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Writing Multiculturalism into Architecture Curricula Author(s): Regina Davis Source: Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 47, No. 1 (Sep., 1993), pp. 30-37 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1425225 Accessed: 30-10-2016 18:06 UTC

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Writing Multiculturalism into Architecture Curricula

REGINA DAVIS, University of California, Berkeley

In the spring of 1991 1 taught a new writing course with another African American faculty member, Ken Simmons, in the Department of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley. The purpose of the course was to write about African American, Asian American, Latino, and Native American architects and artists and their works.

We created this course at the urgent request of African American architecture students who were

angered by the omission of architects of color in our curriculum. This paper discusses the academic benefits and difficulties of teaching a multicultural writing course in an architecture school.

Participation of Minorities and Women in Architecture

OUR CLASS WAS TAUGHT IN THE CONTEXT OF

relatively low participation by African Ameri- cans, Asian Americans, Chicano/Latino Americans, and Native Americans in archi-

tecture. Nationally, these groups represent 6.5 percent of practicing architects, 8.5 per- cent of full-time faculty teaching in architec-

ture schools, and 16 percent of architecture

graduates. African American and Latino American participation in architecture (4 per-

cent) is slightly greater than in city planning

(3 percent) but less than in civil engineering

(7 percent).1 The American Institute of Ar- chitects (AIA) reports that the combined membership of African American, Latino, Native American, and Asian American archi-

tects totals only 2885 (6.5 percent) of the to-

tal 44,470 registered architects. Female architects represent 7 percent of the total reg-

istered AIA membership. However, both groups are growing at an annual rate of 10 percent while the rest of the membership growth is flat.2 Although these numbers are relatively small, they represent thousands of

architects and places unknown to many of us.

We taught our course at an architec- ture school with a faculty composition that

represents the national statistical status quo. People of color represent 8 percent of the ar- chitecture faculty. There are three minori-

ties-one Asian woman and two African

American men-on the full-time architec-

ture faculty of 40. The National Architectural-Accredit-

ing Board (NAAB) reports that the 162 ar- chitecture faculty of color compose 8.5 percent of the total 1893 full-time faculty.

The 267 women compose 14 percent of the total full-time faculty.3

Nearly half of U.S. architecture schools have neither African American fac-

ulty nor African American administrators, al-

though African American faculty make up 40

percent of architecture faculty of color.4 Mi-

nority faculty recruitment is an intolerably

subjective and slow process. At UC Berkeley,

for example, minority faculty increased a mere 2 percent over the last ten years.5

The NAAB reports that in 1991, a to-

tal of 1266 minority students graduated with

degrees in architecture, making up 17 per- cent of the total graduates in that field. Fe-

male graduates comprised 27 percent of the

7448 total graduates.6 UC Berkeley was the top producer of minority graduates in archi- tecture. A 1991 review of the architecture de-

partment at UC Berkeley challenged the department to deal with the diversity of its student body: "The student body is one of the most diverse to be found in an architec-

tural program anywhere. The Department faces the challenge of addressing this diver- sity, and the various objectives these groups

and their representatives bring to the issue of

curriculum."7 This is exactly the challenge that our course undertook.

Expansion of Multicultural and Architectural Curricula

Students are demanding multicultural educa- tion. Students of color are especially unwill-

ing to accept an education that excludes an examination of their heritage, cultural contri-

butions, and issues. Following three years of

student initiatives for greater ethnic diversity

within the curriculum, the University of California developed the American Cultures

graduation requirement in 1991. The Ameri-

can Cultures requirement "is not an ethnic studies requirement, nor an adjusted Western

Civilization requirement, nor a course on rac-

ism. It is a new approach that responds di- rectly to the problem in numerous disciplines

of how to present better the diversity of American experience to the diversity of American students whom we now educate,"

explains William Simmons, director of the Center for the Teaching and Study of Ameri-

can Cultures. The requirement courses must all adhere to the same basic framework. Ac-

cording to Simmons, the courses

1. Focus on important themes or issues in United States history, society, or culture.

2. Address major theoretical and analyti-

cal issues relevant to understanding race, culture, and ethnicity in Ameri-

can society. 3. Provide a framework and the intellec-

tual tools to understand better one's

own particular cultural/historical iden-

tity and that of others in their own terms.

