Architecture in Black

An excerpt from Black Enterprise - 

MEET THE BLACK WOMAN BEHIND ONE OF THE COUNTRY’S FEW BLACK-OWNED ARCHITECTURE FIRMS

by Dana Givens

Image via Purpose Brands

Architecture is an extremely difficult field to enter, especially for people of color. In a 2018 report from the National Council of Architectural Registration Board, nonwhite architecture professionals are 25% more likely to stop pursuing licensure with a nonwhite professional representing 45% of participants in the Architectural Experience Program. Black women are an even smaller margin when it comes to diversity within the sector. One woman decided to take her savings to start her career in architecture and is now celebrating 30 years in the business.

Deryl McKissack is the owner of McKissack & McKissack, a firm responsible for overseeing construction projects including the Obama Presidential Center, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Lincoln, and several Martin Luther King, Jr. memorials. In an interview with BLACK ENTERPRISE, McKissack shares her story about getting into the architecture field and the importance of diversity in the sector.

BE: What inspired you to get into architecture?

McKissack: Architecture was in my blood. I’m the fifth generation in our family to go into the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) business. My great-great-grandfather, a freed slave, was a builder, as was his son, my great-grandfather. His son, my grandfather, was the first Black registered architect in Tennessee. And my father, also a registered architect, would take me and my twin sister to work with him when we were 6, prop us up on his drawing boards and teach us how to draw details, do schedules, use Leroy lettering, make legends, and everything else. By the time we were 13, he was using our drawings.

My sister and I both went to Howard University on academic scholarships as double-majors in architecture and engineering. But I was more drawn to the practical side of things—how buildings work—and eventually made engineering my major. After I graduated, I went to work at an engineering firm.

https://www.blackenterprise.com/meet-the-black-woman-behind-the-countrys-few-black-owned-architecture-firm/