NOMA Celebrates Architectural Leadership and Excellence at the 2019 Phil Freelon Professional Design Awards in Brooklyn

The National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) hosted their 47th Annual NOMA Conference in Brooklyn in October. With more than 1,200 registered attendees this year's event was the largest for the organization. To conclude the conference, the organization celebrated an evening of architecture and leadership excellence at the NOMA Awards Banquet. With NOMA President Kimberly Dowdell, AIA, NOMA, NCARB, LEED AP presiding over the evening, the special event highlighted some of NOMA's long-time members, including NOMA’s last surviving founder Mr. Jeh Johnson, who have made tremendous contributions to the organization and the industry.

A highlight of the evening was recognizing the work of beloved architect, industry leader and long-time NOMA member, Phil Freelon with the inaugural Phil Freelon Professional Design Awards. Other NOMA leaders like Kenneth E. Casey were recognized and honored for their services and commitment to the profession. New fellowships and scholarships such as NOMA’s new Foundation Fellowship program for recent graduates and the Betty and Mort Marshall Scholarship Fund were announced. In addition to honoring NOMA's distinguished members, newly licensed members were recognized and honored. 

With the passing of Freelon in July, NOMA renamed the prestigious design awards to honor him and his career as "one of the most influential African American architects of our time." The event was a wonderful celebration of progress, inclusivity, and dedication the organization has established for the architecture community.

The 2019 NOMA Phil Freelon Professional Design Awards (PFPDA)  jurors included: 

• Joshua Broadway, NOMA, Ennead Architects

• Nicole Hollant-Denis, AIA, NOMA, Aaris Design Studios, PLLC

• Katie Pohlman, NOMA, GouldEvans

Awards were presented to the following NOMA member firms: 

• Vision Category - Honor Award: Vines Architecture, Cleveland Public Library–Martin Luther King Jr. Branch, Columbus, Ohio 

• Built Category - Honor Award: Moody Nolan, The Legacy House Project, Columbus, Ohio  

• Historic Preservation, Restoration & Renovation Category - Honor Award: Holly Street Studio, Phoenix College Physical Science Building, Phoenix, Arizona 

• Unbuilt Category - Honor Award: Perkins and Will, Destination Crenshaw, Los Angeles, California 

• Small Projects Category - Honor Award: Ian Smith Design Group, Tufas Boulder Lounge, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 

All NOMA professional members are eligible to submit projects. The 2020 PFPDA call for entries will be distributed in the spring of 2020.

According to NOMA, "Each year, the organization also hosts a student design competition for the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS). Of the 75 NOMAS student chapters around the country, 39 competed in this year’s competition, with a prompt for a community development proposal for Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood. Design considerations included forces of gentrification, housing equity and preserving the local culture and aesthetics."

This year the 2019 NOMA Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition winner was Syracuse University School of Architecture. Second place was awarded to Cornell University, and third place was awarded to Illinois Institute of Technology.

Preparing for 2020, next year’s conference will take place in Oakland, CA, October 14-17, 2020. NOMA’s 49th annual conference will be held in Detroit in 2021, celebrating 50 years since the organization’s founding, which stemmed from the AIA Convention in Detroit in 1971.