(Builders #1 – Jacob Lawrence, 1972)

EVIDENCE OF THINGS UNSEEN... A F R I C A N - A M E R I C A N A R C H I T E C T S A N D B U I L D E R S (A Collective Working Document)1

APPENDIX I: A PARTIAL LIST OF TRAILBLAZING AFRICAN-AMERICAN ARCHITECTS OF SOME NOTE…...... 2

APPENDIX II: AN EMBARASSING INCOMPLETE LISTING OF PUBLICATIONS BY OR ABOUT AFRICAN- AMERICAN ARCHITECTS… ...... 5 ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND COLLECTIONS ...... 5 ARTICLES AND ESSAYS ...... 5 BOOKS ...... 8 JOURNALS ...... 10 DISSERTATIONS AND THESES ...... 11

E V I D E N C E O F T H I N G S U N S E E N . . . A FR IC AN -A MER IC A N A R CH ITEC TS AN D B U ILD ERS (A Collective Working Document) 1 of 12 APPENDIX I

A PARTIAL LIST OF TRAILBLAZING AFRICAN- AMERICAN ARCHITECTS OF SOME NOTE…

Julian Able (1881 - 1950) Attended the University of Pennsylvania and the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris, the preeminent school of architecture. Became the chief designer in the office of Hourace Trumbauer and Associates. Many of his designs remain today: Duke University, a Fifth Avenue residence (which is now the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU), the Weidner Library at Harvard University, the Philadelphia Free Library and Museum of Fine Arts. His work with the office of Trumbauer and Associates was officially recognized in 1989 by the American Institute of Architects. He was also an accomplished painter. He entered the American Institute of Architects in 1941.

Albert Cassell (1895 - 1969) One of the founders of the School of Architecture. Left his family and moved as a teenager to Ithaca, NY to prepare for entry into ’s architecture program. Worked his way through the school. Conceived the master plan for Howard University in Washington, DC, and personally designed 11 of the buildings on the campus, all now designated historic landmarks; he also taught at the university. A visionary, he conceived of a plan for a self sufficient African-American community named Clavert Town, along the lines of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Broadacare City, which was never realized.

George Washington Foster (1866 - 1923) Studied at the Cooper Union in 1888 and worked for Daniel Burnham on the in , a historic landmark. Formed an important and profitable practice with that included the design of a mansion for the first African-American female millionaire, Madam C. J. Walker.

James H. Garrott (1897 - 1991) Son of one of the builders of the Tuskegee Chapel, Garrott was trained at USC and opened his practice in LA in 1928. Most of his work was modernist and included churches, houses, apartment and medical buildings and civic structures.

John Lankford (1876 - 1946) The first African-American architect with a significant independent practice, which he built in Washington, DC with his brother Henry. Designed numerous buildings

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Howard Hamilton Mackey (1901 - 1987) One of the founders of the Howard University School of Architecture. Received his Bachelor of Architecture from University of Pennsylvania. Curated at Howard the first exhibition of African-American architects held in any country in 1931. His honorable mention entry into the 1930 design competition for a War Memorial for Chicago was described by the Washington Post in 1931 as “really imaginative and modernistic in style...It is a beautiful plan”.

William A. Rayford (1874 - 1941) Attended Howard University and graduated from Pratt Institute in New York in 1899. Headed the Tuskegee architectural and mechanical drawing division after Robert Taylor. A contributor to Taylor’s textbook on mechanical drawing, he specialized in commercial and church design in the growing African American community of DC.

Hilyard Robert Robinson (1899 - 1986) Received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture and Masters of Science from Columbia University. Worked in the office of Vertner Woodson Tandy as an intern while in school. Began his office in 1930. Designed eight buildings on Howard University’s campus. Partnered for some time with Paul R. Williams. Designed “Howard City”, an unrealized plan for the development of housing and commercial projects in the areas surrounding Howard University in 1933. First African-American to design a Federal Public Housing project, his Langston Terrace Homes won several awards. Also first known joint venture between a black and white architectural firm on a federal project.

Vertner Woodson Tandy (1885 - 1949) The first African-American to graduate from Cornell University, in 1907, and the first African-American to become registered in the state of New York. Also a founder of the oldest Greek letter fraternity for African-Americans, Fraternity, Incorporated, in 1906, which includes as its members, Andrew Young, Martin Luther King, Paul Robeson and others. In partnership with , he designed the St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in and several residences in the and Mt. Vernon area.