4. Take substantial account of groups drawn from at least three of the follow-

ing: African Americans, American In- dians, Asian Americans, Chicano/

Latino Americans, and European Americans. No single group may be the

focus of the greater part of a course.

5. Are integrative and comparative in that

each group is studied in the larger con- text of American society, history, or culture.8

Although our writing course preceded the University's development of most American Cultures requirement courses, the required framework of those courses illuminates the

basic principles of our class.

September 1993 JAE 47/1 30

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Table 1 Registered Architects of the AIA by Ethnicity in California and in the United States, 1991

Ethnicity No. in AIA % No. in CCAIA % State (National) (California) (% of National)

African American 380 1.1 53 1.0 13.9

Hispanic 785 1.9 151 3.3 19.2 Indian and Other 190 0.4 57 1.0 30.0

Asian 1530 3.6 575 9.9 37.6

Total Minority Members 2885 6.5 836 14.4 28.9 All Members 44,470 5791 13.0

The AIA, a trade organization of professional architects, generally represents 50 percent of all registered architects.

For example, there are 771 African American architects nationwide, and 380, or 49 percent, are AIA members. In

California, there are 110 registered African American architects, and 53, or 48 percent are AIA members.

Table 2 Full-Time Faculty in Architecture Schools by Ethnicity and Gender, 1991

All Faculty Women African American Asian American Latino Native American

1893 267 64 49 47 2 100.0 14.0 3.3 2.5 2.5 0.1

Source: NAAB.

Table 3. Degree Completions in Architecture by Ethnicity and Gender, 1991

Degree Programs Total Women Asian American Latino African American Native American

Nonaccredited

undergrad 2384 697 269 141 64 4 Accredited

undergrad 3489 810 278 197 177 17 Master's 1575 499 105 69 37 8 Total 7448 2006 552 407 278 29

100.0% 27.0% 7.0% 5.0% 4.0% 0.3%

Source: NAAB.

In his 1992 award-winning JAE ar- ticle, "Biculturalism and Community: A Transformative Model for Design Educa- tion," Anthony Ward argues against the ex- clusion of histories of minorities in

architecture: "In design, our built history tends to be that of the dominant Eurocentric

culture. The histories of minority cultures are

rarely, if ever, valorized in the contested space

of the urban landscape. This process of his-

torical appropriation denies subordinate cul-

tures a public expression and awareness of their own struggles, and of their important role as creators of history."9

Several architectural professors have re-

cently set out to correct this exclusion of our histories in architecture. Out of 103 UC re-

search fellowships that were awarded to pro- fessors to create new American Cultures

requirement courses, three were awarded to architecture faculty, all of whom are women

and/or people of color. Courses on "Architec-

ture, Housing, and Neighborhood Patterns for Different Subcultures"; "Architecture:

Cultural Authenticity versus Political Author-

ity"; and "Picture Identity" were taught by Professors Sara Ishikawa, Jill Stoner, and

Lewis Watts, respectively.'0 Particularly useful

and encouraging essays about teaching strate-

gies to transform architectural curricula using

multiculturalism were published in Voices in Architectural Education, which was edited by

Thomas Dutton." Essays by Professors Brad Grant, Thomas Dutton, Anthony Ward, Jacqueline Leavitt, Karen Kinsley, and Alan Feigenberg outlined strategies to transform architecture courses to be inclusive of women

and minorities. In Intercultural Architecture,

Professor Kisho Kurokawa advanced a pro- posal for multicultural theory in architecture

by creating a philosophical approach to un- derstanding architecture that has multicultural fusion as its goal.12

To date, fewer than a dozen books by or about architects of color rival the number

of architectural magazine articles that ask,

31 Davis

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"Why aren't there more minorities in archi- tecture?" These books include Paul Williams',

The Small Home for Tomorrow and New Homes for Today; Carter Wiseman's biogra- phy of well-published Chinese American ar- chitect I. M. Pei; Genell Anderson's Call of the Ancestors on the philosophy of African in-

fluences on world architecture; Dell Upton's edited volume, American Architectural Roots:

