In his keynote address to the AIA National Convention in Portland, Ore., Whitney M. Young Jr., head of the National Urban League, challenges architects on issues relating to social responsibility and diversity within the profession
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
The AIA and the American Architectural Foundation establish the AIA/AAF Minority Disadvantaged Scholarship, supporting some 20 students per year. In 2014, it is renamed the “Diversity Advancement Scholarship.”
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
A group of 12 black architects meet at the AIA Convention in Detroit and establish the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA):
William Brown,
Leroy Campbell,
Wendell Campbell,
John Chase,
James Dodd,
Kenneth Groggs,
Nelson Harris,
Jeh Johnson,
E.H. McDowell,
Robert Nash,
Harold Williams, and
Robert Wilson
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Following the death of Whitney Young in 1971, the AIA creates an award in his honor to recognize architects and organizations engaged in relevant social issues. The first recipient is NOMA co-founder
Robert Nash.
New York architect Judith Edelman founds the Alliance of Women in Architecture.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
New York architect Judith Edelman founds the Alliance of Women in Architecture.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
At the AIA Convention in San Francisco, delegates pass a resolution that “the AIA take action to integrate women into all aspects of the profession as full participants.”
The AIA hires black architect Robert Coles, FAIA, as deputy vice president for minority affairs, to develop “a master plan for minority awareness” in concert with Leon Bridges, FAIA, and Marshall Purnell, FAIA, to establish the Commission on Community Services.
Judith Edelman, as head of the newly formed AIA Task Force on Women in Architecture, presents a report showing that only 1.2 percent of registered U.S. architects are women. At the time, only coal miners and steelworkers have a lower proportion.
Edelman (1923–2014) was a pioneer for women in architecture. In 1973, she had challenged the AIA to help, co-authoring a resolution, “Status of Women in the Architectural Profession.” The preamble noted, “In society at large we are in the midst of a struggle for women’s rights brought into sharp focus by the current feminist movement. AIA and the architectural profession have not responded to this climate of change.”
But there was, too, her acumen and legacy as an architect. With Stanley Salzman and her husband Harold Edelman, she founded Edelman Sultan Knox Wood / Architects. While much of the coverage on Edelman over the years focused on her advocacy, and rightly so, her politics and activism carried over into the types of projects she championed and designed, notably affordable housing.
Edelman opened doors for people both through her architecture and activism, says her friend Beverly Willis, FAIA. “We, as women, and the profession as a whole owe her a great deal of gratitude.”
—Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
In the [AIA] national membership, there are 24,000 men and 300 women, a pretty appalling statistic. In 1970, women represented 3.5 percent of the 56,214 practicing architects in the US.
—Ada Louise Huxtable, “The Letterhead is Solidly Male,” The New York Times , May 19, 1974
Katrin Adam, Phyllis Birkby, Ellen Perry Berkeley, Bobbie Sue Hood, FAIA, Marie Kennedy, Joan Sprague, and Leslie Kanes Weisman establish the Women’s School of Planning and Architecture.
The Architectural League of New York, through its recently established Archive of Women in Architecture, organizes “Women in American Architecture: A Historic and Contemporary Perspective,” curated by Susana Torre, in conjunction with a book by the same name.
The Aga Khan IV establishes the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, celebrating architecture, landscape, and urbanism for Islamic societies.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
The Aga Khan IV establishes the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, celebrating architecture, landscape, and urbanism for Islamic societies.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: Asian Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Norma Merrick Sklarek, becomes the first black woman to be elevated to the AIA College of Fellows. When Sklarek (1926–2012) achieved licensure in 1954, she was the third African-American woman—after Georgia Louise Harris Brown and Beverly Loraine Greene—in the history of the profession in the U.S. to attain the certification. However, this is one of only a few instances when Sklarek was not “the first” during her trailblazing career.
In 1950, she graduated from Columbia University as the first black woman to earn a B.Arch. degree, and four years later, she became the first African-American woman to be licensed in her home state of New York. In 1960, after five years working for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Sklarek moved to Los Angeles to work for Gruen Associates, where she became the firm’s first female and first black director. (She was also the first African-American woman to be licensed in California.)
