An Architectural Pioneer

When Norma Sklarek was studying to be an architect in the late 1940s, she didn’t have any role models. In fact, there were no African American women licensed as architects in the United States when Sklarek decided to pursue that career. The Palisades resident made history in 1954 when she passed her licensing exam and earned certification in New York State. ”’Women have a rough time in architecture and you have to be willing to stick with it,’ says Sklarek, who grew up in Harlem during the Depression, the only child of West Indian parents. ”Today, out of about 120,000 licensed architects in the United States, 1,443 of those are African Americans and only 160 are African American women. ” ”’My parents wanted me to have some sort of profession,’ says Sklarek, whose warm and modest demeanor does not quickly reveal the obstacles she had to overcome in her field of choice. ”She pursued architecture because ‘it seemed to embody math and art,’ and not only did she have a knack for those subjects but ‘my mother would always remind me that the first time I ever saved money to buy something for myself, I bought an art book.’ Sklarek’s mother worked in a factory to support her husband through his education at Howard University, where he earned his medical degree. ”Sklarek attended Catholic elementary school before transferring to public junior high school (originally called PS93), where she was one of few black students. She learned early on how hard she had to work to achieve her goals when she missed her first algebra lessons due to appendicitis, and had to put in extra effort to learn the material so she would pass her final exam. ”’If you keep trying and don’t give up, you can achieve,’ says Sklarek, who went on earn a high math score on an admission test for Hunter High School, an all-girls magnet in Brooklyn that she says was ‘the best school in New York at the time.’ ”Columbia University’s School of Architecture accepted Sklarek in 1945 with minimum requirements’one year of liberal arts at Barnard College’whereas most students accepted were war vets with several years of college, some with B.A.s and M.A.s. ”A ‘subway student,’ Sklarek would do her schoolwork on the subway commute between Columbia and her home in Brooklyn. She was one of 20 students and two women to earn a bachelor of architecture degree from Columbia in 1950. ”Yet the biggest challenge for Sklarek was still ahead: getting a job in a white, male-dominated profession. ‘I applied to 19 different offices in New York and couldn’t find a job,’ says Sklarek, who had given birth to her first son, Gregory, before graduating from Columbia. ‘They weren’t hiring women or African Americans, and I didn’t know which it was [working against me].’ ”Sklarek went to work for the City of New York in a civil service job while she was studying for her licensing exam. She shocked her colleagues when she passed all seven parts of the four-day architect’s licensing exam the first time she took it, which resulted in an offer from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), one of the leading architectural and engineering firms in the United States. ”As a trailblazer in a white, male-dominated profession, Sklarek always felt highly visible. ‘If a man [employee] came in late, it wasn’t noticed, but if I came in late it was noticed. I was always punctual and discouraged any social talk. I would come in early and start working right away instead of reading the newspaper.’ ”While she worked at SOM, Sklarek also taught an architecture course two evenings a week to students at New York City Community College. ‘I had to get over my shyness,’ Sklarek says. ” When she moved to California in 1960 with her two young sons, Gregory and David, Sklarek again found that several of the firms she contacted had never hired a woman, though they didn’t object to it. She joined Gruen Associates in Los Angeles, where she became the first African American woman director of architecture, responsible for the technical and functioning aspects of commercial projects such as the San Bernardino City Hall (1973), the Pacific Design Center (1976) and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo (1976). ”Sklarek stayed with Gruen for 20 years, and during that time, she met and married fellow Gruen architect Rolf Sklarek, a German Jew and graduate of the Bauhaus who had been imprisoned under Hitler. ‘We traveled all around the world together looking at architecture,’ says Sklarek, who accompanied Rolf on his return trip to Germany in 1970. ”Rolf designed the modern-style Rustic Canyon home they lived in together for 20 years until his death in 1985. Sklarek lives there today with her husband of 19 years, Cornelius Welch, M.D. ”The first African American woman to be licensed as an architect in California, Sklarek was admitted to the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1966 and became a Fellow in 1980, the first black woman to be honored by her peers with a fellowship in AIA. ”Among Sklarek’s larger projects was Terminal One of the Los Angeles International Airport, built just in time for the 1984 Olympics. Then vice president of Welton Becket Associates, Sklarek served as project director for Terminal One, which accommodates 10 million passengers, annually. ”’At first, the architects working on the airport were skeptical because a female was in charge of the project,’ Sklarek says. ‘But a number of projects were going on there at the time and mine was the only one on schedule.’ ”Now, L.A. Mayor James Hahn has proposed a $9-billion plan to modernize LAX, which has not been remodeled since 1984. Hahn’s plan involves demolishing Terminals 1, 2 and 3. However, City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski has launched an alternative that postpones some of the more controversial elements of Hahn’s proposal, such as the destruction of the terminals, until further examination. Sklarek’s other projects include many shopping centers throughout the United States, including the Santa Monica Place Mall, the Oakdale Shopping Center in Minneapolis, Park Center Commercial Complex in San Jose and Fox Plaza in San Francisco, which is half commercial and half residential. ”In the 1980s, Sklarek became the first African American woman to form her own architectural firm, Siegel-Sklarek-Diamond in Los Angeles, which was the largest woman-owned and mostly woman-staffed architectural firm in the United States. However, the firm was short lived since ‘it’s tough for women to get the projects, and clients are used to working with men. ”’I’m proud to be an example for women and African Americans,’ says Sklarek, who was a principal at The Jerde Partnership (who designed Horton Plaza in San Diego) from 1989 to 1996, in charge of project management and review of the functional and technological aspects of projects. ”Last September, Governor Gray Davis appointed Sklarek to California Architects Board (CAB). She has also served as a supplemental examination commissioner for the board and as a master juror for the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), grading the design and site planning licensing papers. She currently serves on the CAB’s Professional Qualifications Committee and Regulatory and Enforcement Committee. ”A member and chair of AIA’s National Ethics Council (NEC) from 1993 to 1996, Sklarek taught for a number of years at UCLA on the graduate architecture staff, and has been a guest lecturer at several universities, such as Columbia, Hampton in Virginia, Iowa State and Howard University in Washington, D.C. In her honor, Howard University offers the Norma Merrick Sklarek Architectural Scholarship Award.