Visionary architect Norma Merrick Sklarek died last week, Monday, February 6^th. She was a pioneer in the field.

Norma Sklarek was the first African American woman to:

• graduate with an architecture degree from Columbia University in 1950
• become a licensed architect in New York and California
• be elected as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture (FAIA)
• form her own firm, Siegel-Sklarek-Diamond, which grew to be the largest female architectural partnership in the country

In 2007, she was the first woman awarded the AIA Whitney M. Young, Jr. Service Award. 

Her notable projects include the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Los Angeles’ Pacific Design Center and Terminal 1 at LAX, San Francisco’s Fox Plaza, and San Bernadino, California’s City Hall. You can see Norma speaking about her life, achievements, and experiences as a female African American architect at http://www.visionaryproject.org/sklareknorma/.

(info via Columbia GSAPP)