Introduction
Does black architecture exists? If so, why has it been ignored for so many centuries? I will be defending African-American architecture by discussing many black architects from the past to the present. I will show and discuss their architectural work by describing the appearance, the year it was built, and as well as if its still standing today. I believe we all know that there are black architects today but centuries ago it was like they were non-existed because they were never acknowledged on record for their hard work until recently. I did not realize that African-American architecture was almost non-existent until I started this research, which I could not believe anyone ever thought there were no such thing as talented black architects that had great minds to build incredible works of art called architecture. I will show myself, my class, and my family that African-American/Black architecture most definitely did exist centuries ago and still does today.
Literature Review
Does black architecture exists? If so, why has it been ignored for so many centuries? I am reviewing this topic to show that black architecture does exist today and always have existed since centuries ago. I want to be more knowledgeable about my culture of African-American architects and their extraordinary architectural projects. I would like to share my knowledge with my kids, my family, my culture, my friends, and the entire society so they can all share this incredible information with others. I am doing a study on black architecture because many people believe that there is no such thing because no one hardly ever acknowledge them.
I am including one reports/essays and two articles to show my research on the existence of Africa...
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...IA 1895 - 1969." The American Institute of Architects N.p. Web. 4 Jun 2011. .
Chance, Shannon. "Hampton University Brings Color to Architecture." 20 on 20/20 Vision: Perspectives on Diversity and Design (2003): 98-101. Web. 4 Jun 2011. .
Craven, Jackie. "11 Great Black American Architects: Black Architects Who Helped Build America." About.com Architecture. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Jun 2011. .
"Three Architects Selected to Receive the 2009 American Institute of Architects Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture." American Institute of Architects (2009): N.p. Web. 4 Jun 2011. .
Harlem soon became known as the “capital of black America” as the amount of blacks in this community was very substantial. Many of the inhabitants of this area were artists, entrepreneurs and black advocates with the urge to showcase their abilities and talents. The ...
Although Barnes’ marriage was not a successful one, he adored his newborn baby girl, and was heartbroken when his wife left him, taking his daughter with her. At North Carolina College, Barnes majored in art, and developed his own style (Artist Vitae, 1999). When Barnes was a freshman in college he went on a field trip to the newly desegregated North Carolina Museum of Art. At the museum Barnes noticed that there weren’t any works by black artist displayed, and when he asked the guide where the black artists were exhibited, the guide responded, “your people don’t express themselves this way” (Artist Vitae, 1999). That negative response encouraged Barnes to work hard at becoming an artist.
By giving the biographies of architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander, Hines does nothing to remedy his aimless writing. He writes that Neutra had a variety of experience as an archi...
In his opinionated book, From Bauhaus to Our House, Tom Wolfe describes his views on the way architecture has framed our modern world. He frames his book long essay with an excerpt from America the Beautiful, "O Beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, has there ever been another place on earth where so many people of wealth and power have paid for and put up with so much architecture they detested as within thy blessed borders today? . . . Every child goes to school in a building that looks like a duplicating-machine replacement-parts wholesale distribution warehouse . . . Every new $900,000 summer house in the north woods of Michigan or on the shore of Long Island has so many pipe railings, ramps, hob-tread metal spiral stairways, sheets of industrial plate glass, banks of tungsten-halogen lamps, and white cylindrical shapes, it looks like an insecticide refinery." (Wolfe 1) This quote, in short, is the premise of his critique. He does not like the way modern architecture
Dunham’s Dynamic Museum also located in East Saint Louis was built most importantly to continue fighting racism by showing the importance and dignity of dark skinned people, as her entire life she saw the difference in treatment between her, a light skin, and a dark skinned person. (Dunham 559) “In comprehending Miss Dunham, then, one has to think not just of dance, not just of drums, not just of primitive rhythms, but of a totem-woman of African spirituality and cultural wealth” (Dunham 559).
Dell Upton is a historian and renowned professor of architecture and Urbanism at the University of California. He has published several books on architecture; one of them is “Architecture in the United States”, published in 1998. In this book, Upton analyzes the architecture of the United States in different aspects, such as nature, money and art, thus depicting the great variety in architectural forms, and how throughout the decades, different interests have lead communities to different ways of building, different purposes and materials, thus reflecting their way of thinking and their relationship with the environment. By exploring so many different architectural styles, Upton reveals the great diversity and richness that has always, and continues to characterize American architecture.
Ever since Christopher Columbus arrived in America in 1492, white people have constantly oppressed and discriminated against minority races. In my original essay, I addressed how leaders of the Black Arts Movement believed that the establishment of a separate Black culture provided the best opportunity for change to occur. During the time period of the Black Arts Movement, many thought that two separate spirits divided American society—a Black spirit and a White spirit. In the minds of African-Americans, the White spirit unfairly dominated and controlled America, leaving the Black spirit with little impact or voice in society. According to Larry Neal, “Western aesthetic has run its course: it is impossible to construct anything meaningful within
The Harlem Renaissance had a lot of influence on modern day art because many artist white and black drew inspiration from traditional African sculptures. In the 1900s, “the aesthetics of traditional African sculpture became a powerful influence among European artists who formed an avant-garde in the development of modern art.”(“African
James F. O'Gorman, Dennis E. McGrath. ABC of Architecture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Document. October 2013.
Heinz, Thomas A., Frank Lloyd Wright: Architectural Monographs No 18, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1992.
Neal, Larry. “The Black Arts Movement.” The Black Aesthetic. Ed. Addison Gayle, Jr.New York: Doubleday &Company, Inc., 1971. 272 - 290.
Artists associated with the Black Arts Movement promoted the notion that art should serve the needs of the African American community, while challenging white hegemony and the oppression of African Americans (Wofford). Despite having similar, yet thoughtful views on black supremacy, much like that of authors from the New Negro Movement, the “Black Power Concept” of the Black Arts Movement had ...
Architecture, the practice of building design and its resulting products, customary usage refers only to those designs and structures that are culturally significant. Today the architecture must satisfy its intended uses, must be technically sound, and must convey beautiful meaning. But the best buildings are often so well constructed that they outlast their original use. They then survive not only as beautiful objects, but as documents of history of cultures, achievements in architecture that testify to the nature of the society that produced them. These achievements are never wholly the work of individuals. Architecture is a social art, yet Frank Lloyd Wright single handily changed the history of architecture. How did Frank Lloyd Wright change architecture?
The beauty of blackness is a question that may be hard to answer for some people and easier for others. The beauty of blackness goes beyond the physical characteristics of a person. Things that are incorporated into answering the question is black beautiful are traditions, values, and history. This question cannot be answered with a simple yes or no. The answer to this question may be different and have different perspectives. Blackness is frowned upon and shamed in the eyes of some people. In the eyes of others blackness is seen as an iconic way of living and sometimes blackness open up the roots of pain and hardships African Americans had to face back during times of slavery. African Americans were brought to the continent of North America
“… Without a continuous bond uniting men, without a continuous current of shared thought, … there could be no living worthy of being called human.” Richard Wright spoke these words in his autobiography Black Boy. He, as well as many other black Americans have displayed exmplemtory talent in the arts. As a matter of fact, blacks have contributed their talents to the arts, for many years, especially in the areas of painting, literature, and music.