Leading with Love w/ Steven Lewis

Steven Lewis [00:00:00]:
If you go down the wrong street, you can back up and go down another one. But you got to be active. You got to be driven. You have to be purpose driven. The work I do gets me up in the morning and gets me excited to go in because it's so much bigger than me, you know? And so it requires humility. It requires passion, commitment, integrity, all these qualities that essentially translate to one being a citizen architect.

Nakita Reed [00:00:29]:
Welcome to tangible remnants. I'm Nakita Reed, and this is my show where I explore the interconnectedness of architecture, preservation, sustainability, race, and gender. I'm excited that you're here, so let's get into it. Welcome back. This week's episode features an insightful conversation with Steven Lewis, FAIA Noma. I've known and been inspired by him for many years, so it's an honor to have been able to interview him and learn more about his journey into the profession and how he was influenced by his father. Also being an architect, Steven touches on the challenges faced by black architects in the profession and the importance of unity and love in addressing these issues. He also talks about his recent bid for the presidency of the American Institute of Architects and his current initiative, Communities by Design Corp.

Nakita Reed [00:01:21]:
Which aims to engage architects and community projects. We discussed the importance of architecture in connecting with communities and the impact it can have on people's lives, as well as the need for authentic community engagement and the value of service in the profession of architecture. We also touch on the need for young designers to understand the social and policy aspects of architecture, as well as the role of empathy in design. One of my favorite aspects of this episode, though, was hearing how connected Steven is in this profession. From Paul Revere Williams to Im Pei, Roberta Washington to Katie Swenson and Kimberly Dowdell, he has had the opportunity to connect with so many amazing people in the profession over the past few decades, so it was a real joy hearing more about that web of connection as.

Interviewer [00:02:12]:
He talked through his story.

Nakita Reed [00:02:14]:
As we wrap up the episode, we also touch on some of his current work, so be sure to head over to the podcast Instagram page angible remnants to see some inspiration images and reminder that the National Organization of Minority Architects is having their annual conference in Baltimore next month, so be sure to register and say hi if you see me or Steven there. Now, before we get into the episode, let me get into Steven's bio to give you a little bit more context on who he is. If you don't already know, Stephen Lewis is an architect and a tireless advocate for social justice and diversity within the field of architecture. He is currently a principal with the firm ZGF Architects, where he leads the Los Angeles office's urban design practice. Prior to joining ZGF, Steven served as the urban design director for Central Detroit, where he played a key role in shaping the vision of present and future development. Steven is the 2016 AIA Whitney M. Young Junior award recipient and was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in December of 2015. He was also a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard GSD in 2006 to 2007.

Nakita Reed [00:03:29]:
He was a founding partner of Raw International or Raw International in 1984 and for 20 years was an essential part of the firm's growth and success. In 2010, he concluded a two year term as president of Noma National Organization of Minority Architects, where he traveled around the country advocating for architects of color while cultivating the next generation of diverse architects and designers. More than anything, Steven is a facilitator of partnerships and alliances between groups and individuals who seek to use architecture and design to effect positive change in the world. I am so excited to share this conversation with you. So without further ado, please enjoy this conversation between me and Steven Lewis.

Interviewer [00:04:19]:
Why don't we start with what got you into architecture? When did you know you wanted to be an architect?

Steven Lewis [00:04:24]:
Oh, well, that's a great question, given that my father was an architect and managed to establish a practice of his own with two partners in 1970. So I, as the oldest of four children, was under his wing quite a bit from. I understand that when he was attending Howard University's school of architecture in the late 1950s, that I was often in the classroom in a bassinet. So I had a lifetime of absorbing all of this stuff. But probably when I was about 15 or so, I started really getting into photography. And I eventually became the high school yearbook photography editor, and I was never seen without my Nikon. And so when it came time to, you know, apply for colleges, I thought I might want to become a photographer.

Interviewer [00:05:17]:
Oh, okay.

Steven Lewis [00:05:18]:
And ironically, I was told they don't make any money. So I chose architecture. What the hell? But it is an instance where my dad never pushed me toward it. I thought in high school, well, I don't like blood, so I don't think a doctor's in my future. I'm not argumentative. I'm a nice guy. I don't think lawyers in my future. Well, I think I know about architecture.

Steven Lewis [00:05:44]:
Let me declare that as a major. And, hey, if I don't like it, I can always change later. And so that's sort of how I wound up going to architecture school. I applied to, I think, six schools. MIT was my. I had visited there during pre freshman weekend. I stayed in Alvar Aalto's Baker house, and I was all about MIT. And, of course, I got in everywhere but MIT, of course.