Ethnic Groups That Built America; Peter Nabokov's Native American Architecture; and

Jorge Rigau's Puerto Rico: Turn of the Century

Architecture in the Hispanic Caribbean, 1890-

1930.13 Recent publications include George Cantor's Historic Landmarks ofBlack America; Jack Travis's African American Architects in Current Practice; and Bradford Grant and

Dennis Mann's Directory of AJfican American

Architects."4 These are good examples of the

type of research that is needed to create more

interpretive works. All of these books were

published in the last three years except the two books by Paul Williams, which were written in the forties. Only three of the books

(Wiseman, Anderson, and Nabokov) were available when the class was in session. The

recent growth of architectural books and ar- chitectural courses with multicultural themes

signals an important change in architectural

research toward greater inclusion of minorities.

However, articles such as "Black Ar-

chitects: An Endangered Species," "Invisible Architects: Minority Firms struggle to Achieve Recognition in a White-Dominated Profession," and "Black Architects up against

a Brick Wall" typically address minority ar- chitects' woes but not their architectural con-

tributions nor solutions to systemic discrimination in the profession.15 The dearth of articles that address the merits of

built works designed by architects of color is

directly related to the complete lack of Asian, African American, Chicano, Latino, or Na-

tive American editors of major architectural

journals. Considering the number of minor- ity faculty, the books are too few, and many

Table 4. Top Degree Producers in Architecture, All Minority Groups, 1990-1991

Institution Asian American Hispanic African American Native American Total

University of

California, Berkeley, CA

University of Houston, TX

California Polytechnic,

San Luis Obispo, CA City University of New York, NY

University of Illinois,

Champaign, IL University of Texas,

Arlington, TX University of Miami, FL Southern California Insti-

tute of Architecture, CA

Howard University,

Washington, D.C. California Polytechnic, Pomona, CA

University of Puerto Rico,

69

50

28

25

15

17

12 28

17

26

30

8

1

13

7

6

1

7

0

15

9

11

3

9

3

0

2

0

106

78

50

49

38

36

34

13

4

3

2

30

1

0

0

15 32

0

2

31

31

31

* Ethnic breakout not available.

articles avoid critiquing the contributions of the architects of color that they introduce.

Our Class

Professor Ken Simmons and I developed the

experimental writing course, Writing about

Environmental Design: Third World Archi- tects and Artists and Their Works, with three

goals in mind: (1) broadening the curriculum to include the needs and interests of architec-

ture students from many cultural back- grounds; (2) producing critical works on architects of color to fill the current intellec-

tual void; and (3) providing multicultural role

models against the backdrop of cultural invis-

ibility experienced by students of color in ar-

chitecture courses. The cultural backgrounds of the dozen students enrolled in the class

were African American, Chinese American,

Japanese American, Chicano, Japanese/Afri- can American, and White/African American.

Our class included graduate and undergradu-

ate students from the architecture, geography

and English departments. The three-unit course met for three hours weekly and cov-

ered multicultural aesthetics, researching ar-

chitectural and ethnic sources, and writing critical essays about architects of color, their works, and their communities. Guest lectur-

ers presented their ideas on multicultural aes-

thetics, and students presented their research

to the class. Ultimately, we compiled the writings into a bound anthology for distribu- tion to architecture libraries.

The students' first assignment was to write an in-class essay on why they are inter-

ested in the class. Students expressed specific

hopes to explain why they had enrolled in the

class. An undergraduate Chicano student wrote: "I am interested in this class because I

saw an opportunity to write about minority architects. Many times we hear about how great Frank Lloyd Wright and his accom- plishments are. It's great hearing about some-

September 1993 JAE 47/1 32

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one having so much creativity, but some- times I get angry because I don't hear about

what my people have accomplished."

An undergraduate Japanese/African American student commented, "It was em-

barrassing not being able to name one black architect before I came to UC Berkeley. With

this class I hope to broaden my knowledge to include all minorities: Asian American, Afri-

can American, Native American, and Chicano architects."

