From LAX to New York LaGuardia: Black architects make their mark on airports
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There are strikingly few airports in the U.S. designed by architects of color. While there is no conclusive count, there are at least five terminal buildings where a person of color was a lead designer or principal on the project — five terminals out of the 563 commercial passenger airports recognized by federal authorities in 2018.
But this should not be a surprise. People of color make up a strikingly small percentage of architects in the U.S. with various estimates putting it at around 2% of the more than 115,000 registered professionals in the country.
The Black Lives Matter protests tell us, forcefully, that underrepresentation of people of color in any industry is not — and should not — be a surprise. That also holds true in architecture, where most people can probably name just a few architects — maybe Frank Lloyd Wright, Eero Saarinen and Sir Norman Foster — that are, almost certainly, all white men.
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Phil Freelon, one of the high-profile contemporary African-American architects, summed it up this way in an interview with The Undefeated in February 2019: “If you have a talented young African-American, their family will likely know a lawyer, doctor, teacher or a clergyman, but not an architect… Diversity is a huge problem in our profession.”
Freelon, who passed away in 2019, is best known for his work with British architect David Adjaye on the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. But his work did not end there. He left a legacy of buildings around the country that — as Perkins and Will CEO Phil Harrison told The Undefeated — have a “real humanism” to them.
He designed just one airport terminal during his tenure: Terminal C at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) that opened in 1987 for American Airlines’ then-new hub there. The terminal, and hub, are both gone.
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While much of Freelon’s portfolio was outside aviation, a growing number of architects of color are working on airport projects. They are leaving their mark, helping bring things like a sense of place to terminals that are gateways to the cities they serve.
HOK senior project manager Paul Auguste is among those Black architects designing airports today. He has worked on terminal projects at New York John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Washington Dulles (IAD), but his most recent project is arguably his largest: the new Terminal B at New York LaGuardia (LGA).
“Big picture, I’ve experienced discrimination throughout my education and career but you have to look forward and move beyond it,” he told TPG when asked about his experience as a Black American in architecture.
Related: LaGuardia’s new Terminal B is a major upgrade
Auguste, in addition to his work on airports and other projects, has focused on ways to increase diversity in architecture. He has been a mentor and served on the board of the Architecture, Construction and Engineering, or ACE, Mentor Program that aims to “engage, excite and enlighten” high school students to pursue careers in one of the three disciplines. In addition, he works to include more than the requisite number of minority- and women-owned businesses — or those with what is known as MBE/WBE certification — in his projects at HOK.
“Part of my giving back and working with talented individuals is to try and grow those numbers, grow those people so they have experience to work on the next aviation project,” Auguste said.
In addition, HOK has its own diversity council that aims to raise the profile of architects of color and others both at the firm and in the profession. Council members include Kimberly Dowdell, who is both business development director at HOK and president of the National Organization of Minority Architects.
Related: Formulaic or flamboyant? How architects work to make airports feel local
Norma Sklarek and Allison Williams are two architects of color that Auguste points to when asked about airports. Both women worked on terminal projects at major airports: Sklarek at Welton Becket Associates on Terminal One in Los Angeles (LAX) that opened in 1984. And, Williams at Skidmore Owings & Merrill on the International Terminal in San Francisco (SFO) that opened in 2000.
Williams, in an interview with The New York Times in 2004, encouraged Black architects to work on a diverse array of projects and not just ones where “the subject matter is Black culture.” This included airport projects, such as her work at SFO.
”To say that these museums and monuments are opportunities for Black architects suggests that other projects are not opportunities for Black architects, and I think that’s dangerous,” she said.
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Other notable Black architects who have worked on airports include Paul Revere Williams. He worked on the team with Pereira & Williams designing the LAX terminal area in the late 1950s and early 1960s but not, as is widely believed, the airport’s iconic Theme Building. Former Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne has written that Williams’ work included “several other sections” of the airport.
Another notable contribution is from Clarence Wigington who, as the lead designer of public buildings for the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, designed the Administration Building at the local Holman Field in 1939.
Regardless of who designed an airport, a traveler’s journey through a terminal and the building’s sense of place is tantamount in aviation architecture today, said Auguste. At LaGuardia, he and his colleagues at HOK worked on easing the journey with things like more pleasant restrooms, and giving it a sense of its New York location with local food and beverage outlets, like the local Irving Farms Coffee.
“The greatest place to be is up in one of these bridges when a [Boeing] 737 taxis underneath you with the New York skyline background,” he said. When fully completed, the terminal will include two bridges to the satellite concourses that, at 65 feet off the ground, will provide those panoramic views.
Related: Check out LaGuardia’s new Terminal B satellite
Featured image courtesy of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
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