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Los Angeles Times - ARCHITECT: Partner ship in West Los Angeles Continued from Page 38 approach, Sklarek has proved that enough ambition combined with a good deal of gritty success. Her lists of credits include the 360,000-square-foot Terminal One building at LAX, the Pacific Design Center, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and Fox Plaza in San Francisco. And now Sklarek and architects Katherine Diamond and Margot Siegel are trying to make further inroads. Earlier this year they formed what is believed to be the nation’s largest female-owned architectural firm. For Sklarek, a talkative, articulate woman whose enthusiasm for her profession is obvious, the road from Harlem to the Palisades has been a long and interesting one. “I always knew that I as going to have some kind of profession,” said Sklarek, whose father was a doctor. “Medicine and law did not appeal to me, so my parents suggested architecture because of my interest in art and my ability in math and science. I agreed, though I knew hardly anything about it. And as it turns out it was a good decision.” At Columbia, she was one of less than a half a dozen women to study architecture. “It wasn’t that they didn’t have any interest,” she said. “Most women applied and were simply rejected, even if they had better qualifications than the men. It was obvious that most of the schools had a strict quota systems. They thought, ‘Why waste space of a woman who is eventually going to give up the profession to get married and have babies?’” And for those women who were admitted, the conditions were not always pleasant. Professors, she said, sometimes made fun of female students, ridiculed them when they asked questions and passed men on exams while failing women who had higher grades. Nevertheless, Sklarek was graduated with high marks and promptly passed her license exam on the first try. She went to work for the internationally known New York firm of SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), and began rising through the ranks. Meanwhile, she married architect Rolf Sklarek and had two children. “I had the babies, just as they had predicted at school,” she said in a sarcastic tone. “But I didn’t stay home. They went off to nursery school and I went off to work.” Evenings, meanwhile, were typically occupied by teaching classes at local community colleges or adult schools. “It wasn’t easy trying to juggle a career, a family and work evenings, too,” she said. “But I just looked at it as something that was necessary. After working at SOM for 10 years, Skarlek decided that a change was in order. Tired of the New York winters, subways, noise and hassle, she pulled up stakes and moved to Los Angeles. In 1962, she became the first black woman to become a licensed architect in California, and soon thereafter went to work at Gruen Associates, where she immediately began to score points for her earnest approach to the profession. “I knew I had to work more diligently than others because I was so highly visible. If two men were talking, nobody would pay attention. But if I were talking to someone, everybody would immediately think I was socializing. So, as a result, I didn’t encourage any discussion during business hours. I worked very hard and produced more than most of my colleagues. And that was something they noticed.” In fact, because she had to drive her children to school every day, she often found herself in the office a half an hour early-something that she believes worked to her advantage. “I would start working and when Victor Gruen would walk through the office I would be the only one he would see. He didn’t know the real reason and I wasn’t about to tell him.” During the 20 years she spent at Gruen, Sklarek worked her way up to director of architecture for the firm. She oversaw the building of several large shopping. Centers as well as the Design Center and the embassy in Tokyo. When she left the job in 1982, it was to pursue equally ambitious goals. As Vice President of Walton Becket Associates, she was responsible for the massive Terminal One complex at LAX. Yet while all this was going on, Sklarek felt like she needed another change. So, when Katherine Diamond, who trained in Israel before returning to her native United States, approached her with the idea of an all-woman partnership, Sklarek viewed it as yet another interesting challenge. Earlier this year, along with Margot Siegel, who previously ran her own Los Angeles firm, the three set up shop in a new building on Santa Monica Boulevard. How do men interact with three female architects? “We sometimes have to do a lot more work in order to get projects,” Sklarek said. “Initially, many men are more skeptical of working with female architects, simply because they haven’t done so in the past. But once they see we are highly professional and qualified, they become more receptive.” Two decades ago, she said, such would not have been possible. At that time, three female architects probably would have been involved only in residential remodeling projects and small commercial ventures. But times have changes. “The challenge now is to put this office on par with some of the city’s other top firms. We want to achieve architectural prominence.” Sklarek’s interests go beyond expensive, high-powered projects, however. She remains genuinely concerned about the lack of women and minorities in her profession. “Architecture is not terribly lucrative,” she said. “Most women and minorities that are going to spend so much time obtaining a profession are probably going to opt for something like law or medicine.”