From this first assignment, our class found American "cultural experience" to be

so important that we decided to study only American architects of color and their com-

munities, not renowned nationals such as

Hassan Fathy, Luis Barragon, and others who practice in their home countries. It is this American experience that students sought to uncover because it related to their

own experiences and to their future as archi- tects. The multicultural makeup of the class

gave us the advantage of "epistemological privilege": the understanding of both our many "subcultures" and the dominant American culture, with each providing a criti-

cal perspective on the other.16 Our knowl- edge of both minority and majority issues expanded our critical views.

From Eurocentric to

Multicultural Aesthetics

The next step was to place architects of color

in a context to gain a better understanding of the cultural aesthetics that influence their

works. We selected the following readings to

broaden the opportunity for discourse about multicultural aesthetics: Black Culture and

Black Consciousness by Lawrence Levine; Woman, Native, Other by T. Minh-Ha Trinh, Chicano Art edited by Richard Griswold del Castillo and others, and Native

American Architecture by Peter Nabokov.17

In addition to the assigned readings, UC Ber-

keley African American Studies Professor Roy Thomas gave a guest lecture about the aesthetic development of African American

art. Using examples from the film Two Hun-

dred Years of African American Art, he out-

lined the five evolutionary stages of aesthetics

in African American painting. The first of the

five stages of this multicultural model was na-

ive paintings that represented a crude and di-

rect copying of European techniques and that

portrayed only European images. The second stage involved refined European techniques and the confident portrayal of only European

subjects by such artists as Henry O. Tanner.

In the third stage, artists used European tech-

niques to depict African images. The fourth

stage was a clumsy merging of African tech-

niques with European techniques and the confident portrayal of African images. The fi-

nal stage was the confident synthesis of both

African and European techniques and im- ages, represented by artists such as Charles White and Romare Bearden. Bearden's per- sonal artistic development can be roughly traced in these stages.18

A Japanese American student adapted the multicultural model of aesthetic develop-

ment presented by Professor Thomas to ex-

amine a Japanese American aesthetic. The student's final paper, "New Stone Gardens: Isamu Noguchi Develops a Japanese Ameri- can Aesthetic," discusses the sculptor's several

attempts to synthesize Eastern and Western

aesthetics. Noguchi struggles to validate his Japanese American identity from his earliest

clumsy juxtaposition of styles at the UNESCO Headquarters Garden in Paris to a successful synthesis of Eastern and Western aesthetics in his Chase Manhattan Bank

Plaza in New York, which demonstrates a confident use of tradition and modern mate-

rials. A multicultural model opens a new way

to understand the sculptural spaces created by Noguchi and has great potential for un- derstanding, the works of architects of color and others.19 Architecture schools in the

United States, with the many cultures they

represent, could broaden their curricula with

the study of an intercultural architecture.

Research: If You Can't Find It, Think and Write It Down

We designed the third assignment as a team project to determine which resources were valuable in researching architects of color. For three weeks, the students evaluated uni-

versity architectural libraries, ethnic-specific

libraries, private museum collections, the American Institute of Architects' archives, the

National Organization of Minority Archi- tects' newly formed archives, historical societ-

ies' collections, building surveys and other resources including university faculty, profes-

sionals in private practice, and representatives

of ethnic and business organizations.

The students found the small quanti-

ties of literature and the poor indexing of re- sources about architects of color to be

inadequate and frustrating. Few interpretive works existed. Resources were unusually frag-

mented, and subject headings were not obvi-

ous for research of this nature. For example,

there were headings for Japanese architects and Japanese architecture, but none for Japa- nese American architects or their works. Li-

brarians and other scholars often told

students that the proper way to research ar-

chitects of color is by proper name, but archi-

tectural libraries rarely had any information on individual architects of color. One student

summed up the class experience in a team re-

search report: "I must admit I was discour- aged to find that there are so few books about

architects of color, but I was happy to find that our people are slowly being recognized in journals, film, and other source directories.

