Research Series: Where are my People?
Where are the Women? Measuring Progress on Gender in Architecture
Kendall A. Nicholson, Ed.D., Assoc. AIA, NOMA, LEED GA
ACSA Director of Research and Information
June 2020
Where are my People? Black People in Architecture
Kendall A. Nicholson, Ed.D., Assoc. AIA, NOMA, LEED GA
ACSA Director of Research and Information
August 14, 2020
Where Are My People? Hispanic and Latinx in Architecture
Kendall A. Nicholson, Ed.D., Assoc. AIA, NOMA, LEED GA
ACSA Director of Research and Information
October 9, 2020
Where Are My People? Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander in Architecture
Kendall A. Nicholson, Ed.D., Assoc. AIA, NOMA, LEED GA
ACSA Director of Research and Information
December 18, 2020
Film: The Donut King
Ted’s story is one of fate, love, survival, hard knocks, and redemption. It’s the rags to riches story of a refugee escaping Cambodia, arriving in America in 1975 and building an unlikely multi-million-dollar empire baking America’s favorite pastry, the donut. Ted sponsored hundreds of visas for incoming refugees and helped them get on their feet teaching them the ways of the donut business. By 1979 he was living the American Dream. But, in life, great rise can come with great falls.
Film: Crip Camp
In the early 1970s, teenagers with disabilities faced a future shaped by isolation, discrimination and institutionalization. Camp Jened, a ramshackle camp “for the handicapped” (a term no longer used) in the Catskills, exploded those confines. Jened was their freewheeling Utopia, a place with summertime sports, smoking and make-out sessions awaiting everyone, and campers experienced liberation and full inclusion as human beings. Their bonds endured as many migrated West to Berkeley, California — a hotbed of activism where friends from Camp Jened realized that disruption, civil disobedience, and political participation could change the future for millions…Read more.
Film: Beyond the Visible - Hilma af Klint
Hilma af Klint was an abstract artist before the term existed, a visionary, trailblazing figure who, inspired by spiritualism, modern science, and the riches of the natural world around her, began in 1906 to reel out a series of huge, colorful, sensual, strange works without precedent in painting. The subject of a recent smash retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, af Klint was for years an all-but-forgotten figure in art historical discourse, before her long-delayed rediscovery. Director Halina Dryschka’s dazzling, course correcting documentary describes not only the life and craft of af Klint, but also the process of her mischaracterization and erasure by both a patriarchal narrative of artistic progress and capitalistic determination of artistic value.
Film: The Forty-Year-Old Version
New York Times Review: By A.O. Scott
“For purposes of clarity and in keeping with this publication’s style guidelines, I’m going to refer to Radha, the main character in “The Forty-Year-Old Version,” by her first name. The Radha Blank who wrote and directed it, and who plays Radha, will get the more formal last-name treatment.
You could argue that it’s a distinction without much of a difference, since this movie, premiering Friday on Netflix, is obviously — poignantly, hilariously, disarmingly — autobiographical. But Blank is equally concerned with what it means and how it feels to be an artist, which is to say a maker of metaphorical masks and literal alter egos. Radha, like her creator, is a playwright, and as such is well aware that authenticity can be both an imperative and a trap — in particular for an artist of color working in a milieu (downtown, nonprofit theater) dominated by white assumptions and sensitivities...Read more.
NCARB by the Numbers 2020
Explore key insights into data along the path to licensure, diversity in the profession, and more.
AIA Report: Diversity in the Profession of Architecture
“Diversity in the Profession of Architecture,” published by AIA in 2016, examines the factors that influence diversity in the workplace and how they can determine career advancement opportunities and challenges, work-life balance, and attrition rates. The report also offers next steps for architecture, as a field, to pivot by attracting and maintaining a more diverse workforce.
Building off a 2015 survey, the report reflects an effective collaboration between AIA, the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the National Architectural Accrediting Board, the National Organization of Minority Architects, the Coalition of Community College Architecture Programs, and the American Institute of Architecture Students.
Film: The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Review:
There’s a scene in director Joe Talbot’s Sundance winner “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” that you might not buy if you’ve never spent time in the City by the Bay. One of the film’s protagonists sits in a Muni booth awaiting his bus. He is soon joined by an older gentleman who places some sort of protective barrier on the seat before sitting down. The older man is stark naked. Our hero is completely unfazed by this. The two men briefly commiserate on how the city is changing, invaded by outsiders who simply do not get what it means to those born and bred here; these new folks are recasting a beautiful thing in their own ugly image. This won’t be the first time these opinions are expressed on the Muni, but it’s the only time there’s a naked dude in the conversation. Read more.
Art Series: Black Diaspora
ARTIST: AMOAKO BOAFO
With its bold colors and patterns, Diaspora Series (2018, ongoing) is a celebration of Black life. It aims at challenging the notions of Blackness that objectify and dehumanize by equating it with negativity. Portraying individuals from the Diaspora and the continent by highlighting self perception and beauty, it invites for a reflection on Blackness and asks for an understanding of its diversity and complexity.
Podcast: Is inequality inevitable?
The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but it’s been a lot harder for some. Here in the United States, we’ve seen how huge gaps in income, access to healthcare, and quality of education are being exacerbated by these extraordinary times. In the second episode of our podcast, Rashida and I ask a big question that has never felt more urgent: is inequality inevitable? Listen to the podcast here.
Article Series: Increasing Diversity in Architecture
Architect Magazine
A three-part series on diversity in architecture that highlights the barriers to entry, designer-led solutions to increasing diversity, and improving representation in the building profession.
Increasing Diversity in Architecture: Barriers to Entry
Increasing Diversity in Architecture: Designer-Led Solutions