NOMA Detroit Celebrates Roger & Fran Margerum

The National Organization of Minority Architects, Detroit Chapter honored architect Roger Margerum with the Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the first to receive the award from NOMA-Detroit. Mr. Margerum’s architectural designs and textiles designed and weaved by his late wife, Fran, were on display throughout the evening.

At right, NOMA-D president, Kenneth Crutcher (right), and past president, Darron Green (center), present Mr. Margerum with the Lifetime Achivement Award.

Roger Margerum and his 45 degree residence.

Roger Margerum with the NOMA-Detroit board of directors. In the background is a textile weaved by Mrs. Fran Margerum.

Enjoying the NOMA event.

Roger Margerum takes it all in.

NOMA Detroit Board Member, Craig Wilkins, Wins Award

Craig L. Wilkins, PhD, AIA, NOMA, the Director of the Detroit Community Design Center and an instructor at the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, has been given the Collaborative Practice Award by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. The award recognizes "the programs that demonstrate how faculty, students, and community/civic clients work to realize common objectives."

"Each year the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture honors architectural educators for exemplary work in areas such as building design, community collaborations, scholarship, and service. The award-winning professors inspire and challenge students, contribute to the profession's knowledge base, and extend their work beyond the borders of academia into practice and the public sector." (from the ACSA website)

Dr. Wilkins also participated in the conference, "Unspoken Borders: The Ecologies of Inequality," hosted by the Black Student Alliance at The University of Pennsylvania School of Design. The conference sought to bring social equity back to architectural discourse. Said Dr. Wilkins, "Architects have been skittish about addressing large-scale social issues ever since the profession’s notorious Pruitt-Igoe-style failures in the 1960’s." Other participants included Teddy Cruz, Maurice Cox and Kian Goh.

See more information from the conference at the Architect's Newspaper Blog.

NOMA-D Celebrates Lifetime Achievement of Architect Roger Margerum, FAIA

The National Organization of Minority Architects will celebrate the Lifetime Achievement of Detroit architect, Roger Margerum, and pay tribute to his late wife, Fran L. Margerum. Mr. Margerum’s designs and Mrs. Margerum’s textile work will be on display throughout the evening of celebration.

An African-American architect who graduated from the University of Illinois in 1955 with a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, Mr. Margerum began his career working with Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM) in Chicago and Smith, Hinchman and Grylls (SmithGroup) in Detroit. His major projects included the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO and Hart Plaza in Detroit.

Mr. Margerum later opened his own firm with locations in Detroit and Chicago. His successful career has spanned half a century, and he has received numerous honors for his work. His 45-degree polygonal residence was recently featured in the Detroit Free Press and the Fall 2008 issue of Detroit Home magazine.

Mrs. Margerum was an educator who taught students throughout the United States. She was founder of Professional Adult Reading Services, a successful private business that provided individual reading instruction to adults. Mrs. Margerum was also an accomplished weaver with patrons in Detroit and Chicago.

The National Organization of Minority Architects, Detroit Chapter, along with co-sponsor, Hamilton Anderson Associates Architects, will host the award celebration and tribute Thursday, April 16, 2009 from 6:30 PM until 8:30 PM at University of Michigan Orchestra Place, 3663 Woodward Ave., Suite 150, Detroit, MI 48201.

See event invitation at right.