Robert R. Taylor (1868 - 1942) Valedictorian of his 1892 class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Became the director of Mechanical Industries at Tuskegee Institute and trained the first formally educated group of African-American architects. He also

E V I D E N C E O F T H I N G S U N S E E N . . . A FR IC AN -A MER IC A N A R CH ITEC TS AN D B U ILD ERS (A Collective Working Document) 3 of 12 designed the majority of the buildings on the campus, which now has historic designation. He also had a private practice in Birmingham, AL and published a textbook on mechanical drawing.

Charles “Cap” Wigington (1883 - 1967) The first licensed African-American architect in Minnesota and the first African- American municipal architect in the nation, he was a man of extraordinary creativity who helped define Saint Paul’s architectural character. During the pre- World War II building boom, Wigington designed an array of public buildings – schools, golf clubhouses, fire stations, park buildings and airports. He also created designs for six of the fabled Winter Carnival ice palaces of the 30’s and 40’s.

Paul R. Williams (1894 - 1980) Once called “the most successful Negro artist in the United States” by Life magazine in 1950, Williams was a graduate of USC and built a remarkable practice in Los Angeles designing homes for Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Cary Grant and others. He also designed a number of Los Angeles’ symbolic and landmark structures such as the original main terminal of Los Angeles International Airport and the Beverly Hill Hotel.

John Louis Wilson, Jr. (1898 - 19??) John Louis Wilson was the first African-American to graduate from Columbia University in 1928. Worked in the office of Vertner Woodson Tandy and George Foster (also African-American architects). Designed the country’s first federally funded housing community, the landmark Harlem River Houses in New York City, favorably critiqued in its time by Louis Mumford. Founded, in 1957, the Council for the Advancement of the Negro in Architecture (NACA), Wilson later became chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission for the American Institute of Architects New York chapter. He became a Fellow in the AIA in 1972.

Note: A much, much more through documentation of these and other important African- American architects and builders can be found in the Dictionary of African American Architects 1865 – 1990 edited by Dreck Wilson and Dr. Wesley Henderson from Rizzoli Press. A must purchase for anyone interested in this topic.

E V I D E N C E O F T H I N G S U N S E E N . . . A FR IC AN -A MER IC A N A R CH ITEC TS AN D B U ILD ERS (A Collective Working Document) 4 of 12 APPENDIX II

AN EMBARASSING INCOMPLETE LISTING OF PUBLICATIONS BY OR ABOUT AFRICAN- AMERICAN ARCHITECTS…

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND COLLECTIONS • Ellen Weiss, Ph.D. “An Annotated Bibliography on African-American Architects and Builders”. Society of Architectural Historians. (1993).

• Bradford Grant and Dennis Alan Mann, ed. Directory of African American Architects. (Cincinnati: University of Cincinnati Center for the Study and Practice of Architecture, 1995).

ARTICLES AND ESSAYS: • Michael H. Adams. 1. “A Legacy of Shadows”. Progressive Architecture 72. (February 1991). 2. “The Incomparable success of Paul R. Williams”. African American Architects in Current Practice. Jack Travis, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).

• L. D. Ashmore, "Lecture Highlights the Work of Black Architects." Montgomery Advertiser. Sunday, 17 Oct. 1993.

• Betty Bird. 1. “A Hidden Legacy: The Work of African-American Architects in the District of Columbia, 1876 - 1940”. Historical Studies Conference Proceedings. (Washington DC, 1994) 2. “African-American Architects in Washington DC: Strategies for Survival in a Segregated Society”. Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians Proceedings. (Washington DC, 1994).

• J. Max Bond. “The Black Architect’s Experience”. Architectural Record. (June 1992).

• Keith Bradsher. “A Rich Museum and its Poor Cousin”. An article on the Museum of African-American History in Detroit. New York Times. The Living Arts. Wednesday, May 28, 1997.

E V I D E N C E O F T H I N G S U N S E E N . . . A FR IC AN -A MER IC A N A R CH ITEC TS AN D B U ILD ERS (A Collective Working Document) 5 of 12 • Curt Brown. “A Life by Design”. An article on Clarence Wigington. Minneapolis Star Tribune. Variety. Section E. Wednesday, February 25, 1998.

• Richard K. Dozier, D.Arch. 1. “The Black Architectural Experience in America”. AIA Journal 65. (July 1976) 2. “Black Architects”. Black Enterprise. (1976). Also see African American Architects in Current Practice.

• L. K. Downing. "The Negro in the Professions of Engineering and Architecture." Journal of Negro Education. 67. (June, 1935).

• David W. Dunlap. “Black Architects Struggling for Equity”. New York Times. Real Estate. Sunday, December 4, 1994.