Steven Lewis [00:06:09]:
And so my second choice was then Syracuse, because I'd also had an opportunity to visit there. And, yeah, I arrived there in the fall of 1974. I remember watching my parents Chevrolet station wagon disappeared down the hill as they left me there. And I said, oh, my God. I guess it's real. I'm on my own. And here we go. So those were heady days at Syracuse.

Steven Lewis [00:06:37]:
I had to do a lot of growing up in my freshman year. First of all, understanding that my ideas about architecture, which were gleaned mostly from hanging out with my dad and his partners in their office and stuff, were very different than the pedagogy of a place like Syracuse and the way forward in that kind of institution. And so the first thing was, you know, bringing some humility to the table to say, okay, this is a little bit different. And ultimately, I fell in love with it on my own, in my own terms, which then led to the amazing opportunity to work as a colleague with my father for years, both in his office and then subsequently out in the world. So there's a lot in between there that we really probably don't have time to get into. I will tell one quick story about a pivotal moment where, as a freshman, we didn't have architectural design. At freshman year, we had a basic design course, which is somewhat artist, artist oriented, art oriented, but introduced us to some concepts of form and building, spatial, whatever. We were given an assignment to design and construct a model of a eroded cube.

Steven Lewis [00:07:48]:
Okay, simple enough. Except as a young guy kind of really into Star Trek, I had a totally different idea about what that cube could look like. And this was before the Borg even arrived.

Interviewer [00:08:00]:
Oh, wow.

Steven Lewis [00:08:01]:
I was the precursor to the Borg, because my cube was like a Borg cube, but it was made out of planes rather than a solid. And it took about two weeks. And I. I meticulously built this thing, and I was very enamored with it. I thought, this is great. And the tell was, you had to go before three faculty members who had their own plexiglas cube with one end open. And your model had to fit snugly from every angle into this cube.

Interviewer [00:08:30]:
Right?

Steven Lewis [00:08:31]:
So I had my audience and I went in, and they took my cube. And first of all, they were very confused by how I had interpreted the project. They probably expected well, anyway. And when they tried to fit it into the cube. It was clink, clank, and it didn't work. And they told me, you got problems.

Interviewer [00:08:50]:
Oh.

Steven Lewis [00:08:50]:
And I went back to my dorm room, totally deflated. I actually cried. I did. And I looked in the mirror and I said, they're not going to beat me. And after two weeks of building this complicated thing, I stayed up all night and built a illustration board model of a cube with a corner removed from it. And the next day, I went back to their faculty offices, and the secretary said, well, you don't have an appointment. And I barged in, and they looked at me, and I said, what are you doing here? And I held out the cube, and they were like, oh, all right, sit down. And then they took my cube and they said, and they inserted it into their plexiglass thing, and it fit snugly and beautifully from every angle.

Steven Lewis [00:09:31]:
And they just looked at me and said, yeah, you have a future here. That's a major lesson learned. Right?

Interviewer [00:09:39]:
Wow. Knowing the constraints. But that's wild. I'm also very intrigued by the interpretation of it. And also I recognize and resonate and relate to the many tears in architecture school. Those are real. It happens.

Steven Lewis [00:09:52]:
It's a thing.

Interviewer [00:09:54]:
It's a thing. Growing process for the work that you did with your father and his colleagues and all that, because I feel like the seventies were, was a time of a lot of change in the profession. So the founding of NomA, all of the changes that are happening, even societally. So I'm super curious, like, what are some of the takeaways that you have from that time in your life and kind of early in your profession and career?

Steven Lewis [00:10:18]:
Yeah, well, fortunately, I had that relationship with my dad. I was with him quite a bit. And in the early days in New York City, his office was on 22nd street between Broadway and park, right around the corner from the Flatiron building. And there's he and his two partners, Francis Turner, Frank Turner and Jim Strotter, had what essentially was like a salon for their cohorts. And so these were the days where Nicoba was stood up, the New York coalition of black architects. And I would be in a room with Max Bond and his partner, Don Ryder and Jim Dolman and Benny Thompson and Roberta Washington, and on and on. And I'm a teenager. I'm a kidde.

Steven Lewis [00:11:02]:
And to listen to their stories about the difficulties of just being respected and also the challenges, because they came through like my dad. Schools like Howard, which were the Booker T. Washington of architects, they taught you how to draft, how to put a building together. There were no high minded design ideas being kicked around in those schools. They were just making sure you could get hired when you left, you know.

