Say My Name – When Sites Call Out to You for Recognition

I did not start out as an architect with any particular passion or interest in historic places or sites. Perhaps passion or urgency was caused by living in a city (New York) so full of history - with so little evidence to show for it in the part of the city I lived in. Good thing I was an architect: I could do something about it. Or could I?

Click here to register for this lecture by Roberta Washington.

Roberta Washington has been principal of Roberta Washington Architects, PC since 1983. Prior to starting her own firm, Ms. Washington worked as a health facility planner/designer for various New York City architectural firms and later ran a design studio for Maputo Province in Mozambique where she designed healthcare, educational and cultural projects. Ms. Washington is an architectural graduate of Howard University and Columbia University. In her own firm, she has designed or acted as project director for hundreds of new, renovated or restored buildings. Since 2001, Ms. Washington has researched, written and lectured about the history of black architects – primarily in New York State – and the history of black women in architecture in the U.S. Her Biographies appear in the Biographical Dictionary of African-American Architects, 1865-1945 and African American National Biography (online). Ms. Washington is also a co-curator of the “Now What?! Advocacy, Activism, and Alliances in American Architecture since 1968” online and traveling exhibit. She is a past President of the National Organization of Minority Architects, a past chairperson of the New York State Board of Architecture and a past Commissioner of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. She is currently on the board of Save Harlem Now ! an organization which serves to educate the community about the loss of, and often leads the fight to protect, important remnants of history past.

Originally published at architecture.nd.edu.