One must approach this research by intu- itively digging and searching for the smallest

piece of information." In response to this frustrating situation, a geography PhD stu-

33 Davis

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dent wrote an original bibliographic essay that annotates sources about African and Af-

rican American building traditions, all-black towns and settlements, and African American art museums and historical societies.20

When the students began their indi- vidual research projects, these early disap- pointing findings led to a new attitude about research. They realized from the results of the

team research projects that they must pursue

original source material, the best form of re-

search. Students began making intuitive guesses about possible sources. They devel- oped their own criteria and wrote about their

direct observation of the subjects. They made many calls to scholars, librarians, and relatives

of subjects to gather information. They also developed questionnaires and conducted in- terviews. Though initially reluctant to use them, students eventually found oral re- sources to be invaluable. Students became

more willing to analyze subjects without sup-

portive interpretive works. They legitimized their subjects as important to research and claimed themselves to be experts when others

did not yet exist. Their topics included mu- rals in the San Francisco Bay area, storefront churches, the status of black architecture stu-

dents, the twenty-year development of an or-

ganization for Chicano architecture students,

a visionary artisan's search for environmen- tally sound architecture, and the works of Isamu Noguchi, I. M. Pei, Paul Williams, and McKissack, McKissack & Thompson.

The most valuable critical analysis of the students' writings occurred during the in-

progress research presented to the class. These discussions allowed students to air

frustrations, uncertainty of focus, and excit-

ing discoveries. The open dialogue among the students and faculty about the presenta-

tions provided the opportunity to share in- formation and critical viewpoints. Everyone

presented their papers, evaluated other pre- sentations, and revised their essays based on

comments from in-class critiques. The

knowledge gained during this process helped

students to develop their many small findings

into original essays.

For example, the cass discussion of an in-progress work about storefront churches in African American communities resulted in a

much improved analytical approach in a student's final paper. Because no published interpretive works existed about the thou- sands of storefront churches, the student re-

lied on the few texts about traditional,

primarily southern black churches and pho- tographed thirty or more storefront churches

in the San Francisco Bay Area. In an early presentation of his in-progress paper, he re- viewed the literature of the traditional black

church without an analysis of the storefront

churches that he had directly observed. The pictures of the storefront churches he pre- sented so intrigued the cass that we focused our critical remarks on ways to interpret the storefront churches with the traditional black

churches for possible influences. With new insights, the student wrote his final essay on

the comparative features of the storefront churches and the influences of the traditional

black church evidenced in them, including adaptations to commercial settings, uses of religious symbols, facade and fenestration configurations, and interior elements.2

Another student researched and wrote

a critical analysis of the leadership and build-

ings by the eight-five-year-old family-owned African American architectural firm in Ten-

nessee, today known as McKissack, McKissack & Thompson (MM&T). Her original research on the MM&T was espe- cially challenging and well developed. Artices had been written about this family and its business history, but there was little critique

of the more than four thousand buildings that MM&T has designed and built, incud- ing the Tuskegee Air Force Base, Universal Life Insurance Company's main headquarters in Memphis, and numerous schools, homes, churches, office buildings, hospitals, and uni-

f .. SHEHr LE J "'T A ENL '"19

.dmll .. J, ,4'-; M^V n^ 1. First Evangelical Missionary Baptist Church, Oakland,

California. (Photo by Stacy Harris.)

" '"""

I ... .......

- Ci l CiI I I I

2. Canaan Christian Covenant Missionary Baptist Church, Oakland, California. (Photo by Stacy Harris.)

September 1993 JAE 47/1 34

..... .i

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3. Adrian Wilson and Paul R. Williams, Nurses' Residence Building, Los Angeles County Hospital. (Photo by Brad Grant.)