Interviewer [00:11:27]:
Right.

Steven Lewis [00:11:28]:
They might beg to differ on that characterization, and I would have except their arrows if they came, but they were fighting like salmon, trying to swim upstream to the spawning ground. And you look at the rapids and you look at what they're up against, and you say, there's no way. And yet they persisted, and there was a way. So history will speak for itself in that regard. And I have to give shout out to our Noma president, Pascal Siblan, for her. Say it loud. Beyond the built environment that really memorializes that history, which is a beautiful thing.

Interviewer [00:11:59]:
Yeah.

Steven Lewis [00:12:00]:
So, as I've written, my social consciousness and quest for equity within the profession was steeled at those moments of listening to the stories of being with my dad, going to the building department in Hempstead, Long island, with a set of drawings for a plan check review, and having the blue haired lady behind the desk say, oh, you can just put the plans over there like he was a delivery boy or something. Right. You know, those landed on me like, that's my pops. And you're disrespecting, you know, and so here I am today, right, a product of that, right.

Interviewer [00:12:34]:
And I love the, the way that you've been telling your story and really shining light on your experiences within the profession, particularly as you were making a bid for AIA president, and really all of the work that you're doing, even from the various webinars and things that you've done, I know, internally at ZGF and kind of all of that. So I guess, why don't we dig in a little bit to that? And I guess, why don't we start with what prompted you to want to run for a president?

Steven Lewis [00:13:02]:
Well, you know, of course, I served my two years of president of NOMA 2000, 920 ten, which, on reflection, were two of the richest years of my life as a result of that experience. And seeing that my particular method of expressing thought and leading with love, as you know, allowed me to influence and improve our situation over those two years in ways that I'm extremely proud of, particularly with a focus on our design abilities. So I really felt like our design awards program could be enhanced and fortified, and I was able to do that, and I was very, very proud of that. Our project pipeline, where I enlisted the young, then young Brian Lee, soon to be Noma national president, with his graphic sensibilities to brand the project pipeline, which he did. And that branding still continues to this day. So there's legacy in that organization. And so I then, you know, was a recipient of the Whitney M. Young Junior Service Award in 2016 in my elevation to AI Fellow.

Steven Lewis [00:14:06]:
And then my two years as board president of the Architects foundation gave me a very much of a comfort in a leadership role. And it was during the NOMA conference in October in Portland, I, when I gave the invocation, as I had been asked to do for several years. And I was very intentional about a non denominational offering, whichever God, if any, you pray to, let us be thankful for this gathering, et cetera, et cetera. And I just got such an immediate positive response from like everyone from the student to the seasoned professional white person in the league there. And I thought, you know what? I could do this AI thing and really leave it on the field, you know? So Emily Grantstaff Rice, who was then AI president, was present. And I caught her after in a corner, and I said, look, I'm going to ask you something. I want an unfiltered, honest answer. I really just had this impulse and thought I could run for AI president.

Steven Lewis [00:15:04]:
She said, oh my God, that would be like phenomenal. And so I embarked on the, on the quest. And what I did was I spoke in the same voice that I'm speaking to you with too many chapters around the country, international, Aia, Hawaii, you know, and I was just who I am. And I gave my message of lift our voices equally for change, love for change. I talked about as I started to see the real turbulence that was happening. And of course, Kim Dowdell, our current president, is pretty much like family to me. So I'm very aware of what's going on. I evolved my message, which I really shouted loudly from the caucuses, three sessions at the AI conference, where you addressed basically all the chapters in the country, that we three candidates agree largely on the major issues confronting us and our priorities to jump in and address them.

Steven Lewis [00:16:05]:
But I tell you that unless we can heal our family in our house, become unified so that we can attack these problems with unity and together, we won't have strength in numbers and will basically amount to band Aids by chapter here, chapter there, we need to come together. And that was my attempt to say, all of you who've been writing letters, all of you have been putting shade on our CEO and all this stuff, you know, if that had been the prior CEO, the criticisms might have come in a slightly different way and more constructively. And so we really need to come together before we can really step out and address issues of climate change, issues of, what will AI do in five years if not to. To our graduating seniors coming into the profession? What will. How will we transfer knowledge to the next generation in the wake of a pandemic where we all got very comfortable working remotely? All these issues we agreed to. Ryan was great. Ilya, who I don't know that well. His messages were great.