In 1980, Sklarek was the first African-American woman to be elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects; and in 1985, Sklarek became the first African-American woman to form and run an architecture practice when she co-founded Siegel-Sklarek-Diamond with Margot Siegel, AIA, and Katherine Diamond, FAIA. She spent the last four years of her career as a principal at the Jerde Partnership.
But trailblazing did not come without its complications. Prior to Sklarek’s hiring at SOM, she received 19 job application rejections and was forced to take a junior draftsperson job in the New York State Department of Public Works. During her time with Gruen Associates, Sklarek was initially under intense scrutiny. In her later career, she told a story of carpooling with a white, male colleague who was often late: “It took only one week before the boss came and spoke to me about being late. Yet he had not noticed that the young man had been late for two years. My solution was to buy a car since I, the highly visible employee, had to be punctual.”
—Katharine Keane
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Hispanic/Latin Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
I.M. Pei, FAIA, wins the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the first person of Asian descent to do so.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Chicago-based Arquitectos, The Society of Hispanic Professional Architects is established.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Asian Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Hispanic/Latin Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Hispanic/Latin Male
“In the last two decades, the number of architects in the U.S., according to Labor Department statistics, has roughly doubled. The number of female architects, less than 1,500 in 1970, now approaches 5,000. The number of black architects has grown from about 1,000 to 2,000, remaining at about 2 percent of the total.”
—Robert Coles, FAIA, “Black Architects: An Endangered Species,” Progressive Architecture, July 1989
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
—Robert Coles, FAIA, “Black Architects: An Endangered Species,” Progressive Architecture, July 1989
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
President George H.W. Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act, in part because of the groundbreaking work of Ronald Mace (1941–1998). Mace, who used a wheelchair after contracting polio at age 9, was a pioneer in the field of accessible design. A 1966 graduate of the design school at North Carolina State University, he “completed school as the result of the tenacity of my family,” he later wrote. “They devoted a large portion of their lives for the six years I was in school to ensure that I was carried whenever necessary through an inaccessible, and even hostile, environment. There was neither assistance nor accommodation made.”
The experience helped inspire the work that become his calling. In 1973, he helped develop an accessible-building code for North Carolina—the first of its kind in the U.S. and a model for other states. He was also instrumental in the passage of the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, which prevented discrimination based on disabilities.
In a speech he gave at a universal design conference in 1998, just a month before his death, Mace was still working to spur change: “We tend to discount people who are less than what we popularly consider to be ‘normal.’ To be ‘normal’ is to be perfect, capable, competent, and independent. Unfortunately, designers in our society also mistakenly assume that everyone fits this definition of ‘normal.’ This is just not the case.”
"—Eric Wills
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Bradford Grant, AIA, and Dennis Alan Mann publish the first edition of the Directory of African American Architects.
Bryan Bell, AIA, founds Design Corps, a nonprofit that brings design to underserved communities.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Bryan Bell, AIA, founds Design Corps, a nonprofit that brings design to underserved communities.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Meeting in Indiana, the new AIA Diversity Task Force develops the “New Harmony Accords,” advancing the premise that the “organization commands strength in proportion to its inclusiveness.”
Philadelphia architect Susan Maxman, FAIA, becomes the AIA’s first woman president since its founding in 1857.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Publication of Paul R. Williams Architect: A Legacy of Style (Karen E. Hudson, Rizzoli) reintroduces the pioneering work of the legendary African-American architect.
In Atlanta, a joint meeting of the AIA Diversity Task Force, the Minority Resources Committee, and the Women in Architecture Committee—who together dub themselves the “Diversity Squadron”—sparks the idea for the first AIA Diversity Conference.
“Design Diaspora: Black Architects and International Architecture 1970–1990,” an exhibit produced by Carolyn Armenta Davis, Hon. AIA, highlights contemporary design by 50 black architects from 11 countries in the Americas, Europe, and Africa, with a 1993–2000 world tour.
Architects Samuel Mockbee and D. K. Ruth found the Rural Studio in Hale County, Ala. The Auburn University studio designs and builds housing and other facilities for poor communities in the area.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Asian Male
AIA membership totaling 41,685 includes 7.3 percent “all minorities,” 10.45 percent women, 0.99 percent minority women.
