Black Architects.
Ottawa W. Gurley
Ottawa W. Gurley was a graduate of the Branch Normal School of Jeff County, Arkansas. Gurley owned a real estate business;, and he was a land developer and merchant. He moved to Oklahoma territory during the land rush in the late 1800’s. Gurley immediately began acquiring land for community building and the establishment of Black towns..Gurley purchased an 80 acre farm in Rogers County In Tulsa he helped to found the AME Church of Tulsa;; and he purchased 40 acres of land.
O.W.. Gurley reserved the 40 acres of land in Tulsa for Black purchases only. This land established Tulsa's Black community. Gurley built a hotel that was located on a road he named Greenwood, He also built homes and buildings, The Greenwood area was a thriving Black community. Among the inhabitants were many Black professionals including doctors, lawyers, teachers, businessmen and women. The Greenwood community was destroyed in 1921, and was later referred to as "Black Wall Street"
Paul Revere Williams
Paul R. Williams was The first Black member of the AIA. Williams designed and renovated thousands of buildings, among them was Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel, MCA Building in Beverly Hills, and futuristic Theme Building at LAX.
Williams built homes for many of Hollywood’s movie stars and elites. He designed glamorous Hollywood homes with curving staircases, patios accessed from the living space, and other unique architectural features . Williams also built St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis for Danny Thomas.
Beverly Lorraine Greene
Beverly Lorraine Greene graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the first Black woman to earn an architectural design degree from the university. She is the first licensed Black woman architect in the United States. She received a master's degree from UIUC in city planning and housing; and a master's degree in architecture from Columbia University.
Beverly R. Greene worked for the firm of Isadore Rosefield designing primarily health facilities. She also designed independently of the firm and collaborated on projects with other architects. Greenie’s architectural design projects include Carson Pirie Scott building, Grosse Point Public Library in Grosse Point, MI, Winthrop House Rockefeller addition in Tarrytown, NY., the theater at the University of Arkansas, the Arts Complex at Sarah Lawrence College, the UNESCO United Nations Headquarters in Paris, and some of the buildings for the University Heights Campus of New York University.
Vertner Woodson Tandy
Vertner Woodson Tandy attended Tuskegee Institute where he was considered a prized architecture student. He went on to graduate from Cornell University where he helped establish the first Black Greek letter fraternity (Alpha Phi Alpha).
V.W. Tandy was the first Black registered architect in New Your state. He designed numerous buildings including Villa Lewaro, mansion of Black hair-care millionaire Madame C.J. Walker; AME Zion church, the oldest African American church in New York City; Harlem’s Saint Philip’s Episcopal Church; and Ivey Apartments.
Robert Robinson Taylor
Robert Robinson Taylor was the First Black man in America to graduate from MIT; and first accredited Black architect in the country. Taylor served as vice president of Tuskegee Institute under Booker T. Washington and designed 24 buildings at Tuskegee Institute including Ellen Curtis Hall, Sage Hall, White Hall, Tompkins Hall and the school’s original chapel. He also designed.Booker T. Washington Agricultural & Industrial Institute in Liberia.
Robert R. Taylor. built many colonial-style buildings in Alabama and Texas. He partnered with Black architect, Louis H. Persley on the design of Dinkins Memorial Building at Selma University and the Renaissance-revival Colored Masonic Temple in Birmingham. Robert Robinson Taylor was inducted into the Postal Service’s Black Heritage Stamp series as the 38th honoree. His great granddaughter, former White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett spoke about his legacy.
Julian Abele
Julian Abele was the first Black architecture graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. Academy of Fine Arts. Abele was chief designer of the Horace Trumbauer firm. He designed more than 400 buildings including Beaux Arts buildings for the Philadelphia Free Library and Museum of Art, Harvard’s Widener Library, and mansions throughout Newport and New York City.
Julian Abele’s most notable work is at Duke University campus where he designed 30 Gothic and Georgian buildings including Duke University’s chapel, library, stadium, medical school, and hospital.
McKissack Company
Moses McKissack III learned the architecture trade from his father and grandfather. McKissack III founded the McKissack Company in 1905. He and his brother Calvin became registered architects in 1922 after the state of Tennessee began requiring builders to be licensed and registered. The two men got their license via correspondence school and became the first licensed Black architects in the Southeastern United States.
McKissack and McKissack Company is the oldest Black-own architecture firm in the United States. The firm has designed many of the historically Black colleges and universities in the southeastern states; and more than 6,000 structures.
The Carnegie library at Tennessee State University and The Hubbard House at MaHarry Medical College are among McKissack buildings listed on the national registry of historic places. The 99th Pursuit Squadron Airbase in Tuskegee, Ala., training grounds for the Tuskegee airmen was among McKissack and McKissack Company's most notable projects. At the time, it was the largest federal contract ever awarded to a Black-owned firm.