Restoring the Forgotten Blueprints: How Black Modernist Architecture Is Reshaping America’s Cultural Legacy
In the chronicles of modern architecture, the contributions of Black architects have often been overlooked—rendered invisible not for lack of brilliance, but due to deeply embedded structural inequities.
Today, however, a wave of long-overdue recognition is sweeping through the architectural world. Spearheading this movement is the Getty Foundation, whose Conserving Black Modernism program, launched in 2022, has become a landmark initiative aimed at preserving the often-neglected yet culturally rich legacy of African American modernist architecture.
As of 2025, the program has added five more historically significant buildings to its growing list of funded sites, marking not only an expansion in geographic scope but a deeper cultural reckoning within the built environment of the United States.
Despite making up only about 2% of licensed architects in the country, Black professionals have long shaped the architectural soul of American cities and communities. Through partnerships with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the Getty Foundation is correcting decades of archival silence by supporting comprehensive conservation projects, training programs, and community engagement efforts tied directly to these undervalued sites.
With 21 projects already funded and preserved since the program's inception, the 2025 cycle brings five additional buildings to the forefront—from the Pacific Northwest to the cultural heart of the South—each representing a compelling intersection of modernist design, Black identity, and community memory.
One of the most striking examples is the Founders Church of Religious Science in Los Angeles, designed in 1960 by Paul R. Williams—the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects. Featuring a commanding dome supported by a steel framework, a finely patterned concrete screen, and one of the earliest closed-circuit television systems incorporated into religious architecture, the 20,000-square-foot church exemplifies the fusion of form, technology, and spiritual symbolism.
Inspired by the teachings of Dr. Ernest Holmes, its design underscores themes of unity and optimism. Recognized as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it will now receive funding for accessibility improvements and enhanced community programming.
In Atlanta, the ITC Administration Building, designed by Edward C. Miller in 1961, stands as a testament to educational empowerment within the African American religious community. As Georgia’s first licensed Black architect, Miller infused the structure—now the oldest on campus at the Interdenominational Theological Center—with a straightforward yet powerful brick façade that captures both academic purpose and architectural integrity.
The Getty Foundation will support building assessments, a reuse study, and expanded historical documentation of Miller’s largely unsung career, adding vital chapters to America's architectural canon.
Meanwhile, Chicago’s First Church of Deliverance tells a story of transformation. Originally a hat factory, it was reimagined in 1939 by Walter T. Bailey, Illinois’s first licensed Black architect. Bailey’s adaptive reuse approach fused Art Moderne elements such as glazed terra cotta and glass block with intentional acoustic design to enhance the congregation’s gospel music experience.
The new grant will fund the church’s first comprehensive preservation plan, extending across not just the sanctuary but also the adjacent community and children's centers, reinforcing its historic role as both a place of worship and a community anchor.
Farther west, McKenzie Hall at the University of Oregon reflects a bold experiment in Brutalist design. Designed in 1968 by DeNorval Unthank Jr.—the first Black graduate of the university’s architecture program and a longstanding faculty member—the building employs exposed brick and concrete in a style that resists ornamentation but radiates strength. The funding will support the development of a full preservation and interpretation plan, helping to embed Unthank’s legacy into the educational fabric of the campus.
In Poughkeepsie, New York, Vassar College’s 2500 New Hackensack building embodies the quiet confidence of minimalist modernism. Completed in 1963 by Jeh Vincent Johnson—a co-founder of the National Organization of Minority Architects and a former advisor to President Lyndon B.
Johnson—the structure features clean lines of brick, steel, and glass, aligning with Johnson’s academic philosophy and social activism. The new grant will support a facilities management plan and promote deeper engagement with Johnson’s design legacy, both within the campus and beyond.
These five buildings are more than architectural relics; they are social documents—each bearing witness to a history of resilience, resistance, and reinvention. Since the launch of Conserving Black Modernism, the Getty Foundation has underscored the importance of rethinking preservation through the lens of racial equity.
These efforts are not merely acts of restoration—they are active interventions in the public memory, serving to redefine what we consider historically significant and who gets to be remembered.
Statistical disparities underline the urgency of such initiatives. A 2023 report from the Center for Cultural Policy noted that fewer than 3% of historically designated buildings in the U.S. were designed by Black architects, and that Black students still make up less than 5% of those enrolled in architecture programs nationwide.
By investing in the physical conservation of these structures, the Getty Foundation also invests in the future—offering training for young preservationists, supporting research, and catalyzing academic interest in often-overlooked practitioners.
Beyond national borders, this American initiative resonates with international trends in heritage preservation. In 2025, Europe’s prestigious AHI Award honored six adaptive reuse projects for their social, environmental, and cultural impacts.
Similarly, MVRDV’s recent transformation of a cement plant into a cultural district in Shanghai, and Studio Libeskind’s redesign of the Boerentoren tower in Antwerp, underscore a global shift toward sustainable and inclusive architectural reuse.
In Japan, the documentary Artisans of the Reiwa Era follows the painstaking four-year restoration of the Rinshunkaku Temple, reflecting a reverence for both craft and continuity. Against this backdrop, the Getty Foundation’s focus on Black modernist architecture emerges not only as a domestic reckoning, but as a meaningful contribution to a broader international conversation about equity, memory, and preservation.
As our cities evolve and skylines change, the architectural past must not be allowed to fade into obscurity—especially when that past holds the voices and visions of those historically silenced. Black modernist architecture represents more than a stylistic period; it represents cultural survival, aesthetic ingenuity, and community identity.
By rescuing these works from erasure, the Getty Foundation is not just restoring buildings—it is restoring dignity, rewriting narratives, and expanding the blueprint for an inclusive architectural future.