When Kimberly Dowdell becomes president of the American Institute of Architects next month, her ascent will be noteworthy. Ms. Dowdell, an architect in a profession that is overwhelmingly white and male, is a Black woman, the first to fill the post in the group’s 166-year history.1
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But the scarcity of Black architects can be self-perpetuating, Black industry observers say. Youngsters may not learn about the profession if there are no architects in their communities. Then, too, Black parents may be wary of the profession if architecture enters their lives only as a threat, as with the arrival of luxury housing that displaces neighborhood residents.2 And parents may be reluctant to incur debt to pay for a child’s architecture degree — which can require thousands of dollars in supplies on top of tuition — given that the median salary (under $83,000) lags those in adjacent fields like engineering.
The cost of licensure is another reason that architecture has been regarded as a profession of privilege. Candidates must pass six tests of the Architectural Registration Exam — totaling more than $1,400 — and it is common for candidates to have to take tests multiple times to pass. Practice materials alone are expensive.
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- 1. African Americans make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population, but only 1.8 percent of licensed architects in the country are Black, according to the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. Fewer than a quarter of the nearly 120,000 licensed architects in the United States are women, and not even one half of 1 percent of architects are Black women.
- 2. “When you see architecture as the enemy, it’s difficult to have children say, ‘I want to do that,’” said Craig Wilkins, associate professor of architecture at the University of Michigan.