The AIA’s inaugural Diversity Conference is held in Washington, D.C., with the title, “Breaking the ICE: Building New Leadership.” Six more diversity conferences occur through 2000.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
The AIA’s inaugural Diversity Conference is held in Washington, D.C., with the title, “Breaking the ICE: Building New Leadership.” Six more diversity conferences occur through 2000.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: Hispanic/Latin Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Asian Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Asian Male
Washington, D.C., architect
Raj Barr-Kumar, FAIA, becomes the first AIA president of color.
Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA, becomes first woman to receive the AIA Topaz Medallion.
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA, becomes first woman to receive the AIA Topaz Medallion.
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Publication of the seminal design-theory text Queer Space: Architecture and Same-Sex Desire (William Morrow) by Aaron Betsky.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr found Architecture for Humanity to promote humanitarian design. The nonprofit grows to nearly 60 chapters around the world. Sinclair receives the $100,000 TED Prize in 2006.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: Hispanic/Latin Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureates: White Males
Pritzker Prize Laureates: White Males
Publication of Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession by Kathryn Anthony.
Gordon Chong, FAIA, becomes the first Asian-American AIA president.
Formation of the nonprofit Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, with its mission of “advancing the knowledge and recognition of women’s contributions to architecture.”
AIA Gold Medal Winner: Asian Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
"The thoughtful essays in this publication should move us beyond the lamentations of what ought to have happened in the past 35 years to the kind of substantive action that can change architecture in the coming decades. …
The need to meet market demands, an understanding that different perspectives bring richness to professional discussions, and the simple recognition that intellect, creativity, and hard work are not the exclusive province of white males have diversified law and medicine while architecture has remained largely unchanged.
—Ted Landsmark, “Introduction” to 20 on 20/20 Vision: Perspectives on Diversity and Design [Linda Kiisk, ed.], published by the AIA Diversity Committee and Boston Society of Architects, 2003
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
The need to meet market demands, an understanding that different perspectives bring richness to professional discussions, and the simple recognition that intellect, creativity, and hard work are not the exclusive province of white males have diversified law and medicine while architecture has remained largely unchanged.
—Ted Landsmark, “Introduction” to 20 on 20/20 Vision: Perspectives on Diversity and Design [Linda Kiisk, ed.], published by the AIA Diversity Committee and Boston Society of Architects, 2003
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Zaha Hadid becomes the first woman to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
In 2005, law firm Holland & Knight published a report on diversity at the behest of the AIA, to help establish who was entering the field, who was succeeding, and why. One of the primary findings: At that time, comprehensive demographic data (on race, gender, sexual orientation) didn’t really exist.
The AIA’s own membership numbers cast the issue of diversity in sharp relief: At the end of 2004, approximately 2 percent of its members were Hispanic/Latino, 3 percent were Asian, 1 percent were Black, and 12 percent were women. The report also relied on more than 10,000 responses to a web-based survey, as well as focus groups and in-person interviews, to establish why women and minority architects were leaving the profession.
The responses were, in many cases, all too predictable: Women selected “personal/family circumstances” and “inflexible hours” as their primary reason for not practicing three times as often as the men did. And more than two times as many men as women completed the Intern Development Program in less than three years.
"—Eric Wills
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
The AIA’s own membership numbers cast the issue of diversity in sharp relief: At the end of 2004, approximately 2 percent of its members were Hispanic/Latino, 3 percent were Asian, 1 percent were Black, and 12 percent were women. The report also relied on more than 10,000 responses to a web-based survey, as well as focus groups and in-person interviews, to establish why women and minority architects were leaving the profession.
The responses were, in many cases, all too predictable: Women selected “personal/family circumstances” and “inflexible hours” as their primary reason for not practicing three times as often as the men did. And more than two times as many men as women completed the Intern Development Program in less than three years.
"—Eric Wills
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Hispanic/Latin Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Hispanic/Latin Male
Marshall Purnell, FAIA, becomes the AIA’s first black president.
Leers Weinzapfel Associates is selected as the first woman-owned recipient of the AIA Architecture Firm Award.
The MIT School of Architecture and Planning and the Robert R. Taylor Network convene the conference “Architecture, Race and Academe,” resulting in creation of an online black architects timeline.
“The number of black women architects has quadrupled in 15 years. But four times a fraction of a percent doesn’t amount to much.”