• Nikki Giovanni. “Architecture”. Racism 101. (NYC: William Morrow & Co., 1994).

• Bradford Grant. “Accommodation and Resistance: The Built Environment and the African-American Experience”. Reconstructing Architecture: Critical Discourses and Social Practices. Thomas A. Dutton and Lian Hurst Mann, ed. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996).

• Richard Greer. “The Plight of Minority Architects: They remain painfully underrepresented in the profession and the schools”. Architecture 74. (January 1985).

• Linda Groat. "Architecture's Resistance to Diversity: A Matter of Theory as Much as Practice". Journal of Architectural Education. (September, 1993). v. 47 no.1.

• Karima A. Haynes. “The Rich Legacy of a Black Architect”. Ebony. (March 1994).

• Wesley Henderson, Ph.D. “Invisibility”. CITY: Issues of African American Urban Space. (Spring 1994). Graphika Design Publications.

• bell hooks. “Black Vernacular: Architecture as Cultural Practice” and “Architecture in Black Life: Talking Space with LaVerne Wells-Bowie”. Art on my Mind. (New York: The New Press, 1995).

• Nick Lackeos. “McKenzie's Work Filling a Void." Montgomery Advertiser. Sunday, 9 Feb. 1992.

• Dennis Alan Mann. “Making Connections: The African-American Architect”. Journal of the Interfaith forum on Religion, Art and Architecture. (Fall 1993).

E V I D E N C E O F T H I N G S U N S E E N . . . A FR IC AN -A MER IC A N A R CH ITEC TS AN D B U ILD ERS (A Collective Working Document) 6 of 12 • Florence Murray. Negro Handbook 1944. (New York: Current Reference Publications, 1944).

• National Organization of Minority Architects. NOMA Newsletter. (Washington, DC: National Organization of Minority Architects).

• Charles Pohlmann. “A Man of Commitment: Lonnie O. Atkins, Architect and Engineer 1924-1971”. Journal of the Interfaith forum on Religion, Art and Architecture. (Fall 1993).

• William Quinn. 1. “Architects and architecture: The black tradition”. Tuesday Magazine. (September 1972). 2. “The black architect coming into his own”. Tuesday Magazine. (October 1972).

• Clement Richardson. National Encyclopedia of the Colored Race. (Montgomery: National Publishing Company, 1919). vol. 1, p. 494.

• "Real Builders of Tuskegee," Tuskegee Alumni Bulletin. vol. 2. (Jan.-March 1915).

• Sharon Sutton. "Architects & Power". Progressive Architecture. (May, 1993).

• Jack Travis. “African-American Architecture: From Idea to Published Product”. Journal of Architectural Education. (September 1993).

• Ellen Weiss, Ph.D. 1. “Robert Taylor of Tuskegee: An Early Professional Architect in Alabama” The Preservation Report. Alabama Historical Commission. (April 1989), 2. “Robert R. Taylor: An Early Black American Architect”. Arris, Journal of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians. (1991) 3. “The Structure of Slavery”, a book review of Back of the Big House in Design Book Review. (1995).

• Donna Whittingham-Barnes. “Blueprints for Success”. Black Enterprise. (February 1991).

• Cornel West. 1. “Notes on Race and Architecture”. Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America. (New York: Routledge, 1993) 2. “On Architecture?” Appendx: Culture/Theory/Praxis. (1997).

E V I D E N C E O F T H I N G S U N S E E N . . . A FR IC AN -A MER IC A N A R CH ITEC TS AN D B U ILD ERS (A Collective Working Document) 7 of 12 • Craig L. Wilkins, Ph.D. 1. “History of Southern University School of Architecture”. African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary 1865 - 1945. Dreck Wilson and Wesley Henderson, Ph.D., eds. (New York: Routledge, 2004). 2. “Beyond the Pale: Architecture’s Authorization of Class and Racial Bias”. Part I, II and III. Blacklines. (Fall 2000, Winter & Spring 2001). 3. “(W)Rapped Space: The Architecture of Hip Hop”. Journal of Architectural Education. (Fall, 2000). 4. “The Space In-between Sight and Touch”. Dichotomy: The Journal of the University of Detroit School of Architecture. (Spring, 2000). 5. “A Style That Nobody Can Deal With: Notes from the Hip Hop Doo Bop Inn”. International Review of African-American Art. Hampton Museum. (Spring, 1995). 6. “Endnotes” and “Can’t We All Just Get A Long...Island Iced Tea?” CITY: Issues of African American Urban Space (Spring, 1994).

• “Women in Architecture: Alberta J. Cassell Butler.” Homes of Color. (March/April, 2003).

