Beverly Greene: First Black Woman Licensed as Architect

Grosse Pointe Public Library, Michigan (1953). Architect: Marcel Breuer. Beverly Greene worked on this project while in Breuer’s employ. (Photo: Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, Creative Commons license)

Beverly Lorraine Greene (1915 – 1957) is believed to be the first African-American woman in the US to become a licensed architect, in 1942. She graduated with bachelor and master of science degrees in Architecture and Architectural Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1936 and 1937 respectively. Her employers included Isadore Rosenfield, Edward Durrell Stone, and Marcel Breuer.

While at the University of Illinois, Greene was the only female and only Black member of the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. A Chicago native, Greene worked for the Chicago Housing Authority before moving to New York in 1944. There she accepted a scholarship to Columbia University where she was awarded a Master of Architecture degree in 1945. Greene was a member of the Council for the Advancement of the Negro in Architecture, as were her three New York employers.

Projects Greene worked on include the Ida B. Wells Housing Project in Chicago; two university projects while employed by Edward Durell Stone; and a public library, house addition, department store alteration, university building, and the UNESCO Headquarters while employed by Marcel Breuer. She also completed two building alterations as her own projects before passing away at age 41.

Although Greene is believed to be the first licensed Black female architect, she was not the first Black woman practicing architecture. She was preceded in the profession by at least three: Elizabeth Carter Brooks (1867–1951), Ethel Madison Furman (1893–1976), and Amaza Lee Meredith (1895–1984).

In 2020, only 500 of the US’s 122,000 licensed architects were Black women: just 0.4 percent. 

Please subscribe to The Architectress.

Sources:

Roberta Washington, FAIA, NOMA, “Pioneering Women of American Architecture: Beverly Lorraine Greene.”

Shannon Werle, “Meet Two Pioneering Black Women Architects,” Columbia News, January 28, 2021.

Dreck Spurlock Wilson, Ed., African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945 (New York: Routledge, 2004): 242-244.

“Willard Confers 1,800 degrees,” The Daily Illini, June 14, 1937: 1-2.

NCARB, Total Number of U.S. Architects Grows Amid Pandemic Challenges

Katherine Guimapang, “Number of licensed Black female architects increases to 500,” Archinet News, December 21, 2020.