—Hannah McCann, “0.2%,” ARCHITECT, March 2007
Steven Lewis, FAIA, convenes “Perspective: A Symposium on Race and Architecture” at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Only 1.5 percent of America’s architects are African-American (at a time when the U.S. Census Bureau shows that African-Americans comprise approximately 12 to 13 percent of the total population)
—Robert Ivy, FAIA, “Room for All Our Talents,” Architectural Record , May 2008
Norma Sklarek is selected as the first female recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.
“The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reports that in March 2008, 16 percent of firm principals and partners were women, up from 12 percent in 1999. Anecdotally, it is known that most of these female principals and partners are sole proprietors or owners of small firms. This common wisdom is consistent with research studies of managerial demographics in the United States. While women occupy 40 percent of all managerial positions, only 6 percent of the most highly paid executive positions are held by women.”
—Rena Klein, FAIA, “Labyrinth to the Top,” AIA, May 2008
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
—Robert Ivy, FAIA, “Room for All Our Talents,” Architectural Record , May 2008
Norma Sklarek is selected as the first female recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.
“The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reports that in March 2008, 16 percent of firm principals and partners were women, up from 12 percent in 1999. Anecdotally, it is known that most of these female principals and partners are sole proprietors or owners of small firms. This common wisdom is consistent with research studies of managerial demographics in the United States. While women occupy 40 percent of all managerial positions, only 6 percent of the most highly paid executive positions are held by women.”
—Rena Klein, FAIA, “Labyrinth to the Top,” AIA, May 2008
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
The first AIA Women’s Leadership Summit occurs in Chicago.
Adoption of the NOMA/AIA Memorandum of Understanding, and adoption of AIA Diversity Action Plan, 2009–2013, with strategies to “1.) expand the racial/ethnic, gender, and perspective diversity of the design professions to mirror the society we serve; and 2.) nurture emerging professionals and influence a preferred future for the internship process and architecture education.”
Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation releases the documentary A Girl is a Fellow Here: 100 Women Architects in the Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright.
“Across the country, design-centered high schools are helping increase the number of African-Americans and Latinos in the field.”
—James Murdock, “Diversity in Design: The Diversity Pipeline,” Architectural Record , May 2009
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
Adoption of the NOMA/AIA Memorandum of Understanding, and adoption of AIA Diversity Action Plan, 2009–2013, with strategies to “1.) expand the racial/ethnic, gender, and perspective diversity of the design professions to mirror the society we serve; and 2.) nurture emerging professionals and influence a preferred future for the internship process and architecture education.”
Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation releases the documentary A Girl is a Fellow Here: 100 Women Architects in the Studio of Frank Lloyd Wright.
“Across the country, design-centered high schools are helping increase the number of African-Americans and Latinos in the field.”
—James Murdock, “Diversity in Design: The Diversity Pipeline,” Architectural Record , May 2009
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
AIA Board unanimously adopts policy favoring passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act prohibiting discrimination in hiring and employment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
“When [Marshall Purnell, FAIA] became the youngest president of the National Organization of Minority Architects 25 years ago, African-Americans made up just above 1 percent of the profession. Today, a couple of years after he ended a term as the first black president of the American Institute of Architects, the leading trade group for licensed architects, the percentage is no better.”
—Maya Payne Smart, “Building the Pipeline of Minority Architects,” Savoy , Feb. 25, 2010
The National Architectural Accrediting Board’s 2010 “Report on Accreditation in Architecture Education” finds that among full and associate professors in U.S. accredited schools of architecture, 75 percent are male, and 25 percent are female.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureates: Asian Male and Female
“When [Marshall Purnell, FAIA] became the youngest president of the National Organization of Minority Architects 25 years ago, African-Americans made up just above 1 percent of the profession. Today, a couple of years after he ended a term as the first black president of the American Institute of Architects, the leading trade group for licensed architects, the percentage is no better.”
—Maya Payne Smart, “Building the Pipeline of Minority Architects,” Savoy , Feb. 25, 2010
The National Architectural Accrediting Board’s 2010 “Report on Accreditation in Architecture Education” finds that among full and associate professors in U.S. accredited schools of architecture, 75 percent are male, and 25 percent are female.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureates: Asian Male and Female
Architect Barbie makes a controversial debut at the 2011 AIA National Convention in New Orleans. A related contest to design Barbie’s “dream house” causes a similar stir.
