Anyone who has walked through the Barnard campus can attest to the fact that the College houses remarkable architecture. Yet what many may not know is that it was the academic home to a maverick in the field. Norma Merrick Sklarek, who attended Barnard in 1944-45, was the first African American woman licensed architect in both New York and California — as well as the first Black woman elected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. Sklarek’s career was groundbreaking not simply because she shattered tremendous barriers but also because she was one of the visionaries behind several cultural institutions, 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 was set on the path of independence and thinking outside the box. 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. Though those were not typical hobbies for a girl at the time, she succeeded at them.
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 the career-focused Sklarek wanted to go a different route. Her parents suggested architecture, which appealed to her interest in art and mathematics.
At the time, Columbia 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 continued to excel, including passing the architecture licensing exam on her first effort.
In those years, the United States was on the precipice of great social and political change and it was at this time that Sklarek was attempting to secure a job as an architect — applying to and being rejected by 19 firms. 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, Skalrek was ultimately hired at the New York-based firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and soon 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 structures 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.
[Architecture slideshow: Embassy, Pacific Design Center, Topanga, Fox Hills, Mall of America]
Visionary architecture
Sklarek had many career achievements, but she also had challenges. As her son, David Merrick Fairweather, told Columbia Magazine, “When she walked into a room, she would run into some incredible prejudice.” It is not surprising that on retiring, the mother of two dedicated time to training and mentoring architects. In 1980, the American Institute of Architects honored her with the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award, the organization’s highest honor. It was the first time it was given to a woman, and the award’s citation noted Sklarek as “the ‘Rosa Parks of Architecture.’”
“During my architectural career, I have found that hard work and perseverance always win in the end,” she said in her acceptance speech, reflecting on her 37-year career. “It is a philosophy I was raised with. It is the way I have lived my life. … I stand here as living proof that no matter what your race or gender, architecture is one field where your hard work, perseverance, and talent can be recognized and rewarded. So don’t let anyone try to tell you otherwise. I never did!”
In honor of Sklarek, who passed away in 2021, Barnard created the Norma Merrick Sklarek Lecture. Sponsored by the Barnard Architecture Department, the annual event invites groundbreaking and influential designers to be in dialogue with the Barnard community.
To learn more about Black students at Barnard, visit the Zora Neale Hurston Centennial. “You Oughta Know” is produced in collaboration with the Barnard Archives and Special Collections.
