Norma Merrick Sklarek

Norma Merrick Sklarek ( born April 15, 1928 in Harlem, New York City; † February 6, 2012 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California ) was an American architect. She was the first licensed African-American architect of the USA.

Life and work

Norma Merrick Sklarek attended Hunter College High School and later studied architecture at Barnard College and Columbia University, where she received her degree in 1950. Four years later she was awarded in 1954 as the first African-American woman in the United States at all for admission as a designer who was in New York. Another admission she received in 1962 for California. Since they initially could not find work, she worked for the New York Department of Public Works. Later she worked for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and became the first African-American Architecture Director for Gruen and Associates in Los Angeles. After two decades, she left the company and founded again with Siegel, Sklarek, Diamond her own architectural firm, also as the first African-American woman.

As the first African American woman she became in 1980 member of the American Institute of Architects. After her retirement she worked for the California Architects Board. The Howard University founded and gives it to honor the Norma Merrick Sklarek Architectural Scholarship Award.

Designed building

U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan

Fox Plaza, San Francisco