• Dell Upton. “Afro-Americans”. America’s Architectural Roots: Ethnic groups that built America. (Washington, D.C.: The Preservation Press, 1986).

BOOKS: • Craig E. Barton, ed. Sites of Memory: Perspectives on Architecture and Race. (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001). Barton, an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Virginia, brought together 10 essays from a diverse group of architects, theorists and historians that explore the social and cultural effects of race on the development of the American landscape, architectural manifestations and urban environments through the lens of race and black cultural identity.

• David Brown. Noise Orders: Jazz, Improvisation, and Architecture. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006). Brown, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Illinois Chicago locates jazz music within the broad aesthetic, political, and theoretical upheavals of our time, asserting that modern architecture and urbanism in particular can be strongly influenced and defined by the ways that improvisation is facilitated in jazz. Noise Orders identifies how architecture can respond to the inclusive dynamics of extemporaneous movements, variable conceptions of composition, multiple durations, and wide manipulation of resources found in jazz to enable outcomes that far exceed a design’s seeming potential.

E V I D E N C E O F T H I N G S U N S E E N . . . A FR IC AN -A MER IC A N A R CH ITEC TS AN D B U ILD ERS (A Collective Working Document) 8 of 12 • Darrell W. Fields. Architecture in Black. (London; New Brunswick, NJ: Athlone Press, 2000 - Distributed by Transaction Publishers, 2000.) This book – which is a refinement of his 1995 doctoral dissertation – attempts to realign what he describes as fundamental concepts between race and architecture. His argument works to reveal the inherently biased actual construction of the “natural” racial subject by examining – through the works of G.W.F. Hegel, Ferdinand de Sassure and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. – the influence of that essentialized subject within the discipline and discourse of architecture.

• David Hughes. Afrocentric Architecture. (Columbus: Greyden Press, 1994). Hughes, a Fulbright Scholar, has done extensive research into the African origins of architectural principles and their transmission through the ages and appearance in the Americas. This polemical work attempts to address the historical positioning of people of color outside the development of Western architectural thought by uncovering and documenting the existence of architectural philosophies and principles conceived by Africans independent of the influence of European concepts that have been adopted and incorporated into Western architectural theory and practice.

• Karen Hunter. Paul R. Williams, Architect: A Legacy of Style and The Will and the Way: Paul R Williams, Architect. (New York: Rizzoli Publishers, 1994). Hunter, the granddaughter of Paul Williams, arguably the most prolific and recognized African-American architect to date, has documented the work and life of her grandfather with a combination of texts from his personal papers, recollections of his family and friends and photos and drawings of his design work. Historically important for its subject matter, it reveals much about the influences and motivation of Williams.

• Victoria Kaplan. Structural Inequality: Black Architects in the United States. (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006). Kaplan relates the stories of twenty black architects from around the United States to examine the sociological context of architectural practice. Through these experiences, research, and observation, she explores the role systemic racism plays in an occupation commonly referred to as the white gentlemen's profession. Given the shifting demographics of the United States, Kaplan demonstrates that it is incumbent on the profession to act now to create a multicultural field of practitioners who mirror the changing client base.

• Lesley Naa Norles Lokko. White Papers, Black Marks: Architecture, Race and Culture. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001). Lokko, assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, has collected 12 essays from educators, practitioners and theorists – black and white, young and old – that focus on the various ways race and architecture are conjoined. These essays take on a variety of issues from several disciplinary and non-disciplinary perspectives, interrogating the topic of race and architecture that range from the theoretical to the practical, from the informational to the educational, including Victorian Attitudes to Racial Hierarchy, Black Spatial Identity, Apartheid Urban Development, Aboriginal

E V I D E N C E O F T H I N G S U N S E E N . . . A FR IC AN -A MER IC A N A R CH ITEC TS AN D B U ILD ERS (A Collective Working Document) 9 of 12 identity, and the subsequent formal development of educational space, drawing, to the racially polarized profession of architecture in South Africa.

• Melvin Mitchell. The Crisis of the African-American Architect: Conflicting Cultures of Architecture and (Black) Power. (Lincoln: Writers Club Press, 2001). Mitchell, former director of the architecture and planning program at , has published a polemic about what he sees as the connections between architecture power and the Black architect. Based on historical, theoretical and practical documentation, he offers both reasons for existing conditions and strategies for changing the current circumstances of the black architect.