“Architect Barbie can’t do all the work. Deeply held attitudes about women must shift before architecture becomes a profession that truly embraces diversity.”
—Despina Stratigakos, “What I Learned from Architect Barbie,” Places Journal , June 13, 2011
“Only 1,444, or 5.3 percent, of the 27,478 students in programs certified by the NAAB identify themselves as black or African-American. The numbers get much smaller as these aspiring architects climb the professional ladder: Of the 104,300 registered architects in the United States, roughly 1,860 of them—less than 2 percent—are black”
—Jenna McKnight, “Why the Lack of Black Students?,” Architectural Record , Nov. 19, 2012
AIA Gold Medal Winner: Asian Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Asian Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Asian Male
According to the NAAB’s “2012 Report on Accreditation in Architecture Education,” women comprise 32 percent of faculty members in accredited schools of architecture, and 43 percent of students in architecture degree programs. The report also documents ethnicity of faculty and students.
AIA San Francisco initiates “The Missing 32%” petition, which leads to the formation of the group Equity by Design. Syracuse University architecture professor Lori Brown, co-founder of the group Architexx, publishes Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women’s Shelters and Hospitals (Routledge).
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Asian Male
AIA San Francisco initiates “The Missing 32%” petition, which leads to the formation of the group Equity by Design. Syracuse University architecture professor Lori Brown, co-founder of the group Architexx, publishes Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women’s Shelters and Hospitals (Routledge).
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Asian Male
Julia Morgan (1872–1957) becomes first woman to receive the AIA Gold Medal.
“Racial and ethnic minorities made large gains in the last decade, and now represent about 20 percent of staff at firms, an increase of 4 percent from 2005. The percentage of minority licensed architects also witnessed a nice bump. Women also made inroads at firms, especially among licensed architects: 26 percent are women, versus 20 percent in 2005. But the percentage of women principals and partners only ticked up slightly.”
—Eric Wills, “Five Key Metrics from the 2014 AIA Firm Survey Report,” Architect , Oct. 17, 2014
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Asian Male
At the 2015 AIA Convention, delegates adopt Resolution 15-1, “Equity in Architecture.”
“Women comprised 38 percent of aspiring architects who completed the IDP in 2014, compared to 25 percent in 2000. Women also accounted for 35 percent of candidates who completed the ARE in 2014, a percentage that has nearly doubled since 2000.”
—Caroline Massie, “NCARB Report: The Architecture Profession Is Growing, Attracting More Women and Minorities,” Architect, June 19, 2015
Architecture for Humanity declares bankruptcy, lays off staff, and closes its San Francisco office. The following year, local chapters form a new organization, Open Architecture Collaborative.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
“Women comprised 38 percent of aspiring architects who completed the IDP in 2014, compared to 25 percent in 2000. Women also accounted for 35 percent of candidates who completed the ARE in 2014, a percentage that has nearly doubled since 2000.”
—Caroline Massie, “NCARB Report: The Architecture Profession Is Growing, Attracting More Women and Minorities,” Architect, June 19, 2015
Architecture for Humanity declares bankruptcy, lays off staff, and closes its San Francisco office. The following year, local chapters form a new organization, Open Architecture Collaborative.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: White Male
The AIA awards the Gold Medal to Robert Venturi, FAIA, and Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA, changing the rules to allow more than one recipient.
“One in five women worldwide say they would not encourage a woman to start a career in architecture.”
—Sabrina Santos, “Women in Architecture’s 2016 Survey Finds widened Gender Disparities,” ArchDaily , Feb. 29, 2016
“The AIA’s Diversity in the Profession of Architecture survey, completed by 7,522 people in 2015, indicates that women and people of color perceive more career obstacles and lower job satisfaction levels.
—Rebecca Seidel, “AIA Releases Results of Diversity Survey,” Architectural Record , March 9, 2016
Joel Sanders, AIA, and Susan Stryker publish “Stalled: Gender-Neutral Public Bathrooms,” responding to the growing “moral panic” over transgender people’s use of public toilets.
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Hispanic/Latin Male
Paul Revere Williams (1894–1980) is the first black person to receive the AIA Gold Medal.
Michael Ford hosts the first Hip Hop Architecture Camp.
