Barbara Laurie, AIA, NOMA

by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: Barbara Laurie is an associate with Washington, D.C.-based Devrouax & Purnell and president-elect of the D.C. chapter of the AIA. She is a founding member of the Organization of Black Designers and professor of architecture at Howard University. A dedicated mentor to students and interns, Laurie draws inspiration from “the young ones” while pushing them to realize their potential.

Profession: Architect and professor of design at Howard University’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Science.

Years in practice: This is my 21st year in practice.

Education: I received my BArch from Howard University.

Reason for becoming an architect: I guess when I was young I always looked at buildings and thought I could do better. I had an interest in art because my father is a painter, and I drew floor plans before I even knew what they were.

I grew up in a very suburban environment where I didn’t know any architects. I had just read about them in magazines. There was this feature article in Ebony magazine one year that talked about black women in architecture, and I remember that distinctly. I read that over and over. In fact, I kept the magazine and now have met most of the people in the article, like Kathie Prigmore, who’s a Fellow. She was the youngest one—she was only 22 or 23 at the time—and was working with the Army Corps of Engineers. They had this photograph of her at her desk and I thought, “God, that’s me. That’s who I want to be.”

Then, fast forward to being at Howard University, where she came to teach. That’s where I met her. She became associate dean and I started teaching, so we became colleagues. We have been friends ever since, but I always remind her that I saw her in that magazine and that was one of my inspirations—seeing my face in that magazine when I looked at her.

Source of inspiration: A lot of my inspiration now comes from wanting to be involved with young people in coming up with solutions. I love the interns and the younger architects at my office. Some of them actually are my past students. I teach at school to get re-energized because the students are just so bright and positive and they want to be great designers one day. I see the younger people here at Devrouax & Purnell as students. You want to teach them everything and you want to listen to what they’re saying about their project ideas because usually their perspective is very pure and simple. So, I would say that students inspire me, both in practice and at school.

I would say that students inspire me, both in practice and at school

On mentoring at Devrouax & Purnell: It’s not a formal mentor program. We just do it by nature and we’ve been doing it for years. There are four associates, and I’m one of them, who have been here for 20 years plus. We’re basically the project managers and lead designers and we just always have had this posture of mentoring. There are a lot of kids who come through here during the year, either because they’re in some high school outreach program where they shadow us for a couple of weeks or they’re summer interns. But, they always come back and visit. They come back when they’re in school working on their projects, and they come back just because they’re in town. We try to maintain that. There’s this young lady I just saw a couple of weeks ago, and someone asked me, “How do you know each other?” Well, I’ve known her since she was 16, and she’s now 30. She came here as a summer intern and didn’t know if she wanted to do architecture or not. She eventually did go to architecture school and she’s matriculating. She’s working in a firm and she’ll eventually get licensed, I’m sure, but she always kept in touch with me. It’s wonderful to watch the young people move through school all the way into practice and become real people.

It’s wonderful to watch the young people move through school all the way into practice and become real people

Last book read: Well, actually I’m in the middle of a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright. This is an odd thing for me. It’s not what I normally would be reading, but I’m reading it because I also teach an elective course on women in architecture and design in the 20th and 21st centuries. In researching for that course, I found that there were women embedded in these firms who were really important to how that firm grew and became so important. I was reading about Marion Mahoney and how she was involved in Wright’s office and had such an impact, but you never hear about her. So, because I was trying to find out more about her, it made me want to read more about him to find out if, in the history of his story, there was anything about her. I’m midway into the book and I haven’t seen anything yet, but that’s why I am reading it.

Most pressing issue in architecture education: I would say the pressing issue is students wanting to be licensed. In the last 10 years, our students have been able to go wherever they want for their first internship. A lot of students, once they get an internship, are staying at these firms and not bouncing around like they used to. Some of them, quite frankly, don’t see the need to get registered because they don’t see that as something valuable. Now, I know at Howard, we preach “start your own firm.” We tell them to get this internship, get that experience, and then make sure you’re ready to practice on your own if you need to because the bottom might fall out anytime. Right now, business has been good, so there are a lot of interns who may not get licensed just because it’s been so good for them to be in a firm. They don’t see the need to have that piece of paper for themselves. Obviously, that starts in education. It starts in letting them know up front that they need to do this regardless of what other things they want to do in the industry. But we preach that they need to have a license no matter what. After five years of this grueling stuff, it only makes sense to solidify it with a license.

On increasing the number of minority architects: I’ve been asked that question many times, but I’m not a good person to answer the question because I’ve not had it as an issue. This is an African-American firm and we hire everybody. We’re international, and we’re men and women. I’m just used to that environment. Our university is a black university and there are students from everywhere around the world, so I’m always in an environment that’s quite diverse. When both your practice and education environment is really a reflection of the world, how can you not be diverse? I think it has to be your posture. I think it has to be of your nature and your culture to be diverse. I don’t know that you could teach somebody how to be diverse.

Young black and Hispanic kids need to see themselves in these positions

I think it goes back full circle to how I got here, which is: You have to see yourself. Young black and Hispanic kids need to see themselves in these positions. It’s about exposure. I think one of the great things that’s happening is that now there are a lot of programs about design for kids in elementary school, so they’re exposed to design and then they’re mentored by either young students in design schools or young professionals. They then can see themselves. They think: “I can do that too” or “I can see myself in that position.” That’s the way to do it. You have to see yourself reflected in that image.