4. Paul R. Williams, LAX Restaurant, Los Angeles. (Photo by Brad Grant,)

versity buildings. Nor was there much discus-

sion of the special problems that the female executive management met while orchestrat- ing an architectural firm's dramatic develop-

ment which included securing the award of a

$50-million contract and successfully suing the City of Nashville for excluding black ar- chitects from the city's airport expansion project. The student pursued many resources

in her original research, including interviews

with the management of MM&T, historical and contemporary photographic materials of MM&T buildings, articles from ethnic and business magazines about the architectural firm, and company-produced brochures. The edited interview with Leatrice McKissack and

the analysis of several buildings designed by the firm were brought together in an illumi-

nating essay.22

A Japanese/African American student remarked on his future as an architect in his

final paper, "Paul Revere Williams: Innova- tor, Achiever, Architect": "As minority stu-

dents in a field whose minority makeup is not too unlike that of a half a century ago, we

often look to exceptional individuals that are

like us for inspiration and recognition. Paul Williams is such a person, especially for the young, black, aspiring architect. His endur- ance in the environment of decades ago leads me to believe I can at least accomplish the same feat of endurance in today's tamer envi- ronment."

Paul Williams overcame racial preju- dice to become a highly successful architect. During his prolific fifty-eight-year career, he

designed more than two thousand homes, in-

cuding several mansions designed for Holly- wood stars, and hundreds of public buildings, including offices, restaurants, ho- tels, hospitals, churches, public housing, and

an airport terminal. Williams's strong per- sonal drive, exceptional communication skills, and design innovations made him one of Los Angeles's top architects. He ignored the discouragement of his high school teacher

35 Davis

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to avoid this field because success would de-

pend on his ability to convince white clients

to "cross the color line." He taught himself to

draw upside down so that he could avoid standing next to his white clients and would

appear to know his "place as a Negro." He produced sets of drawings in 22 hours while white architects insisted on two weeks to do

the same job. Williams's innovations in small-

house design and his two subsequent books on the subject helped establish him as a de-

sign specialist of smaller homes for new couples and young families. Williams was hated by some blacks and embraced by some whites for his controversial remarks in the na-

tional press about "ignorant" slaves and the "fair treatment" blacks received from whites

under the Jim Crow laws.23 As the students looked to role models

to discern what their own future roles as ar-

chitects might be, they uncovered design in- novations, survival skills, consistent service to

an underserved public, and new creations of intercultural aesthetics. Students analyzed the

careers of professional architects and artists to

construct a path of development for them- selves in an environment that does not usu-

ally discuss such role models. A Chinese American architecture student who wrote

about I. M. Pei commented in a class evalua-

tion interview: "I learned from this class that

architects of color have already done more than society leads us to believe. So, I know I can do even more now."

We compiled the results of the stu- dents' enthusiastic efforts to research the

largely undocumented contributions of American architects of color in an unpub- lished anthology. The anthology includes an introduction, original essays, photographs, annotated bibliographies, brief biographical statements on the authors, and an appendix of additional research sources. After much

discussion about the processes employed in research and writing, the students decided to

call the anthology, Looking beneath the Sur-

face: Discovering Third WorldArchitects and Artists and Their Works.24 The bound anthol-

ogy was the important final stage of the pro-

cess. Students informally presented their work to a larger audience of friends and peers

at a book-signing party held in the lobby of Wurster Hall. The class distributed the an-

thology to many of the traditional architec-

tural research sources that struggled to help us

earlier in the semester. We had hoped that others would find it useful in their efforts to

write about architects of color and building traditions in communities of color. We con-

tinue to receive requests for the anthology from scholars and architectural libraries.

Summary and Conclusions

Writing multiculturalism into architecture

curricula requires several changes. First, the

course must integrate the classroom with the

outside world. We drew on the knowledge, connections, and records of the larger com-

munity of architectural professionals and leaders from professional and business orga- nizations. Scholars from other architecture

schools, from other university departments, such as Ethnic Studies, and from national ethnic and architectural archives were able to

share in the educational responsibilities of these students. In turn, students were able to

establish scholarly relationships beyond the duration and scope of the class.

Second and related to the above issue is

the use of a pedagogy that allows students to

develop their own sense of value and learning

initiatives. Rather than simply being recipi- ents of research findings by other scholars, the

students produced information that is not readily available within our profession. The students have pursued their interests in their

research in impressive ways. Some decided to

continue their research using the anthology to

develop possible thesis projects. A Japanese American student went on to be a writer and

translator for GlobalArchitecture in Japan. An

African American student went on to orga-

nize an annual symposium on African Ameri- can architecture and environmental issues

and to produce a publication based on the symposium. Other students from the class re-

cently won a university grant to publish an ar- chitectural newsletter.

