Architect Norma Merrick Sklarek ’50

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Norma Merrick Sklarek, who attended Barnard in 1944-45, broke ground not only as the first African American woman licensed architect in both New York and California but also as the first Black woman elected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. Her career shattered tremendous barriers as she rose to the top of her field with notable projects, including Terminal One at Los Angeles International Airport, the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. 

Born Norma Merrick in 1926 in Harlem, to parents who were Trinidadian immigrants, Sklarek proved early on to be an independent thinker, excelling at projects typically not reserved for young girls. While her mother, who was a seamstress, taught her how to sew her own clothing, her physician father encouraged his daughter to learn carpentry and to complete home improvement projects alongside him. 

Sklarek also showed a remarkable aptitude academically. On her entrance exam for Hunter College High School, one of New York’s most rigorous all-girls schools, she received the highest math score in the city. During her time at Hunter, her parents encouraged her to follow her father into medicine, but at the suggestion of her parents, Sklarek landed on architecture, which aligned with her interest in art and mathematics. 

At the time, Columbia University had not accepted any women into its architecture school, so a dean suggested that she enter Barnard and then apply as a transfer student to increase her chances of admission. In 1944, Sklarek enrolled at Barnard. The dean’s plan worked, and in her sophomore year, she moved across Broadway, becoming one of the first women accepted into Columbia’s School of Architecture. Sklarek graduated in 1950 and, soon after, passed the architecture licensing exam on her first effort. 

The year Sklarek was attempting to secure a job as an architect, the country was on the precipice of great social and political change. She applied to and was ejected by 19 firms. But by 1955, the year Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, sparking a boycott and the Civil Rights Movement, Sklarek was hired at the prestigious New York-based firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. There, she developed a reputation for being able to successfully manage difficult projects. 

Five years later, Sklarek headed to Los Angeles, joining the firm of Gruen Associates. In her 20 years there, she was promoted to the position of director of architecture and worked on a number of projects throughout Southern California — including Topanga Plaza, the area’s first enclosed shopping mall, and Fox Hills Mall (now Westfield Culver City), L.A.’s first tri-level mall. In 1980, Sklarek left Gruen Associates and racked up another first: becoming the Welton Becket firm’s first woman licensed architect, when she joined as a vice president.

It was not until the death of her husband, fellow architect Rolf Sklarek, in 1984 that Sklarek decided it was time to work for herself. A year later, she launched Siegel Sklarek Diamond, a firm with fellow Los Angeles architects Margot Siegel and Kate Diamond. It became one of the largest women-owned firms in the United States, with clients that included the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and the Los Angeles Metro Rail.

Always seeking a new challenge, Sklarek left her own firm and in 1989 joined the Jerde Partnership as principal of project management. While there, she would take on what would be her last major project — the 4.2-million-square-foot Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. After the completion of the nation’s largest shopping mall, Sklarek retired.