Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A powerful statement about the repercussions of discrimination and the benefits of diversity in architecture

Providing hard data for trends that many perceive only vaguely and some deny altogether, Designing for Diversity reveals a profession rife with gender and racial discrimination and examines the aspects of architectural practice that hinder or support the full participation of women and persons of color.
Drawing on interviews and surveys of hundreds of architects, Kathryn H. Anthony outlines some of the forms of discrimination that recur most frequently in architecture: being offered added responsibility without a commensurate rise in position, salary, or credit; not being allowed to engage in client contact, field experience, or construction supervision; and being confined to certain kinds of positions, typically interior design for women, government work for African Americans, and computer-aided design for Asian American architects.

Anthony discusses the profession's attitude toward flexible schedules, part-time contracts, and the demands of family and identifies strategies that have helped underrepresented individuals advance in the profession, especially establishing a strong relationship with a mentor. She also observes a strong tendency for underrepresented architects to leave mainstream practice, either establishing their own firms, going into government or corporate work, or abandoning the field altogether.

Given the traditional mismatch between diverse consumers and predominantly white male producers of the built environment, plus the shifting population balance toward communities of color, Anthony contends that the architectural profession staves off true diversity at its own peril. Designing for Diversity argues convincingly that improving the climate for nontraditional architects will do much to strengthen architecture as a profession. Practicing architects, managers of firms, and educators will learn how to create conditions more welcoming to a diversity of users as well as designers of the built environment.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgments (p. ix)
• Introduction: What If...? (p. 1)
• 1 Diversity in Design (p. 11)
• 2 Women as Consumers, Creators, and Critics of the Built Environment (p. 36)
• 3 Sexual Orientation, Race, and Ethnicity (p. 70)
• 4 Networks of Power (p. 93)
• 5 Gateways and Roadblocks to Architectural Practice (p. 114)
• 6 Obstacles in the Architectural Workplace (p. 133)
• 7 Succeeding in the Architectural Workplace (p. 166)
• 8 Diversifying Design (p. 178)
• Appendixes
• A Methodology (p. 209)
• B A Portrait of Survey Respondents (p. 215)
• Notes (p. 217)
• Index (p. 243)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Anthony (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) offers a comprehensive, hard-hitting study of problems that women and minorities face as architects in the US. She surveyed and interviewed some 400 architects and outlines various problems and discrimination against women and minorities, including lower salaries and more responsibility without a rise in position; being kept from contact with clients, field experiences, or construction supervision; and being confined to certain aspects of architecture (interior design for women; government work for African Americans; and computer-aided design for Asian Americans). Though naturally a bit shrill at times and occasionally overdone, Anthony's discussion is always fair. Her command of material is impressive, particularly coverage of women architects such as Julia Morgan and Denise Scott Brown, although there is no mention of Phyllis Lambert, the Canadian architect but US-educated pupil of Mies van der Rohe, responsible for his selection to design New York's Seagram Building. Clothiel Woodward Smith, of Washington, DC, is also left out. Anthony briefly discusses some prominent women architects married to men architects, but seems unaware of Helen Searing's exhibition on the subject of architect couples at Smith College's Museum of Art. Though much of what she says is not new, she documents the evidence in detail. An important contribution. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through professionals. T. J. McCormick emeritus, Wheaton College (MA)