Plenary Closes with Presidential Medals and Special Honors for Whitney Young recipient Norma Merrick Sklarek, FAIA
Plus heartfelt thanks and an invite to San Francisco next year
 Summary: As the 2008 AIA convention entered its third and last day, thoughts of gathering again next year in San Francisco surfaced as First Vice President /President-Elect Marvin Malacha, FAIA, introduced the 2009 National Convention Chair Patricia Belton Oliver, AIA, San Francisco Convention Chairs William Rogers, AIA, and Beverly Prior, AIA, who invited everyone out to the City by the Bay next May. The theme of the 2009 convention will be “The Power of Diversity.”
AIA President Marshall E. Purnell, FAIA, Introduced the newly elected AIA officers—First Vice President/President Elect George H. Miller, FAIA; Vice Presidents Walter J. Hainsfurther, AIA, and Patricia Loeffelman, FAIA; and Secretary Stephen K. Loos, AIA—and the rest of the 2009 executive committee.
 A Court of Honor and 82,000 Hugs for the inimitable Norma Sklarek, FAIA
AIA President Marshall E. Purnell, FAIA, brought the audience back to 1968, a time of social turmoil that witnessed civil rights activist Whitney M. Young Jr. serving as keynote speaker for the AIA national convention. Young challenged the AIA and its members to take action, get engaged with the great issues of the time, and use their education and training to become a force for positive social change. Creating a more inclusive profession was among the initiatives the AIA launched in response. One of these initiatives was creation of a special award to recognize the contributions of an architect or organization that exemplifies the profession’s responsibility to be a role model of and an engaged advocate for a more just and inclusive society. Named for Whitney Young Jr., this award is bestowed annually by the AIA Board of Directors.
“Every Whitney Young Award is an occasion to celebrate. Every recipient is special,” Purnell noted. “However, this year’s recipient has earned a particularly honored place in our profession and in the hearts of many of us. So we’re going an extra mile to celebrate. After 40 years—40 years!—we’ve finally gotten around to presenting this award to a woman. And what a woman! What an extraordinary human being! Over the course of her career, Norma Sklarek shattered barriers again and again.”
Sklarek’s litany of “firsts,” nearly a half a century long, includes the first African-American woman to be graduated with a BArch from Columbia University, the first registered African-American female architect in the nation, the first black female Fellow of the AIA, and head of the first architecture firm to be formed and managed by an African-American woman: Siegel, Sklarek, Diamond. Purnell announced a “Court of Honor” for Norma Sklarek and called to the stage all past Whitney Young Award recipients to take part. Eleven award recipients assembled as Purnell presented the award citation, which read in part:
“A professional life filled with career firsts,
She shattered racial and gender barriers
As an accomplished and generous professional whose
Quiet determination in the face of adversity made it possible
For those with dreams and aspirations who followed …
A positive force of change, she is truly
The “Rosa Parks of Architecture.”
 “During my architectural career, I have found that hard work and perseverance always win in the end. It is a philosophy I was raised with. It is the way I have lived my life,” Sklarek said. “I have never strived for an award such as the one you are bestowing upon me today. I have never felt that I should be rewarded for doing the things I find most gratifying and for the knowledge that I have been blessed to share with others, helping them achieve their goals in becoming an architect … The appreciation and recognition I have received from architects and students whom I’ve mentored through the years has been rewarding enough.
“I stand here as living proof that no matter what your race or gender, architecture is one field where your hard work, perseverance, and talent can be recognized and rewarded,” Sklarek concluded. “So don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise. I never did! … It is with great pleasure and humility that I accept this kind award.”
 Ambassador Young calls forth the dreamers
Purnell told the audience that it was time to widen the lens on the convention theme, “We the People.” Thursday’s presentation by Millard Fuller explored the role of the architect in serving humankind’s most basic need—shelter. Friday’s theme panel illuminated the possibilities of how design can and should be addressing the challenge of manmade and natural disaster to ensure the sustainability of the city. “Today we take a global perspective,” Purnell said, “To assist us, we have invited a man who moves easily among all three realms—individual, city, and international.” He introduced Ambassador Andrew Young, founding principal and chair of GoodWorks International, whose unmatched career includes service as an ordained minister and top aide to Martin Luther King Jr., U.S. congressman, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, mayor of Atlanta, and co-chair of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.
Young challenged the architects to find a way to create a future that is inclusive, sustainable, and creates jobs for people. “It’s up to the brainpower in this room to come up with a strategy for sustainability,” he said … ”See the world as it should be and figure out the financing … we can make this world work. We must make our world work.” (Read more about Young’s presentation. Watch the video. [link])
“Ambassador Young, since we and millions upon millions of others around the world have been the beneficiaries of your many gifts, it’s fitting that we send you forth to do more good work, encouraged by this token of our respect and affection,” Purnell told Young, as he presented him with a Presidential Citation, which noted, in part:
“He has been true to God’s calling
to be a light that rebukes the darkness,
casting off the heavy burden of hate
for the emancipation of the spirit that is love.”
International collaboration: Five receive Presidential Medals
The session’s participants honored the five recipients of the Presidential Medal, which was created to celebrate the free exchange of ideas across borders:
- President Chang-soo Kim, FKIA, Hon. AIA, Korean Institute of Architects
- President Abel Salazar Vargas, Hon. AIA, Colegio de Arquitectos de Costa Rica
- President-elect Paule Boutin, FIRAC, Hon. AIA, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada
- President Howard Tanner, FRAIA, Hon. AIA, Royal Australian Institute of Architects
- President Sunand Prasad, PRIBA, Hon. AIA, Royal Institute of British Architects.
 UIA President Gaetan Siew, Hon. FAIA, brought greetings from the 1.5 million architects who belong to the international union. “I would like you to come from Boston to Torino, our World Congress next month,” he said. “I would like you to be mobile and to show this America—open to the world—and share your experiences of cultural attractiveness and diversity with all the architects of the world.”
It takes a village . . .
Purnell wrapped up the session with sincere thanks to the chair of the Boston Society of Architects/AIA Convention Committee Carole Colin Wedge, FAIA; Convention Continuing Education Chair Mike Broshar, FAIA; and 2008 National Chair Cheryl I. McAfee-Mitchell, FAIA, as well as the national staff and the staff of BSA, the exhibitors, and McGraw-Hill Construction.
 “Every human being comes to Earth with sealed orders. Ours is a single word—‘service,’” he said. … “Let me leave you with these words from Martin Luther King: ‘Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. Travel home safely, and when you get there do both great and small things for your profession, for your community, and for our home, Planet Earth.”
Next year in San Francisco! |
