Leon Bridges

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Leon Bridges
Bridges Leon 2.jpg
General Information
Birth
August 18, 1932
Los Angeles, California
Alma Mater
University of Washington
Firm(s)
Spouse
Eloise Avonne Jones
Professional Accomplishments
Awards
NOMA Design Excellence Award; AIA Baltimore Design Excellence Award; AIA Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award
Significant Design
Arena Playhouse; Coppin State College Administration Building; Lexington Market Subway Station

Biography

Leon Bridges, FAIA and NOMA, was born in Los Angeles, California on August 18, 1932. He showed an early interest in drawing houses, and in 1944, while he was still in junior high school, his mother introduced him to her friend, Paul Revere Williams, who in 1923 had been the first African-American admitted into the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Williams inspired Bridges, who was only twelve at the time, to pursue a career in architecture.

Education

Bridges graduated from Dorsey High School in 1950, thus starting his career in service of a community-driven goal. In an article published in The Baltimore Sun in 1987, he reflected, “Perhaps a little idealistically, I wanted to see what I could design for my community.” From 1950 to 1952, he attended two junior colleges, East Los Angeles Junior College and Los Angeles City College. For a brief period, he enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, before getting drafted to serve in the Korean War. He was stationed in Japan from 1953 to 1954. When he returned to Los Angeles, he had a newfound resolve and joined Kappa Alpha Psi, a popular African-American fraternity that bolstered his personal and professional networks for the rest of his life. But he needed to finish his education; he knew he had to get a degree in order to competitively pursue architecture, and with the GI Bill, he could attend almost any college in the county.

In January 1955, he moved to Seattle and matriculated at the University of Washington (UW). During his five years of study, he was the only African-American student in the School of Architecture. He studied under Keith Kolb, FAIA; Lionel Pries, FAIA; Robert Dietz, FAIA; Rich Haag, FASLA; George Tsutakawa; and Myer Wolf, AIA. In 1958, Wolf helped Bridges secure an internship as an urban planner with the City of San Diego. He also worked under Robert Chapman and Roderick Parr in 1959, the latter assisting him in designing his first residential project. Each experience proved valuable, and he graduated from UW in January 1960.

Early Career

While seeking employment as a burgeoning architect, he was met with varying degrees  of racial discrimination. In an article that was published in the St. Petersburg Times in 1985, he said, “I remember a time when I came out of school and went to a very large architectural firm in Seattle and asked them for a job. One of the partners came out and told me that architecture really had no place in it for a black man and I shouldn’t apply.” Bridges didn’t apply to that firm; he did, however, prove this man wrong by forging a place for himself and other minority architects in a profession that desperately needed, and needs, their participation. Early on and throughout his career, he was valued not only for his designs, but for his ability to communicate those designs between diverse and often conflicting stakeholders.

The year following his graduation from UW was full of momentous events. He started working as a draftsman for Benjamin F. McAdoo, AIA, who in 1946 had been the first African-American to graduate from UW’s School of Architecture. On September 24, 1960, he married Eloise Avonne Jones in Langston, Oklahoma, which was her hometown. From 1961 to 1963, he worked for the Seattle firm Gotteland & Koczarski, designing churches and other buildings. He joined the Seattle Chapter of the AIA in 1962. That same year, he worked on his first solo commission, the YMCA’s East Madison Branch. It was to be about 14,000 square feet on a budget of $140,000. In 1963, he received his first solo residential project, a 1,300-square-foot, 3-bedroom house for Edward and Joan Singler. He also designed a 3000-square-foot house for Charles and Eleanor Smith, for which he received a House of the Month Award from the Seattle Chapter of the AIA.

Partnership

As his solo practice grew, he formed a partnership with Edward M. Burke, a respected peer from UW. Their firm—Bridges-Burke, Architects & Planners—was established in 1964, and they gained notoriety as a successful partnership founded by men of different races, which was unique at the time. Around 1965, they renovated Volunteer Park Museum. In 1966, they converted a Safeway into the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. The same year, they got involved in planning the I-90 Floating Bridge Project, solidifying their firm and resulting in commissions from several different municipalities for community-based architectural projects, as well as single and multi-family residential projects.