Third, as teachers we must be willing

to be helpful guides to students' own learning initiatives, rather than lecturers on our own

narrow, specialized interests. Our students,

who were primarily motivated by their per-

sonal learning issues and who received broad

guidance from us, produced results that were

remarkable for the diversity, depth, and origi-

nality. The teachers did not have dominant

roles in the class, but rather participatory roles, critical voices equal to other critical voices. Some students believed that we

should provide more outside lecturers. Al- though lecturers on these topics were rare but

happy finds, they also encouraged a business- as-usual attitude in which students could be-

come spectators rather than producers of self-initiated research. The role of student-as-

spectator gave way to responsible participants in the class, who carried their new attitude

outside the class to converse with other pro-

fessional scholars. Other professors who ad- dress similar subjects concur that a transformative model in which students take

responsibility for teaching each other is needed.

Fourth, architectural education must

seek to engender social awareness and identi- fication with a broadly understood social good. Students who are knowledgeable about the experiences of other American cultures

are better prepared to participate creatively in

our changing profession and society.25

Fifth, more of us must take up needed research into the treatment of architects of

color and related subjects. To do so will re- quire improvements in the research tools, re-

search sources, and publications. The

September 1993 JAE 47/1 36

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provision of electronic access from academic architectural libraries to national and private architectural archives that house much of this

material would vastly improve access to re-

search information. Also, subject headings must change to allow more direct access to ex-

isting information on architects of color. In

the meantime, the continued publication of current bibliographies and directories on these

subjects will aid preliminary research efforts.

Finally, these suggestions must be em-

ployed simultaneously to write multicultur- alism into architecture curricula. Our modest

teaching effort is offered as an example of the difference one course can make. Each of us

has a unique role to play in augmenting our

students' understanding of the diversity of

professional experience. Ultimately, architec-

tural scholarship that fully includes all Ameri- can cultures will attract more students of

color to our profession.

Notes

1. Sylvia Lewis, "Breaking through the Glass

Ceiling," APA Planning 57 (July 1991): 13. 2. AIA Minority Resources Committee (MRC)

"Minority Membership Statistics," MRC Report (Win- ter 1991): back cover.

3. NAAB, annual reports, "Statistical Informa-

tion," Washington, D.C. (Sept. 1991). 4. Raymond Dalton, Admission, Retention, and

Support Services ofAfrican-American Architecture Stu-

dents: A National Survey (PhD diss., Purdue University, [Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Dissertation Information Service, Dec. 1990]), pp. 3, 8.

5. Kim Moy, "Faculty Diversity Comes Slowly," Daily Californian 27(180) (27 Nov. 1991): 1.

6. NAAB, annual reports.

7. Robert Bea, Robert Beckley, Adele Santos, et al. of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Graduate Council,

University of California, Berkeley, A Review of the De-

partment ofArchitecture: Academic Years 1990-1992, app. A: "Summary of Outside Reviewer's Reports," (unpublished), p. 3.

8. William Simmons, "American Cultures at

the University of California at Berkeley. Brochure (May 1992), p. 1.

9. Anthony Ward, "Biculturalism and Com-

munity: A Transformative Model for Design Educa- tion," JAE44(2) (Feb. 1991): 93.

10. Simmons, "American Cultures," p. 2. 11. Thomas Dutton, ed., Voices in Architectural

Education: Cultural Politics and Pedagogy (New York: Bergin & Garvey, 1991), pp. 149-278.

12. Kisho Kurokawa, InterculturalArchitecture:

The Philosophy of Symbiosis (Washington, D.C.: Ameri- can Institute of Architects Press, 1991).