Stephen Lewis [00:17:08]:
And when I got that phone call. Oh, Steve. Oh, sorry, you didn't win. I was like, whew, thank you. And I felt like I had accomplished a lot of what I would have set out to do, which was to have my message out and the kinds of responses on LinkedIn, on Facebook. I'm not a TikToker, so I didn't step into that world, but. And then in person, people just coming up to me saying, thank you so much, you know, and I felt very satisfied and very gratified. And that led me to what you and I had spoken about recently, was my initiative of communities by design core.

Steven Lewis [00:17:47]:
And now the realization I can actually step full throatedly into that endeavor and really work toward it, which I'm very excited by.

Interviewer [00:17:55]:
Yeah. And it's one of those things where it's, like, as upset and frustrated I was that you didn't win the election, when I talked to you after, like, the amount of peace that was radiating off of you, I was like, oh. Like, you were very calm and like, it's. Everything's, like, in divine order. This is what's happening now. I have. I know what I'm doing next kind of thing. So that made me feel a little bit better.

Interviewer [00:18:16]:
And they're like, all right, well, you're okay with it. But then also the number of people who also came up to me, particularly after they saw us talking, like, I don't know him that well, but I'm so angry he didn't win. And I was like, I understand, but he's good. He's calm with it. So there was definitely a number of people who also were concerned and frustrated. One of the things I love about your message and what I think resonated with a lot of people was just the idea that love is at the basis of this. Like, I remember hearing one of the, one of the presentations you give, I want to say it was probably 2020, something to the LFRT, and you were kind of talking about the fact that a lot of this, it's a heart problem. And a lot of the conversation, a lot of the lack of empathy, it's a heart problem.

Interviewer [00:18:57]:
It's not a, it's not a race problem. It's a heart problem. So, like, the fact that it needs to start in love is something that I've always loved about the message that you're sharing. Thank you. Yeah, of course. And so I'm curious, or rather, if you would talk a little bit more about your ideas for communities by design core and how that could come to fruition.

Steven Lewis [00:19:17]:
Sure. Sure. Well, I first interact with a lot of our young staff at ZGF, and, and I interact with a lot of students. I'm often asked by faculty or administration to lecture at colleges and universities, and I have a lecture called the Citizen Architect's journey that I often deliver to those groups. And now it's like post George Floyd, there's a lot more attention being paid to projects in community that require legitimate, authentic engagement, which many firms aren't prepared to do. They're always looking for that third party they can hire. And my attitude is that, and I did teach, I created a seminar at University of Michigan that I taught for two years, calling designing with community. And it gave the students, who, by the way, had a huge appetite for that kind of subject matter and weren't getting it elsewhere, other than one other class that was being offered by a colleague.

Steven Lewis [00:20:12]:
And I was, we were having community meetings for the Detroit projects. I was bringing those kids from Ann Arbor into Detroit and giving them a clipboard and telling them to go to work, you know? And so they just opened their eyes, and I saw that, and I said, you know, these kids will now be grounded in a notion of service and that they can bring with them where they go next. And I think that I know a lot of people who were Rose Fellows, the Frederick P. Rose Fellowship, that was previously run under the enterprise community Partners group nonprofit. But that sunset about three years ago. And so I had this idea that if we could resuscitate the Rose Fellowship and rebrand it under the communities by design entity that now exists under the AIA Architects foundation portfolio, which is a philanthropic partner of the AIA, a 501 able to treat donations with a favorable tax consideration where the AIA wasn't. So they moved it over to the foundation. And I thought, and I did a communities by design cohort a couple of years ago in Savannah, Georgia, and I'm a big proponent of that.

Steven Lewis [00:21:16]:
And the mayor's Institute on city Design, anything that brings us professionals in contact with ordinary resident citizens who need us badly, that we're too busy, preoccupied making shiny, bright objects to really use our gifts on behalf of them. And when you do, it changes you. And me, who grew up in that paradigm, it still changes me. So I know that folks who haven't had that experience get their scalps torn off just by the experience. And so I'm a big proponent. So anyway, with the Rose Fellowship no longer, I thought, well, I could bring this back to life under the foundation, communities by design entity, get a lot of resources, a lot of partnerships, a lot of allyships. Maybe the large firm roundtable will sponsor a sponsorship for a fellowship so that every fellow that applies does so with a sponsor firm, so that as they work in an affordable housing developer for a year or two, or a planning department, which is my main focus, to put these kids in planning departments, they can be under the supervision of an architect and still acquire the arrows they need for licensure. So Katie Swenson, who's a good friend, who is a longtime colleague, mass design group, recent Loeb Fellow herself, we have a very intense Loeb Mafia that works on our behalf at every turn.

