Episode 08: Beverly Lorraine Greene & Georgia Louise Harris Brown
In this special episode of She Builds Podcast, we tell the story of two women! The first African-American woman to be licensed as an architect in the United States was Beverly Lorraine Greene. Beverly was born on October 4th, 1915 in Chicago, Illinois. Beverly earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1936. One year later she earned a Masters of Science degree in City Planning and Housing from the same university. After graduating from the University of Illinois, she went on to work for the Chicago Housing Authority, and at just 27 she became licensed making her the first African-American woman licensed architect in Illinois and in North America. Working alongside Marcel Breuer, Beverly worked on projects like the UNESCO United Nations headquarters in Paris, France. Unfortunately, Beverly didn't get to see the completion of the majority of her projects with the exception of one ... the Unity Funeral Chapel, where her funeral service took place on August 22, 1957 after she passed away at the age of forty-one. Georgia Louise Harris Brown was born in 1918 in Topeka, Kansas. After spending two years at Washburn University in Kansas (major unknown), she enrolled in the School of Engineering and Architecture at the University of Kansas in Lawrence while also taking evening classes taught by Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. In 1949 at age 31, Louise became a licensed architect for the state of Illinois making her the second African-American woman to do so in the US. Louise developed structural calculations for reinforced steel and concrete buildings, including a few of Mies’s projects like the Promontory and the 860 Lake Shore Drive Apartment buildings. Louise was looking for more opportunities and wanted to escape the Jim Crow laws that were gaining ground in the US, so in January 1954, she received a permanent residency visa in Brazil and started working there. In January 1954, Louise moved to Brazil to escape the Jim Crow laws and seek more opportunities. She learned Portuguese and worked on several projects including, the Kodak Factory. She also became licensed in Brazil which allowed her to start several of her own firms there. After returning to the States in 1993 due to illness and retirement, Louise passed away at the age of eighty-one in the year 1999.
Caryatid: Tiffany Brown
Tiffany Brown is a woman of many things. She is a mother, an architecture professional based out of Detroit, Michigan. She is also a Project Manager at the Detroit office SmithGroup, she is a professor at Lawrence Technology University’s College of Architecture and Design. Just this year, Tiffany was awarded the AIA 2020 Associates Award. On top of everything that she has done and accomplished, Tiffany started an initiative called 400 Forward. 400 Forward was named in honor of the 400th living African-American woman recently becoming a licensed architect in 2017. This initiative aims to seek out and support the next 400 licensed women architects with an underlying focus on African-American girls through exposure, mentorship, and financial assistance. 400 FORWARD has been launched as a comprehensive program that introduces young girls to architecture, provides scholarships and wrap-around services to college students, and pays for study material and licensing exams for African-American women in architecture.
References:
“Beverly Loraine Greene.” Beverly Loraine Greene, www.docomomo-us.org/designer/beverly-loraine-greene. Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.
“Georgia Louise Harris Brown.” Pioneering Women of American Architecture, pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/georgia-louise-harris-brown. Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.
Heath, Sienna Mae. “Power of Celebrity: Famous Female Architect Beverly Loraine Greene.” Architect Marketing Institute, 14 Nov. 2019, archmarketing.org/beverly-loraine-greene-profile-of-a-famous-female-architect.
“History | The Illinois School of Architecture.” University of Illinois School of Architecture, arch.illinois.edu/welcome/history-school. Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.
“Were the First Architects Licensed Professionals?” ThoughtCo, www.thoughtco.com/architecture-become-licensed-profession-177473#:%7E:text=The%20earliest%20architecture%20schools%20in,%2C%20and%20Tuskegee%20(1881). Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.
Wilson, Dreck Spurlock. African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. 1st ed., Routledge, 2004.
Hale, Jack. “Beverly Loraine Green & Stuy Town, New York.” The Modernist, 12 June 2020, www.the-modernist.org/news/2020/6/11/spotlight-beverly-loraine-green.
Images:
“Architect Profile Beverly Loraine Greene.” Yvette Craddock, 3 Feb. 2020, www.yvettecraddock.com/architect-profile-beverly-loraine-greene.
“Architect Profile Georgia Louise Harris Brown.” Yvette Craddock, 25 Feb. 2020, www.yvettecraddock.com/architect-profile-georgia-louise-harris-brown.
“Georgia Louise Harris Brown.” Pioneering Women of American Architecture, pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/georgia-louise-harris-brown. Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.
Heath, Sienna Mae. “Power of Celebrity: Famous Female Architect Beverly Loraine Greene.” Architect Marketing Institute, 14 Nov. 2019, archmarketing.org/beverly-loraine-greene-profile-of-a-famous-female-architect.
Koziarz, Jay. “Mies van Der Rohe’s Promontory Apartments on Its Way Landmark Status.” Curbed Chicago, 2 Aug. 2019, chicago.curbed.com/2019/8/2/20751998/landmark-promontory-apartments-mies-van-der-rohe-hyde-park.
Schumacher, Joe. “Unity Funeral Chapels Inc.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 8 July 2009, www.flickr.com/photos/jschumacher/3699189241.
Other books and articles that may be of interest based on the topics discussed in this episode:
NCARB by the Numbers: A yearly demographic report on licensure candidates and licensed professionals in the United States.
“The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” By Isabel Wilkerson
“Where Are My People? Black in Architecture” : apart of a series, research and analysis on race in the profession throughout history and today written by ACSA (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture)
