Viewing page 1 of 2

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

D.C. 4 Thursday, December 15, 1983 The Washington Post

Howard Conference A Rallying for Black Female Architects

By Nancy Anita Williams
Special to The Washington POst

"When I was in architecture school at syracus University in the early 1970s, I was the only black female there," said Renee Kemp-Rotan, now an architecture instructor at Howard University. "I didn't think there were any more like me around."

Since then, Kemp-Rotan has sought out and met others of this rare breed. Two weeks ago, she organized a one-day conference at Howard University that brought together about 100 black female architects, apprentices and students from all around the country to exchange stories of isolation, racism and sexism. 

"This is the first national gathering of minority women in architecture in this country," Kemp-Rotan said. "We have our seniors, our elders here, those who have preceeded us. We have a lot of sharing to do."

For more than nine hours the standing-room-only audience listened raptly as speakers and panelists discussed the problems confronting black female architects. During the morning and afternoon coffee breaks small groups formed in a nearby "Chat Room," with students hearing reminiscences and advice from working architects.

No black female architects were licensed in the United States until 1954 when Norma Merricak Sklarek, the conference's keynote speaker, received her certification in New York. 

Nearly 30 years later less than 200 black woman are registered architects, said Toni R. Cook, associate dean at Howard's School of Architecture and Planning and the only black female associate dean of architecture in the country. 

"The profession has locked out black women" Cook said. For example, the American Institute of Architects has created task forces on women and minorities but neither panel has a black women member, Cook said.

"We are at the bottom," she added.

Theodore S. Mariani, vice president of the American Institute of Architects, gave a brief welcoming to the group. 

The pioneering Sklarek, now vice president and principal designer for Welton Beckett Associates of California, told the group, "Prejudice is mostly focused against women, period. Being black adds another dimension, and upward mobility and advancement may be the most difficult problem black women architects may face."

Later she said, "We have dared to enter a field that is controlled and dominated by white males."

Sklarek, during her 35-year practice, has supervised such projects as the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, the city hall for San Bernardino, Calif., and most recently, a multimillion-dollar commuter terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.

She reminded the audience of her early days. After working six years for Gruen Associates, another large California architectural firm, she was appointed director of architecture.

"But this was only after they had advertised all over the country, trying to find somebody, anybody else and I was right here all the time," she said.

She was born and raised in Harlem and her father, a doctor and her mother, a housewife, encouraged her to become an architect.

"They wanted me to be a professional, but I was not interested in the traditional careers like medicine," she recalled. "I couldn't stand the sight of blood.

She was one of the two women who graduated from the Colombia University School of Architecture in 1950. "That was a time when there was a quota system," she said. "Only 2 percent of the class was supposed to be women." 

Cook said "the 200 schools of architecture accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board Incorporated graduate only about eight black women a year."

That number would dwindle to two "if it weren't for the black schools of architecture, Howard, Hampton Institute Tuskegee Institute and Southern University," she said.

Several women attending the conference agreed. Jocelyn Jones said she had been one of two black women in the 1982 class at the University of Notre Dame and Sandra Robinson and she was the only black woman graduate in 1980 from the school of architecture at the University of Maryland. Both now work as apprentice architects with Baltimore firms.

Some of the women said they had encountered sexual harassment at the office because men dominate their profession. Cynthia Johnson, 31, who works for the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs said, "Some male coworkers kept asking me to 'lunch' at their apartments. I kept saying no and finally most if stopped. You have to stand on your competency."

Laura Ericson, 48, a construction coordinator, said she had lucky to work for black firms and "they have been supportive of women architects."

When the long day of exchanging ideas, suggestions, news of jobs, telephone numbers and addresses had ended, Johnson summed up the feelings of many of the women, saying: "I'm glad this has finally happened. It's good to know you are not the only one around."