Steven Lewis [00:22:40]:
Katie introduced me to Sean Donovan, who is President Obama's HUD secretary, and now he's running the enterprise community partners. And we had a three way virtual meeting where I told him the idea. He was excited. He thought it was just wonderful to be able to bring this back to life, and he offered himself up as a partner. But I'm in that phase of diagramming the whole thing in terms of who we need, how much we need, what we need, because the kids have to get paid enough to persuade them that this is as good an option as going to work for a firm. Even better, because experience you get. So think about it. If all of a sudden, the revit drafting work that I would have done as an entry level person is now sort of being taken over by AI, where's my value proposition? So the root of this idea is to try to build a better value proposition that allows these kids to still have a reason to enter the profession and purpose and meaning when they get there.

Interviewer [00:23:36]:
Yeah. And I love that, particularly because there's such a need for particularly young designers to have a better understanding of how things work and go together, because I feel like there's such a disconnect between architecture students coming out of school wanting to just make the pretty thing and completely divorcing that from the people, the policy and the impacts that the architecture will have in the community as the backdrop to the life that's going to happen within it. And so I really love that this will help make that reconnection between architecture.

Steven Lewis [00:24:05]:
And people and you know, what's really great is the sensitivities and sensibilities you gain through that kind of engagement work. They can apply right to corporate clients as well, and they need to be loved on a little bit. They need to be coddled. And so I think that that's part of building leadership.

Interviewer [00:24:26]:
Absolutely. And so then as part of the community engagement and working with communities, and you mentioned, and I've been seeing this as well, firms, particularly majority white firms, not really having the toolset to work with communities without hiring that third party, how everything's been going. If you want to talk a little bit about what's been happening at ZGF and kind of your role there as you've been trying to help build that up internally as well.

Steven Lewis [00:24:50]:
Sure. Well, it's been a real kind of joyride for me to be asked onto these teams to take the client through a process of what's required to result in a project that feels equally welcoming to their constituents, which come from all walks of life, their faculty, their administrations, and their students. And people immediately just sort of think of the low hanging fruit, which is a literal representation of culture in a space by environmental graphic design, you know, wayfinding that stuff, which is all valid and necessary, but they also have some thought or expectation that there's something spatially that we could do that's going to really produce this sense of equity and so forth. And I say, well, you know, after I take them through this exhaustive process with a third or fourth meeting, we get to a point where, okay, now let's. I'm going to bring it home for you now. So I could design a circular conference room. It has no hierarchy. There's no head of the room.

Steven Lewis [00:25:46]:
Everybody's equal around in circle. But it's a how you program that space and what you intentionally make happen in that space that's going to produce an identity that people will then understand and gravitate toward as that place. And that holds true for the whole building, you have to have that in mind. You also have to deal with the low hanging fruit piece. You know, that's fine. Maybe your food service menu changes daily or weekly to feature the cuisine of a particular culture. And, you know, you celebrate that. So I ask the questions, am I seen? Am I acknowledged? Am I respected? And am I empowered? And then am I celebrated? That's the cherry on the Sunday, right? Because those of us who have, you know, had a free flow between cultures understand the richness of that and that our experiences, our life experiences have been made greater and richer by virtue of having colleagues, friends and so forth.

Steven Lewis [00:26:45]:
And families, increasingly mixed race families who get to know each other. And in that knowledge comes richness and appreciation. And God knows we need it more now than ever.

Interviewer [00:26:57]:
Isn't that the truth? Like, my goodness. And the realization, I think, that comes from being able to have those connections across cultures is really an increased empathy of realizing that we're all people. Like, it's. There's so much more that connects us than separates us. And I think that is something that is frustrating for me when people don't understand that because it's like, yeah, just people.

Steven Lewis [00:27:22]:
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Interviewer [00:27:25]:
Yeah. And so one of the things that I'm realizing, and actually, I don't think I've told you this, but one of the reasons that I actually have the Noma letters after my name, because I remember there was one post where I put on LinkedIn and I had, like, I think Aia and maybe apt. And you're like, why don't you have Noma behind your name? I was like, you're right. I forgot that I could do that. Like, it's one of those things where it's like, yes, I need to make sure that I'm putting that. So I'm very grateful for you for reminding me that, listen, Noma is right up there with those letters and, like, the importance of being seen and acknowledged and really celebrating the pieces that go into who you are so that other people can see it. And I just like, so I just wanted to make sure. Thank you for that.

