Archie Alexander

Archie Alexander was an early African-American graduate of the University of Iowa and, in 1912, the first to graduate from the University of Iowa's College of Engineering. In 1954, he was appointed Governor of the United States Virgin Islands by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Wallace Augustus Rayfield

Wallace Augustus Rayfield was born in Macon Georgia and became the second trained and practicing Black architect in the U.S. After graduating from Columbia University in 1899, he was recruited by Booker T. Washington where he taught and opened his own practice, selling mail-order plans throughout the country. He moved to Birmingham in 1908 where he designed and built the 16th St. Baptist Church

Horace King

Horace King, born in slavery in South Carolina in 1807, became an architect, engineer, and noted bridge builder who constructed dozens of bridges in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi.

Vertner Woodson Tandy

 Vertner Woodson Tandy was the first black architect registered in the state of New York and a founding member of Alpha Phi Alpha at Columbia University. He served as the first treasure of the fraternity and designed the fraternity’s pin.

Hilyard Robison

 Hilyard Robinson, in addition to designing buildings on Howard University campus, also built the Langston Terrace Dwelling, the first federally funded housing complex in the D.C. and the second in the U.S.

Harvey Gantt

In 1963, Harvey Gantt became the first African American admitted to Clemson University where he earned a degree, with honors, in the School of Architecture. Later he became the first black mayor of Charlotte and in, the 1990s, he ran twice for the United States Senate against Jesse Helms, losing both times

Paul R Williams

Paul Revere Williams was a Southern California legend who designed over 2,000 homes in his more than 50 year career, including those for numerous celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Lon Chaney, Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Correll, and many more.

Moses Mckissack III

In 1905, Moses McKissack III joined his brother Calvin to form the first Black-owned architectural firm in the United States: McKissack & McKissack in Nashville, Tennessee. The firm is still active and has worked on thousands of facilities, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the M.L.K. Jr. Memorial, both in Washington, D.C.

Robert R. Taylor

Robert R. Taylor was the first African-American student enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and became the first accredited African-American architect when he graduated in 1892

Max Bond Jr. was a Harvard educated architect who travelled, studied and worked internationally before working with a prominent firm to design a number of iconic cultural buildings, including, just before his death, the museum component at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center.

300

In 2013 only 343 Black in the United States women were architects.

Alberta Cassell

Alberta Cassell worked as an architectural engineer for the Naval Research Laboratory from 1951-1961, after which she worked as an engineering draftswoman with the Military Sea Life Command. From 1971-1982, she served as an architect with the United States Naval Sea Systems Command.

Jerome Campbell

After graduating from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1956, Jerome Campbell developed an expertise in urban renewal and affordable housing developments and started his own firm in 1966. In 1971, Campbell co-founded the National Organization of Minority Architects and served as its first president.

2,000

As of 2013, about 2% of the total number of licensed architects or 2,006 individuals were self-identified as African Americans.

Marshall Purnell

Marshall Purnell was elected in 2007 as the first African American architect to serve as the national president of the American Institute of Architects in 150 years; an organization that did not allow Black membership until 1923.

William Sidney Pittman

William Sidney Pittman, the son-in-law of Booker T. Washington and a graduate of Tuskegee Institute and Drexell University, went on to practice in Washington D.C. where he received a number of commissions, including the first commission by a Black architect to build the Negro Building at the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition in Virginia in 1907

Beverly Loraine Greene

Beverly Loraine Green, who earned a degree in architecture engineering from the university of Illinois and a Masters in Architecture from Columbia University, was licensed in 1942 and became the first known woman registered as an architect in the U.S

W. Smith

William W. Smith was not a designer, but rather an on-site architect. He and his wife were instrumental in founding Grace African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Charlotte NC. In 1902, Smith built a sanctuary for the church and also did the masonry work for North Carolina's first public library founded for Black citizens.

Julian Francis Abele was one of America’s most important architects, working as chief designer with one of the most prominent American architects, Horace Trumbauer. Abele designed the west campus of Duke University, including the university chapel, the Allen Administration Building, and the Duke Indoor Stadium. Duke's main quad was renamed the Abele Quad in 2016. Unfortunately, he was not publicly acknowledged in his lifetime.

Clarence W. Wigington

Clarence W. Wigington was America's first Black municipal architect, serving as senior designer for the city of St. Paul, Minnesota's architectural office. Many of his buildings, including schools, fire stations, park structures, the downtown St. Paul Police Station and the Highland Park Golf Clubhouse, many of which still stand.

Amaza L. Meredith.

Amaza Lee Meredith, an architect, educator and artist, was unable to enter the profession as an architect, but founded the art department at Virginia State University and went on to design and develop many homes for family and friends, including, in 1947, a 120 lot subdivision in Sag Harbor, NY

Albert Cassell was a noted architect in Washington D.C. who wanted all of his children to follow in his footsteps. His daughters, Alberta Cassell and Martha Cassell Thompson did so and, in 1948, became the first two women to graduate from the Cornell University School of Architecture.

John Warren Moutoussammy

John Warren Moutoussammy graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1948; in 1971 he designed the headquarters building for the Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago, which was the first high-rise building designed by an African American.

Allison Williams

Allison Williams, serves as a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Design Visiting Committee, the Harvard Design Magazine Practitioners Advisory Board, and member of the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association and she has designed a number of buildings including the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.