In 1968, Whitney M. Young gave a speech at the AIA National Convention in Portland, Oregon, challenging the institute to champion minority architects in order to reach the needs of disenfranchised communities. Bridges was sitting in the audience. Moved by Young’s speech, he co-founded the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) in 1971. The organization is still flourishing today. Their mission is to increase the number of minority-owned architectural firms and registered minority architects, and to help these firms and architects secure contracts from public, institutional, and private sectors. When NOMA was founded, out of around 70,000 registered members of the AIA, only 1% of them were of African descent. In an effort to fix this problem, Bridges was named to represent NOMA on the national AIA Board of Directors. While in this position, he co-sponsored the Ford Foundation and AIA Minority & Disadvantaged Scholarship Fund to provide financial support to high school seniors who wish to receive degrees in architecture.

Move to Baltimore

While spearheading this, Bridges was also elevating Bridges-Burke onto the national stage. After scouting most of the Eastern Seaboard, the firm opened their second office at 5 E Centre Street in Baltimore, Maryland. Bridges became the first registered African-American architect in Maryland in 1970. The Upton Urban Redevelopment Project was his first project in the state. For two years, he traveled between Seattle and Baltimore. In August 1972, he left Seattle to move to Baltimore with his wife and their four children for good. The Bridges were halfway across the country when Burke decided to dissolve the firm. The news was a shock to the whole family, but they went forward with their move anyway. Bridges got ownership of their office at 5 E Centre Street and its assets and founded the Leon Bridges Company.

The Leon Bridges Company operated out of Baltimore for the rest of his career as a practicing architect. In 1973, he designed a house for a prominent dentist. The next year, he renovated Union Baptist Church and began designing his own house in Mount Washington. Between 1976 and 1978, he designed the Arena Playhouse, the oldest continuously operating African-American theater in the country; Coppin State College Administration Building; and the March Funeral Home - East Baltimore. In 1978, he renovated Baltimore City College, converting it from an all-boys school to a co-ed one, and he was named Man of the Year by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs. In 1979, he was elected president of NOMA. In 1983, his designs for Lexington Market Subway Station were seen to completion. He renovated Baltimore Pennsylvania Station in 1984, which won the AIA DC Merit Award (1981), the NOMA Design Excellence Award (1983), the NEA Presidential Design Achievement Award (1984), and the AIA Baltimore Design Excellence Award (1985). In 1986, he was elected vice president of the AIA’s national Board of Directors. Around the same time, he designed the Jarrettsville Branch of Harford County Public Library and joined the AIA’s College of Fellows, a prestigious recognition by an architect’s peers of their value and commitment to the architectural profession. In 1998, he received the AIA Whitney M. Young Jr. Award for upholding the values, integrity, and accountability of the AIA through programs that foster equity within the organization and beyond.

“The message here is clear,” he reflected in his memoir, An African-American Architect Within God’s Graces, “being successful is not only measured by one’s accumulation of wealth and prestige, but also by maintaining the respect of one’s closest allies, their family and friends.” The Leon Bridges Company briefly merged with Sheladia Associates. In 2006, Bridges disbanded the company to teach at Morgan State University in their School of Architecture and Planning. Today, his architectural legacy reaches beyond the buildings he designed, and it will continue to positively impact the lives of those who pass through them.

By Dom Guida, based on Leon Bridges’ memoir, An African-American Architect Within God’s Graces

Projects

Map

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Listing

Project Completed Address Image
Project Completed Address Image
Arena Playhouse 1976 801 McCulloh St
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Coppin State College - Administration Building 1978 2500 W North Ave
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Leon Bridges' Home 1974 6101 Smith Ave
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Lexington Market Subway Station 1983 400 W Lexington St
Bridges_Lexington Market Subway Station 1.jpg
March Funeral Home - East Baltimore 1978 1101 E North Ave
Bridges_March Funeral Home - East Baltimore.jpg
Baltimore City College 1978 3320 The Alameda
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Union Baptist Church 1974 1219 Druid Hill Ave
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