Thursday, August 30, 2007

Constructing Equality?

For our final writing assignment, I have chosen to discuss the "Impact of the Architectural Profession on the Black Community". At first glance, it appears there is none. Historically, the architectural profession was governed by wealth - rich clients hiring rich, or pseudo rich architects. While these relationships still exist and are a vital part of the profession, there has been more of a demand for architecture for the masses. I plan to discuss the impact this social shift has had on the Black community and how the Black community can become more involved and contribute to the quality of the communities they live in.
I am currently conducting my research from The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch, Urban Diaries by Walter Hood and Architecture of Fear edited by Nan Ellin. At the very least, I will bring to the forefront information that should generate interesting discussion.

4 comments:

Scott Pfeifer said...

Angelo
I think this will be a very interesting paper. We have a woman african-american intern architect in our office that has done some research on this topic. She has had a couple lunches for us over the last couple years on african-americans in architecture. I can get her contact info for you if you are interested in a woman's point of view. When she passes the ARE, she will be the first african-american woman architect in the state of nebraska. I look forward to your paper.

Herb Childress said...

There's still a sense of division I feel in your project (at least given how short this final paper has to be). You could focus on the nature of African Americans within the design fields, on the state of the Black professional. Or you could focus on how (or if) architecture has supported the Black community as clients and users and neighbors of design. If the Black community has to wait for a critical mass of Black designers in order to gain attention from the profession, it's gonna be a long wait. You could in fact focus on that "vicious cycle" itself as a third possible topic -- that Black kids don't feel like the world of design has benefited them and their neighborhoods, and so don't think of architecture or landscape architecture or urban planning as reasonable careers, and so those fields don't get populated by rising Black professionals, which continues the field's ability to ignore the needs of that community, and so on. Where does that cycle get broken so that we can make progress?

Angelo Logan said...

Herb, you're correct. I begin to realize this after absorbing the comments from our class exercise, and after jumpin into the suggested reading materials you referred me to. I think for this assignment I will focus on Black professionals in the design fields. I am interested in investigating how architecture has supported the Black community as clients. I think this would entail much more research (maybe a possible thesis topic).

annie j kemp said...

I am interested to read your paper. I don't live in a diverse community and don't experience any of the things you are talking about. I am excited to read what you discover. It will help shed light on a topic that I know have not experienced. I never have realized that different races would have been treated differently in the design field. I guess it makes sense since women are still treated differently, too. Good luck.