Norma Merrick Sklarek

Norma Merrick Sklarek

Norma Merrick Sklarek (born April 15, 1928 in Harlem , New York City , † February 6, 2012 in Pacific Palisades , Los Angeles , California ) was an American architect . She was the first licensed African American architect in the United States.

Live and act

Norma Merrick Sklarek attended Hunter College High School and later studied architecture at Barnard College and Columbia University , where she graduated in 1950. Four years later, in 1954, she was the first African-American woman in the USA to ever receive a license to practice as an architect in New York. She received another license for California in 1962 . Since she couldn't find a job at first, she worked for the New York Department of Public Works . She later worked for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and became the first African American architecture director for Gruen and Associates in Los Angeles . After two decades, she left the company and founded her own architecture firm, Siegel, Sklarek, Diamond , also the first African-American woman.

From 1980 to 1985 Sklarek worked for Welton Becket Associates and managed the work at Terminal One at Los Angeles International Airport .

In 1980 she became the first African American woman to become a member of the American Institute of Architects . After retiring, she worked for the California Architects Board . The Howard University donated, giving it the honor Norma Merrick Sklarek Architectural Scholarship Award .

Designed buildings

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  San Bernardino City Hall

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  US Embassy in Tokyo, Japan

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  Fox Plaza, San Francisco

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Norma Merrick Sklarek - First Black Woman to Become a US Architect . Architecture.about.com. April 15, 1928. Retrieved February 11, 2012.
2. ^ Pioneering African American architect , latimes.com