• David Vasser Taylor. Cap Wigington: An Architectural Legacy in Ice and Stone. (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002). Taylor, a historian and member of the Wigington circle of friends, carefully chronicles the cultural, social and architectural legacy of the nation’s first African-American municipal architect – the chief architect for the city of St. Paul, Minnesota between the years of 1915 and 1946.

• Jack Travis, editor. African American Architects in Current Practice. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991). Travis, a practicing architect in New York, has put together a monograph of thirty- two African-American architects currently practicing in the United States. The contents of the book include a biography, statement of personal philosophy, and photo documentation of architectural work for each. It also includes several essays that speak to the historical, cultural and current relevance of the African-American practitioner.

• Dreck Wilson & Wesley Henderson, Ph.D., editors. African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary 1865 - 1945. (New York: Routledge, 2004). Wilson, a landscape architect and historian by profession, is currently compiling an anthology of essays from academics, scholars, practitioners and historians concerning the history of African-American architects, builders, educators and institutions – both collectively and individually – from the 1800’s to today.

JOURNALS

No longer in publication: • Darrell W. Fields, Milton S. F. Curry and Kevin Fuller, editors. AppendX. (New York: Rizzoli Publishers). AppendX is an annually published academic journal of architecture and culture.

• Kathleen Ettienne, Atim Annette Oton and Shella Cadet, editors. Blacklines. (New York: Blacklines of Architecture, Inc. Publishers).

E V I D E N C E O F T H I N G S U N S E E N . . . A FR IC AN -A MER IC A N A R CH ITEC TS AN D B U ILD ERS (A Collective Working Document) 10 of 12 Blacklines is a quarterly published journal dedicated to the architectural and interior design work and concerns of theorists, educators, historians and practitioners of African descent.

In current publication: • Kathryn Anthony and Bradford Grant, ed. “Gender and Multiculturalism in Architectural Education”. Journal of Architectural Education. Special Issue. (September 1993).

• Paolo Tombesi and Craig L. Wilkins, ed. “Race, Space and Globalization.” Journal of Architectural Education. Special Issue. (Fall 2005).

DISSERTATIONS AND THESES Available from UMI Dissertation Services in Ann Arbor, MI 48106. 800-521-0600

• Carson Anderson. The Architectural Practice of Vertner Woodson Tandy: An Evaluation of the Professional and Social Position of a Black Architect. MA Thesis. (University of Virginia, 1982).

• Alexander O. Boulton, Ph.D. The Architecture of Slavery: Art, Language and Society in Early Virginia. Doctoral Dissertation. (College of William and Mary, 1991).

• Raymond A. Dalton, Ph.D. Admission, Retention and Support Service of African-American Architecture Students: A National Survey. Doctoral Dissertation. (Purdue University, 1990).

• Richard Dozier, D.Arch. Booker T. Washington’s Contribution to the Education of Black Architects. Doctoral Dissertation. (University of Michigan. 1989).

• Harrison Mosley Etheridge, Ph.D. The Black Architects of Washington, DC 1900 - Present. Doctoral Dissertation. (The Catholic University of America, 1979).

• Darrell Wayne Fields, Ph.D. Architecture and the Black Subject: An Ethno-Historic Reconstruction. Doctoral Dissertation. (Harvard University, 1995).

• Mark Jeffery Hardwick. African-American Architecture in Langston, OK. MA Thesis. (University of Delaware, 1994).

• Wesley Henderson, Ph.D. Two Case Studies of African-American Architects’ Careers in Los Angeles, 1890-1945: Paul Williams, FAIA and James Garrott, AIA. Doctoral Dissertation. (University of California at Los Angeles, 1992).

E V I D E N C E O F T H I N G S U N S E E N . . . A FR IC AN -A MER IC A N A R CH ITEC TS AN D B U ILD ERS (A Collective Working Document) 11 of 12 • Arthur Lee Symes, D.Arch. Architecture and the Black Community: Towards the Development of a Relevant Architectural Education. Doctoral Dissertation. (University of Michigan, 1976).

1 This document is a work in progress. It is not intended to be a comprehensive survey of the published or unpublished documentation of African-Americans in the field of architecture. There is a much more worthy and comprehensive project by Dreck Wilson and Dr. Wesley Henderson entitled “Encyclopedia of African-American Architects and Builders” that attempts top do just this. This particular document developed out of a personal project begun by Dr. Wilkins about 3 years ago.

In addition, while the document, as is, has largely been compiled through the work of Dr. Wilkins, it is not intended to be a proprietary document. It, like most African-American cultural production, is fluid, adaptive and additive. In essence, this means that as it passes through the hands of those who have an interest in this project, it should grow exponentially until the question of authorship – and ownership – becomes irrelevant.

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