Steven Lewis [00:28:05]:
I get a small stipend for every new person. Puts normal by their name. But no, no, no, not really. I mean, it's a pride thing, you know, especially when you see what our members are producing and contributing. It's definitely a pride thing. And while we may have small bouts of drama, we have in no way the depth of what's going on with our companions at Aiadae.

Interviewer [00:28:28]:
Hundred percent. And that's a whole nother podcast.

Steven Lewis [00:28:32]:
I don't know. If we don't get. That's what I'm gonna say, let's parcel that off to another town. Exactly. I will just say that current leadership, our 40th president, the youngest ever, I believe, a millennial, Kimberly Dowdell, black woman. What a leader. What a leader. And even in the face of challenge.

Interviewer [00:28:51]:
Like definition of grace. Oh, my goodness.

Steven Lewis [00:28:54]:
Like, just an inspiration, you know, agreed.

Interviewer [00:28:57]:
Blown away by her at conference. Made sure to tell her that because it's wanting to make sure that giving her flowers and giving her her flowers while she's there. And also the support, since it was all of the drama from the conference that came out conference week and all that, and had been going on beforehand, obviously. And so then I know that we could talk about a number of things for a long time, but a couple things that I guess I wanted to circle back on the, I'm remembering from our pre call you mentioned that you attended Paul Revere Williams funeral. And so I would love for you to talk a little bit more about that or share with our listeners kind of that experience. And as we were talking about kind of how he was really kind of like the unsung undercover or like best kept secret in architecture, rather.

Steven Lewis [00:29:46]:
That's a great way to put it, the best kept secret. So I grew up in New York and I worked for my dad in New York City, and that was my world. Syracuse University come out. And I had visited LA on two occasions during my college years. Once to actually help my uncle, who was an architect on my mother's side of the family, who had bought a piece of property in a kind of difficult site location, and he had designed a home and hired this old guy as a general contractor, white guy, and put me to work for three weeks helping to build this house. And it was just like, amazing. And then my uncle David's daughter, my cousin Sandy, was a page at NBC. And I'd be like, I'd be like rolling Olympic black stain on the, on the eaves of this overhang, dripping down, and I looked like friggin amos and Andy.

Steven Lewis [00:30:47]:
And then my cousin would call and I'd have to take the call in the house because we didn't have cell phones. And she said, Stevie, rufus and Chaka Khan are going to be filming a midnight special in about 2 hours. You need to get over here. And I just drop all that stuff, go take a shower, get dressed and ride down there and see. I'll be the only one in the audience with Chaka Khan. You know, it's like, oh my God. So I had a full experience as a early LA visitor and I came back over, I think that was a summer vacation. I came back over a winter break and got a three week internship with John Sergio Fisher, who during my freshman year at Syracuse was a dean.

Steven Lewis [00:31:26]:
And then he left and he had a black partner in New York and he was in LA, and they did a lot of housing, a lot of affordable housing. So Fisher hired me for three weeks and treated me really well, not the others in the firm, for some reason. It was really weird. I was sort of his golden child, whatever. But those experiences instilled in me this idea of LA, you know, wow.

Interviewer [00:31:50]:
Right?

Steven Lewis [00:31:51]:
And when you're in New York, it's great, but when you're just a cog in the wheel, you know, you just get ground on. And so one day, you know, I had graduated. I went to work immediately. Actually, my dad's firm was the associate architect with Im Pei on the Jacob Javits convention Center on the west side of New York. And I landed in Pei's office representing my dad. And so my early, my first work experience post graduation was in Im Pei's office working on the Javits center with a jacket.

Nakita Reed [00:32:16]:
Phenomenal.

Interviewer [00:32:17]:
Oh, my goodness.

Steven Lewis [00:32:18]:
It was, it was great. It was great. But one day I was going to work at our place downtown and we used to commute in from Long island. You know, drive a half hour, park if you can find a space, then take the subway for an hour or whatever. And when I got off the train, this other train was coming into the station and the wheels were screeching and screaming and I was like, ah. And I went up to the surface and an ambulance went rolling by with the sirens blaring and my eyes started twitching and I was like, oh, no.

Nakita Reed [00:32:46]:
I gotta get away.

Steven Lewis [00:32:48]:
So I went up to the office and I called my Uncle David here in LA and I said, hey, man, you know, I need four months just to unwind. I'll be your drafting whore. You know, whatever you need, I'll just do it. And he said, oh, yeah, come on out. And so I arrived in January of 1980 to stay with him and my aunt Sylvia, his wife Sylvia. And like, within two days or so, he dragged me out to go to this funeral. And it was funeral for Paul Revere Williams. And I had no idea who that was, right.

