The American Institute of Architects has named the organization Riding the Vortex as the winner of the 2022 AIA Whitney M. Young Jr. Award.
The initiative’s key collaborators are Kathryn Tyler Prigmore, FAIA; Kathy Denise Dixon, FAIA; Katherine Williams, AIA; and Melissa R. Daniel, Assoc. AIA; the late architect Barbara G. Laurie was also fundamental to its success. Though its founders are largely based in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, Riding the Vortex’s reach is national. The collaboration of volunteers holds programs across the country—and, more recently, virtually—attracting and adding local architects into its ever-expanding network of mentors. It overarching objective is to increase the number of architects of color—and particularly the number of African American women—in the United States.
Melissa Daniel / courtesy Riding the Vortex
Riding the Vortex logo
In 2007, the country had 175 Black female architects. That number has grown to more than 500 today, due in large part to Riding the Vortex. Still, the number of practicing African American architects has remained stubbornly at 2% in recent decades, according to AIA in its press release announcing the award recipients. “In the early 1990s, there were just 1,800 licensed African-American architects in the country, and only 30 of them were women,” the release states. “As of the summer of 2021, those numbers have grown to 2,435 and 533, respectively, and VORTEX has been a major catalyst in the 254 percent growth in African-American women architects.”
The group’s first program was held at the 2007 AIA Convention in San Antonio, Texas, and titled “Riding the Vortex: African American Women Architects in Practice.” The name was chosen because Laurie and Prigmore felt it “best reflected how it always feels to be an African American woman in this profession.” It also astutely described how “African American Women architects function in a constant whirlwind fueled by America’s class and race issues and by many of our colleagues’ disbelief in our professional qualifications, uncertainty of our unique approach to every aspect of architecture from design to project and business management, and disbelief in our achievements.”
Subsequent programs occurred at the AIA Convention in 2008 and 2009, and at the 2008 National Organization of Minority Architects conference. Each session allows presenters to share their own experiences and connect directly with the audience through public discussion and encouragement, evolving into a substantial nationwide network of African American women at each stage of their architectural careers.
R. Steven Lewis / courtesy Riding the Vortex
Group photo following a Riding the Vortex session at the 2008 AIA National Convention in Boston
Joel Avery / courtesy Riding the Vortex
Riding the Vortex meets at the 2016 National Organization of Minority Architects conference in Los Angeles.
In nominating Riding the Vortex, McAfee3 Architects CEO Cheryl McAfee, FAIA, noted that this “creative and resilient approach … specifically address[es] the unique challenges of being an African-American woman (and others of color) in the profession and provide[s] strategies to help them meet these challenges.”
Named after the civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr., who challenged the profession at the 1968 AIA Convention to pursue progressive values in architecture, this AIA award recognizes individuals or organizations that embody social responsibility and address relevant issues such as affordable housing, inclusiveness, or universal access. The award has been presented annually since 1972.
The Whitney M. Young Jr. Award is conferred by the AIA Board of Directors and the AIA Strategic Council, from a group of three finalists identified by an Advisory Jury that was chaired by Ryan Gann, Assoc. AIA, Chicago, and comprised Shannon Gathings, Assoc. AIA, Duvall Decker Architects, Ridgeland, Miss.; Joseph Mayo, AIA, Mahlum, Seattle; David Ortega, AIA, City of Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Ariz.; and Katie Swenson, Assoc. AIA, MASS Design Group, Boston.