13. Paul Williams, The Small Home of Tomor- row. (Hollywood: Murray and Gee, 1945); Paul Will- iams, New Homesfor Today (Hollywood: Murray and Gee, 1946); Carter Wiseman, I. M. Pei (New York:

Random House, 1990); Genell Anderson, The Call of the Ancestors (Washington, D.C.: AMAR Publications,

1991); Dell Upton, ed., American Architectural Roots:

Ethnic Groups That BuiltAmerica (Washington, D.C.: National Trust for Historic Preservation, 1986); Peter

Nabokov, Native American Architecture (New York:

Oxford University Press, 1989); Jorge Rigau, Puerto Rico 1900: Turn-of-the-Century Architecture in the His-

panic Caribbean 1890-1930 (New York: Rizzoli, 1992).

14. George Cantor, Historic Landmarks of Black America (Detroit: Gale Research, 1991); Jack Travis, ed., Afiican American Architects in Current Prac- tice (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1991);

Bradford Grant and Dennis Mann, Directory of Afican

American Architects (Cincinnati: Center for the Study

of the Practice of Architecture of the University of Cin-

cinnati, 1991); 15. Robert T. Coles, "Black Architects, an En-

dangered Species," editorial, Progressive Architecture Magazine (July 1989); Jane Kay, "Invisible Architects:

Minority Firms Struggle to Achieve Recognition in a White-Dominated Profession," Architecture (Apr. 1991): 106; Roberto Rodriguez, "Black Architects up against a Brick Wall," Black Issues in Higher Education (5 Dec. 1991): 18; Also see Bradley Inman, "Hispanic Contribution to City's Architecture Often Over- looked," San Francisco Examiner, 10 May 1992: F-1; Eve Kahn, "Renewed Hope for Black Architects" New

York Times (9 April 1992): B-1; Paul Williams, "Blacks

Who Overcame the Odds," Ebony Magazine (Nov. 1986): 148. This abridgment from the autobiographi-

cal "I Am a Negro" essay in American Magazine (1937)

selectively edits quotes likely to be offensive to contem-

porary African Americans.

16. See Ward, "Biculturalism and Community,"

pp. 94-95, for a discussion about the impact of cultural

experience ("epistemological privilege") on pedagogy. 17. Lawrence Levine, Black Culture and Black

Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thoughtfrom Slavery

to Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977); T. Minh-Ha Trinh, Woman, Native, Other:

Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism (Bloomington; Indiana University Press, 1989); Richard Griswold del Castillo, Teresa McKenna, and Yvonne Yarbro-

Bejarano, eds., Chicano Art: Resistance andAffirmation,

1965-1985 (Los Angeles: Wright Gallery, University of California, 1991); Nabokov, Native American Archi- tecture.

18. Mary Schmidt Campbell, "History and the

Art of Romare Bearden," in Memory and Metaphor: The Art of Romare Bearden 1940-1987, ed., Studio Museum in Harlem (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 7-17.

19. Takashi Yanai, "New Stone Gardens:

Isamu Noguchi Develops a Japanese-American Aes- thetic," in Regina Davis and Ken Simmons, eds., Look-

ing beneath the Surface: Discovering Third World Architects andArtists and Their Works (unpublished an-

thology, University of California at Berkeley, 1991), pp. 9-21.

20. David Organ, "The Study of African American Architects, Artists and urban Designers in

the New World," in Davis and Simmons, eds., Looking

beneath the Surface, pp. 177-92.

21. Stacy Harris, "The Storefront Church: Aes-

thetics and Functionalism in the Black Community,"

in Davis and Simmons, eds., Looking beneath the Sur-

face, pp. 132-58. 22. Carol Corr, "The Architecture of

McKissack, McKisssack & Thompson," in Davis and Simmons, eds., Looking beneath the Surface, pp. 71-83.

23. David Y. Garnett, "Paul Revere Williams: Innovator, Achiever, Architect" in Davis and Simmons,

eds., Looking Beneath the Surface, pp. 44-70.

24. Davis and Simmons, eds., Looking beneath

the Surface. This unpublished anthology of student works was compiled from "Writing about Third World

Architects and Artists and Their Works," offered by

Regina Davis and Ken Simmons at the College of En- vironmental Design of the University of California at

Berkeley in spring 1991.

25. David Norton, "Afterword: A Philosophi- cal Appraisal," in Dayle Bethel, ed., Education for Cre-

ative Living: Ideas and Proposals of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1989): pp. 203-214.

37 Davis

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