Steven Lewis [00:33:18]:
Never heard of him. And I saw these people there and I saw what a major event it was. And I was like, who is this man? And so began my eyes being open to Paul Revere Williams, which when he did finally, you know, get his flowers, when he was given the posthumous gold medal. And Karen Hudson, his granddaughter, published a couple of coffee table books. He's now, I think the book is in every firm. I mean, it's on the reading table. So he's achieved in death what he was not able to achieve in life, which is notoriety, which I don't know if he really cared about, because he did, through his mastery and his genius, secured all kinds of clients and commissions and left that legacy behind. Right?

Interviewer [00:34:09]:
Yeah. Architect to the stars and all that, like, it's wild. But it still blows my mind that, like, he was not canon, but still. I went to, you know, architecture school early, two thousands. But even then he wasn't talked about. It wasn't a no. So. Yeah, so it's interesting how it's.

Interviewer [00:34:26]:
I'm grateful that it's a. He's gotten his flowers and more students and more. More people in the profession know who he was and the impact that he had on the profession. But it is fascinating to me that he did not get as far as he's alive.

Steven Lewis [00:34:39]:
And, I mean, let's see, we could take our pick, but let's just say a professional practice course in a university. I mean, that's a master class in professional practice.

Interviewer [00:34:49]:
Yeah, it really is.

Steven Lewis [00:34:50]:
Like, by any means necessary, you draw upside down and letter perfectly that way. Because guess what? You have to.

Interviewer [00:34:58]:
Exactly. Exactly. Because privilege are going to get declined. Yeah, exactly. Oh, my gosh.

Steven Lewis [00:35:03]:
Privilege is a curse sometimes. I mean, privilege is a real curse sometimes. Anyway, so that was my introduction to Paul.

Interviewer [00:35:11]:
Yeah. And I remember when we were talking, I was just kind of blown away by that, particularly knowing who he is now and just the like to be in awe and even just to. I mean, it is. It is spectacular to hear, like, kind of the stories that you're telling and the people whose lives you've intersected with, like, the who's who of the profession. And then even just what a. What a privilege and joy it is to know that there are other black men who are architects in your life that you knew before even going into the profession. Because I know I didn't meet an architect or even a black architect for a very long time. So that is amazing and very cool.

Interviewer [00:35:48]:
Oh, my goodness.

Steven Lewis [00:35:49]:
Indeed. Indeed.

Interviewer [00:35:50]:
And then, so you said you had an architect, so your dad was an architect. And you also said you had an architect on your mom's side as well. Were there other people in your family or on both sides who were architects?

Steven Lewis [00:36:00]:
No. In fact, my other three siblings, not close to architecture at all. I mean, they appreciate it, they love me, and there are no other family members who dove in.

Interviewer [00:36:15]:
Gotcha.

Steven Lewis [00:36:16]:
Well, I'm glad you got it. My daughter Jenna, she did study for two years at the Boston architectural College until she realized that we were out of our minds. And she chancellor major and went back to California and got her bachelor of fine arts degree.

Interviewer [00:36:30]:
And fair. That's fair. That's amazing. So maybe she's flipping it. So you wanting to be an architect to make more money instead of photographer. Maybe she's like, you know, what photographer is going to make or artists make more money than architects.

Steven Lewis [00:36:44]:
We'll see. I'm still waiting. She's doing great. She's actually working for a branding marketing firm in Detroit called Zoyas Creative, who cater to the AEC industry. So her boss actually brought her to the AIA conference, and my wife and I would be walking by in one direction. We'd spy her out of the other eye, just doing her business, you know, business development. And we just go like, yeah, that's beautiful. Sooner or later.

Interviewer [00:37:10]:
That's so cool, right? That's so cool. Some of the work that you're doing as EGF is very community driven, community based, and maybe not the most, you know, profitable, but more of a community driven aspect of it. Talk a little bit about some of those projects and some of the impact behind the work that you're doing there.

