Black History Month Architect and Designer Appreciation Part Four
Studio Parallel: Studio Parallel in Brooklyn, NY is comprised of the husband and wife team of Nina Kinoti-Metz and Christopher Metz. He studied at Kansas University and Eidenossiche Technische Hoschule in Sweden. She studied at Binghamton University and Pratt, They met and wed while she was studying at Pratt. According to their website their approach “is to translate clients’ goals and culture into unique environments that are thoughtful, expressive and timeless.”. We would have to agree! @ninakm_studioparallel studioparallel.com
Allison Grace Williams: Allison Grace Williams is an international architect who’s projects span the globe from The August Wilson Center in Pennsylvania to the Princess Nora Abdulrahman University Health Sciences and Research Campus in Saudi Arabia. She studied at Harvard and Berkeley in the 1980’s which could not have been easy. She then worked at very prestigious firms as partner and VP before starting her own firm AGWms_studio in 2017 earning many many honours, accolades, and awards along the way. She’s also done many interviews for top media outlets. Certainly a fabulous and illustrious career, paving a path during a time when it was hard for women to make successful careers for themselves and especially in an industry that still only has 2% African Americans.
J. Max Bond Jr.: J. Max Bond Jr. (1935-2009) was long considered the most influential African American architect in New York as well as the most well known nationally. He studied at Harvard in the 1950’s where he garnered much opposition, despite that he obtained both a bachelor’s and master’s degree after that he won himself a Fulbright scholarship. He then did some world traveling and returned to New York in the late 1960’s during the height of the Civil Rights movement. Bond spearheaded the Architects Renewal Committee of Harlem - one of the first advocacy organisations of its kind. A couple years later Bond and a peer founded their own practice and it became one of the most prominent African American architectural firms and gained prestigious designs like the Martin Luther King Jr Center for Social Change in Atlanta, where King and his wife were laid to rest. Throughout his career he did other designs involved with civil rights and black culture such as the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in AL, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, and the original Studio Museum in Harlem in the 1980’s. (the museum was recently redone by David Adjaye who we featured earlier in the month.) It didn’t hurt that his cousin, Julian Bond, was the chairman for the NAACP for over a decade. Regardless, Bond spent his career investing in increasing the visibility of black art and history. He was also very well known for designing the 9/11 Memorial Museum. In addition, he won a slew of awards and honours throughout his career. Though he is gone his creations and vision live on.
Keia McSwain: Keia McSwain is the president of the Black Interior Designers Network (BIDN) a nonprofit that promotes diversity within the design industry by providing its members with business development opportunities and the principal at Kimberly + Cameron. In 2020 BIDN partnered with Architectural Digest to produce the magazine's first ever virtual showhouse led by Black designers and they raised 230k in just two months! Then in 2022 she designed the media room for House Beautiful’ s Whole Home Show house. She is also owner of design firm NeKeia and Co curating luxury interior designs. She hopes in the future Black designers can be seen as simply experts in their field instead of Black experts in their field. We wholeheartedly agree. @blackinteriordesingersnetwork @keiamcswain @nekeiaandco
