Curtis Moody, FAIA

by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: Curtis Moody, FAIA, is the founder and principal of the largest African- American owned architecture firm in the U.S. Begun as Moody and Associates in 1982, Curt Moody partnered with Howard Nolan, PE, the following year to create Moody Nolan, Inc. Now, with 160 employees and offices in Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati; Indianapolis; and Nashville, Moody Nolan is actively garnering national awards and promoting “diversity by design.”

Education: I am a graduate of the Ohio State University School of Architecture, bachelor of science and [have pursued] continuing education at Ohio State and Harvard Graduate School over several years. I thought about [getting a master’s of architecture], but felt that there were a lot of courses I could take that didn’t lead to a degree, but benefited the business, so that’s what I’ve done.

Hobbies: Fishing, all kinds. I fish on lakes, oceans, rivers. I do it all.

Current read: Magazine articles and things of that nature: a lot of professional magazines.

Being diverse by design: It means that our staff is diverse because we designated we should be. We felt that we should be a model of what we hope other businesses seek to do. But, I also felt that the designs we offer should not be static. We don’t have a style that we present that you get a “Moody Nolan” building when you hire us, which always looks a certain way. We don’t do that. We’re diverse people and we have diverse clients and we deliver diverse solutions as creatively as we can.

Architect, or African-American architect? Just an architect. We can’t help the fact that I am who I am. There are clients who have issues to address when it comes to how they have been contracting. We have universities we’ve worked at that have never had an African-American firm as the lead firm, even if they have had many in minor roles, typically 10 to 15 percent participation. In our growth we also had take those minor roles, because there were times when we were only a partner to somebody else who had the responsibility for the project.

Today, our goal is to come in as a good architect in our own right that can compete against other good architects. If we happen to get consideration because of a need to address diversity as well, that’s fine. But for us, that’s a by-product of who we are.

Is the profession on the right track to increasing diversity? [There’s] a long, long way to go. We still aren’t touching the students in the lower grade levels, to whom we need to offer this career path. For some reason, architecture is one career that many people don’t think of, partly because most of our educators have a belief that the mathematics that are necessary rule a lot of people out. I’ve found counselors sometimes rule out students who actually have an artistic flair and are good thinkers, but maybe aren’t very well versed in math and science, so they’ll push them to a different career path. That’s got to change, because though the math is substantial, my belief is that if you have an interest and a passion in architecture, you will grow in the areas that you need to. You will master the math and the science because the ultimate goal is to get beyond that. I think we’ve got to do a better job of exposing students to this profession and what it really takes to be an architect.

When I speak about being underrepresented, I’m talking about ethnic groups, because that’s where I see a lower percentage than what should be happening in this industry. It really doesn’t mirror the population. We have far [fewer] minorities represented in this profession than in most professions.

What’s going to have to happen is [an increase in] the exposure—press that shows that success by African-American firms can be achieved. It gives incentive. When I was in school, I had never seen an African-American architect. I had known a friend’s father who had done some drafting in college, but never finished. From a role model standpoint, you start to say that people who look like me can’t achieve those goals. Well, [when] we show that people who look different can be successful and are successful, then we start to get more of the encouragement to pursue it. That has to happen more. But if you take the history of any major professional magazine—Architectural Record and any of the others—you will rarely see African- American design architects being profiled as the desired entities of this profession, and that’s got to change.

Mentoring at Moody Nolan: We have what we call Moody Nolan University. Staff members [provide] lunch programs, some of which are tied to product vendors. Some are tied to what’s new in the industry, but all of it is geared to educate our staff in various ways. Mentoring is done through staff association with different individuals as well as these programs, so we promote helping your other staff members. When it comes to mentoring, we do that not just inside the firm, but we visit a lot of public schools where we present to students not just on career day, but many different times of the year. We have tour groups through the office on a regular basis for many different schools, which we believe is part of a mentoring program as well.

Advice on increasing diversity: Any firm that has the desire can do it. We’ve often heard that there are areas where it’s hard to find employees, but there are many schools throughout the country that are graduating some number of African-American intern architects. You have to partner with those programs.

If you wait and say, “We hope someone comes knocking at our door, that’s going to help promote diversity,” it’s not likely to happen. You have to go out. You have to make it a mission of your company to go out and seek: to employ diversity. When we talk about diverse by design, we’re saying that if we’re hired and that client gives us a mission, program, budget, and schedule and we’re asked to achieve that, we will.

In our own organization, if we want to be diverse, then we’ve got to design it. We’ve got to design a plan that keeps us diverse. We’ve done that and we maintain that more than many firms that we know. I made the statement about setting an example. We’re not just an African-American owned firm, we’re an African-American owned firm that is diverse. That is saying that if we’re asking for others to be diverse, then we can’t just be 100 percent African-American and say, “Hire us and meet your diversity standards.” No, we’re diverse as well.

Professional influences: Well, it was not an architect. It was actually a contractor, the owner of an African-American owned construction company called the Smoot Corporation. It has offices in D.C. and is headquartered here in Columbus. I met Lewis Smoot years ago before I started my company, and he represented himself as a professional in the industry. That caught my attention. He was what I considered a very well-off individual. He had a very successful company, and I felt the way he carried himself and handled his position was just great.

Then, too, a member of my church: the custodian. I know that sounds strange, but I one time met a man at my church who I thought was the president of a major corporation. I spoke to this guy. He just looked the part. He was everything that I had ever seen in any CEO at any major bank or corporation in his mannerism. I found out later he was the custodian for the church. It surprised me that this person carried himself in a way that if you put him in a crowd of CEOs anywhere, you would’ve thought he was one of the most intelligent CEOs. I thought that’s the kind of person I want to be: someone whom you could put with any group of people, whether they’re high up in the world or not so high up and I could fit it in and they’d say, “You know this guy’s all right.” So, that’s what developed me.