Today, the BSA is closed in honor of Juneteenth, the commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. As we reflect on the ongoing need to promote greater equity in architecture, we'd like to take the time to honor a few individuals who helped break the color barrier in the field: Robert Robinson Taylor, Paul Revere Williams, and Beverly Loraine Greene.
Taylor was the first black student to enroll at MIT, where he studied architecture. After graduating in 1892 and becoming the first accredited black architect in the United States, Taylor was recruited by Booker T. Washington to work at the Tuskegee Institute, where he designed 25 buildings on campus over the course of his 40 years career. Robinson's contributions were honored with a stamp by the US Postal Service in 2015.
Paul Revere Williams spent most of his career in the Los Angeles area. He became the first black member of the AIA in 1923 and quickly became known as an "architect of the stars," designing homes for Cary Grant, Lucille Ball and Frank Sinatra. Danny Thomas was a client and friend, leading to Williams designing the St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis as a favor to Thomas. In 1957, Williams was elevated to FAIA by the AIA College of Fellows, and he was posthumously awarded the AIA Gold Medal in 2017.
Beverly Loraine Greene is believed to be the first black female architect in the United States, graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1936 with her Bachelor Of Architecture and getting her MArch from Columbia University in 1945. Her work spanned buildings at the University of Arkansas, Sarah Lawrence College and the city of Chicago, as well as multiple projects with Marcel Breuer, including the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
All three of these architects, along with countless others, were instrumental in expanding opportunities for African-Americans in the fields of architecture and design while making lasting contributions to American society as well.
