, Council for the Arts at MIT; Science Advisor, Science Network, New England Board of Higher Education; and Member, Coordinating Committee, Somerville Cares About Prevention, Somerville, MA. Mark Jarzombek, is professor of the history and theory of architecture at MIT, where he has taught since 1995, coming to MIT from Cornell University where he taught for nine years. Currently the director of the History Theory Criticism Section of the Department of Architecture, he has worked on a range of historical topics from the Renaissance to the modern and in particular on nineteenth and twentieth century architecture and aesthetics. He recently published, along with co-author Vikram Prakash and illustrator Frank Ching, a major textbook, entitled A Global History of Architecture (Wiley Press, 2006). Jarzombek has received numerous awards, including a Post-doctoral Resident Fellowship at the J. Paul Getty Center for the History of Humanities and Art, Santa Monica, California, in 1986, and fellowships from the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (1993), the Canadian Center for Architecture (2002), and the Clark Institute (2005). He has published in a wide range of journals including the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Assemblage, and Renaissance Studies. Gordon Kipping, a native of Toronto, Canada who has been living and working in New York City since 1995, received a Bachelor of Applied Science in engineering in 1989 from the University of Toronto and a masters of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Since graduation, Kipping has worked for Philip Johnson, Greg Lynn, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, and Davis Brody Bond. Kipping has recently taught a design studio at the School of Architecture at Columbia University and assisted Frank Gehry in teaching a design studio at the School of Architecture at Yale University. Kipping has been producing conceptual and built work under the name G TECTS. As G TECTS, he authored a book entitled Ordinary Diagrams: Electronic Information Technologies and Architecture, (1995) and had a solo exhibition at StoreFront For Art and Architecture entitled Residual Urban Site Strategies, (1998). Gordon Kipping is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture at Columbia University. Ted Landsmark is currently the president and CEO of the Boston Architectural College, an institution with an important position in the professional community in the Boston area. Landsmark, has also been dean of graduate and continuing education at the Massachusetts College of Art. And has served as the director of Boston's Office of Community Partnerships. He has received fellowships from the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts and the National Science Foundation, and he serves on the editorial board for Architecture Boston. Landsmark also serves as a trustee to numerous arts related foundations including Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Landsmark is widely recognized as an important advocate of diversity and of the African American cause in schools of architecture. Steven Lewis, after receiving his Bachelor of Architecture from Syracuse University (1979), went to Harvard Real Estate Development (1984). He is currently a Harvard Loeb Fellow. He joined the U.S. General Services Administration in the Office of the Chief Architect in 2004 where he works toward achieving design excellence and fiscal accountability in all Federal project types, ranging from new courthouses and border stations, to preservation of historic structures and repair and modernization of our aging inventory of federal properties. In addition Mr. Lewis is GSA’s liaison to the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). In this capacity, Prior to joining GSA, Mr. Lewis celebrated his 20th anniversary with the Los Angeles-based design firm RAW International where he began as a partner shortly after the firm’s inception in 1984. His distinguished career with RAW included directing and managing a wide range of projects and clients; providing oversight of RAW’s CAD system, technical operations, and Website; and serving as the principal in charge of human resources. Before becoming a partner at RAW, Mr. Lewis served as a principal with the New York based firm of Roger C. Lewis and Associates. He was also a planning associate with the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles, where he participated in the formulation of several of the Agency’s Redevelopment Plans, including North Hollywood, Chinatown, and the Little Tokyo. Lewis, who also taught at Pasadena College, is an active member of The National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), having recently been elected vice president-president elect. Melvin Mitchell is a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects. He practices in Washington D.C. where is also adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia. He taught at Howard University (1971 – 1977) and headed the graduate architecture program at Morgan State. His degrees are from Howard (1967) and Harvard University (1970). He is the author of The Crisis of the African-American Architect: Conflicting Culture of Architecture and (Black) Power, a penetrating study of African-Americans in the architectural educational system. From1980 to 2002, he was the principal of his own firm that specialized in the field of housing and department stores, like the Hecht Co. Department Store & High-Rise Office Buildings at Metro Center (1993) He also severed on several Architecture and Historical Preservation Review Boards in the Washington DC. He was featured as one of 50 outstanding living African American, African, and Afro-European architects in an exhibition of their work at the Chicago Athenaeum in 1993 Lawrence Sass received his BArch from Pratt Institute BArch in 1990, received his SMArchS (1992) and his PhD (2000) from MIT. Larry Sass is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at MIT, where he conducts advanced research and teaching in the field of Digital Fabrication. His ongoing research demonstrated that buildings can be designed and constructed in paperless environments - using CAD/CAM tools for fabrication of building components, and rapid-prototyping to test the design. His current research, therefore, is focused primarily on the advancement of newer software tools and rapid-prototyping devices that will help foster greater establishment of such paperless design offices. He is currently working on a digitally fabricated house for New Orleans. Ellen Weiss is Favrot Professor at the Tulane University School of Architecture. She studied at Oberlin College, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Illinois and has served on the boards of the Society of Architectural Historians, the Vernacular Architecture Forum, and the Southeast Society of Architectural Historians. She is the author of City in the Woods, the Life and Design of an American Camp Meeting on Martha's Vineyard. She is currently finishing her book Robert R. Taylor and Tuskegee: An Early Black Architect Designs for Booker T. Washington.
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