Pritzker Prize Laureates: Hispanic/Latin Males and Female
Tamara Eagle Bull, FAIA, is the first Native American woman recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.
In The New York Times, five women accuse AIA gold medalist Richard Meier, FAIA, of sexual misconduct.
AIA New York rescinds 2018 chapter honor awards from Meier and from Peter Marino, FAIA, another architect facing harassment allegations.
Emulating the widely publicized “Shitty Media Men” list, an anonymous #MeToo advocate creates a crowdsourced online spreadsheet titled “Shitty Architecture Men,” where victims detail sexual misconduct allegations against numerous powerful men in the architecture and design industries.
AIA Gold Medal Winner: White Male
Pritzker Prize Laureate: Asian Male
* 1994: Black/African-American is only race or ethnicity BLS reports
** 1998: BLS begins reporting for “Hispanic or Latino”
† 2000-2001: BLS does not release accurate data for 2000–2001
‡ 2003: BLS begins reporting on Asians and adds distinction “excluding naval” for Architects
Diversity in Architecture in 2018 Compared to Other Industries
Demographic | Architectural and Engineering Managers | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 129 | 253 |
Women | 8.7% | 28.6% |
White | 79.7% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 8.3% | 2.1% |
Asian | 11.2% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 6.2% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Civil Engineers | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 461 | 253 |
Women | 14.4% | 28.6% |
White | 82.5% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 6.4% | 2.1% |
Asian | 7.1% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 10.7% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Accountants and auditors | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed, in thousands | 1,804 | 253 |
Women | 60.3% | 28.6% |
White | 79.5% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 8.2% | 2.1% |
Asian | 9.7% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 9.6% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Physicians and Surgeons | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 1079 | 253 |
Women | 40% | 28.6% |
White | 72% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 8.2% | 2.1% |
Asian | 18.1% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 6.8% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Chief Executives | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 1639 | 253 |
Women | 28% | 28.6% |
White | 90% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 3.8% | 2.1% |
Asian | 4.6% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 4.7% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Web Developers | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 204 | 253 |
Women | 32.3% | 28.6% |
White | 82% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 4.5% | 2.1% |
Asian | 9.8% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 5.8% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Lawyers | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 1137 | 253 |
Women | 37.4% | 28.6% |
White | 88.6% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 5.6% | 2.1% |
Asian | 4.4% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 4.8% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Dentists | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 159 | 253 |
Women | 35.8% | 28.6% |
White | 81.6% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 3.7% | 2.1% |
Asian | 13.5% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 4.7% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Aircraft Pilots and Flight Engineers | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 120 | 253 |
Women | 6.2% | 28.6% |
White | 94.9% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 1.8% | 2.1% |
Asian | 1.5% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 8% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Postsecondary Teachers | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 1423 | 253 |
Women | 47% | 28.6% |
White | 77.7% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 8.4% | 2.1% |
Asian | 11.7% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 6.4% | 7.7% |
Demographic | News Analysts, Reporters and Correspondents | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 84 | 253 |
Women | 55.3% | 28.6% |
White | 73% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 13.4% | 2.1% |
Asian | 7.9% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 16.4% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Real Estate Brokers and Sales Agents | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 997 | 253 |
Women | 57.1% | 28.6% |
White | 85.7% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 7.2% | 2.1% |
Asian | 4.8% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 11.5% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Property, Real Estate, and Community Association Managers | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 743 | 253 |
Women | 48.6% | 28.6% |
White | 81.8% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 11.6% | 2.1% |
Asian | 3.5% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 14.4% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Construction Managers | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 1081 | 253 |
Women | 7.4% | 28.6% |
White | 90.2% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 4.9% | 2.1% |
Asian | 2.3% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 12.4% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Construction laborers | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 1946 | 253 |
Women | 3.3% | 28.6% |
White | 85.9% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 8.6% | 2.1% |
Asian | 1.7% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 46.9% | 7.7% |
Demographic | Janitors and Building Cleaners | Architects, Except Naval |
---|---|---|
Total Employed* | 2307 | 253 |
Women | 35.2% | 28.6% |
White | 72.5% | 82.5% |
Black/African-American | 18.6% | 2.1% |
Asian | 3.8% | 14% |
Hispanic/Latino | 31.7% | 7.7% |
Other Stories in the 1968 Feature Section