Steven Lewis [00:37:28]:
Yeah, well, I wouldn't be able to actually do it if the firm itself wasn't committed to pro bono through the OnePlus program. Primarily, we've done a great project in Portland called the Latino Network. We've done, we're in the process of taking a pro bono project that's now become real, the youth achievement center in Seattle, which worked with a cohort of ten out of 50 homeless BIPOC youth to introduce them to Jack Travis's prince of ten principles of afrocentric design and have them make them their own and give us enough input to do a representation of a culturally expressed project that started off as just a concept and now has become a real project with the Africa town developer. That's stuff that was not of my making, of my making. And ZGF has never told me, no, don't do it. Or when I say, I need to fly to Anniston, Alabama, they say, well, what airline? You know, I mean, it's pretty sweet, but I have been working for probably three and a half years with a group down in Anniston, Alabama, which is halfway between Birmingham and Atlanta, Georgia, where the freedom rides went through Anniston on their way from Montgomery, from the south up to DC, and two buses, they were ill fated went through Anniston, won. The passengers were beaten badly, but they did manage to get another driver to continue on and take them to Birmingham, where they were then beaten by Bull Connor, who gave his Klansmen five minutes. They said, you got five minutes, and then you're done and go.

Steven Lewis [00:39:00]:
The other bus actually was really vandalized when it was in Anniston at the bus station and the bus driver tried to get out of town, and he made it 4 miles up of up highway 202 when it broke down, was being followed by a convoy of pickup trucks and gun racks and confederate flags. And they jumped out of their trucks, and they threw incendiaries through the windows of the bus, setting it on fire and proceeding to hold the doors closed.

Interviewer [00:39:28]:
It's just heartbreaking.

Steven Lewis [00:39:29]:
Fatefully, the engine blew out the back of the bus, and the passengers were able to escape that way, all suffering from smoke inhalation on the grass. And as the crowd started to approach them, an officer who was in the crowd shot his gun up in the air and said, all right, that's enough. Y'all go home. And that just dissipated that. Then it was a question of, how are these freedom riders, half of whom were black and half of whom were white?

Interviewer [00:39:55]:
Right.

Steven Lewis [00:39:55]:
We're going to get medical treatment, because at that time, the law in Alabama prevented ambulances for conveying black patients to hospitals. Somehow, Bobby Kennedy, who was the attorney general at the time, got word of what was going on and called the governor of Alabama and told them that at that moment, their law was changing and that they had to pick these people up and take them to safety. But on the other bus, the one that made it to Birmingham, Charles person was the youngest freedom rider at 18 years old. And he, in today's frame after Black lives Matter was happening, felt like he almost died for our rights and that they were being put at risk again and that we needed a way to educate the public, law enforcement, activists, everyone in between what their rights to constitutional, what their constitutional rights for peaceful protest were, and to provide a curriculum that if you had been in the arrested for protesting, you could take a class or two and have your record expunged and your sentence reduced. And so this entity was stood up a couple of years ago, and these courses are being offered, but there's been no physical home for the. What we call the freedom riders training institute. So I've been working with the group and Charles on adaptively reusing an old Coca Cola bottling building that's right across the street from what was the bus station at the time. And as I told the audience on the 60th anniversary several years ago, we could have gone easily up the highway to a clean site and built a shiny new building, but we rather chose instead to come into this older building that witnessed everything, because imagine if these walls could talk, what they would tell us.

Interviewer [00:41:38]:
Yeah.

Steven Lewis [00:41:39]:
And so that became the impetus for designing a really wonderful interior and an appendage along the side of the building to provide accessible entrance that is essentially an homage to the old bus, to the greyhound bus. It kind of has that aesthetic character. So I talk about, you know, all this other work, and people may see me in the firm as, oh, you're the DEI architect, whatever. But I'm designing stuff and just having a blast doing it. So, you know, that's one. And there have been just, you know, there's a whole series of things that I've chosen to do in places that are unlikely for us as a firm like Birmingham, Alabama, and Detroit, you know.

Interviewer [00:42:20]:
Yeah. And the stories that are going to be carried forward and told and elevated and celebrated through the work that you're doing that chills like, that is amazing. And I'm so very grateful. And granted, I might be a little partial, since, you know, I love me an existing or historic building, but I'm so grateful that the building that you selected is actually one that exists as a person.

Steven Lewis [00:42:44]:
You don't have to build it. It's our most sustainable type.

Interviewer [00:42:47]:
Exactly. Awesome. Fantastic. Well, great.

Steven Lewis [00:42:51]:
I'm glad to hear, just kind of, in closing, I'll say, when you have a career like this, when you don't say no often, when you cozy up to the edge of the abyss and look in and see nothing but darkness, but then you have the courage to jump in, which is contrary to human nature, which we want you to sort of back up, you find that the abyss tends to be a warm and fuzzy place, and it's a great thing to do, is to just explore. And if you go down the wrong street, you can back up and go down another one. But you got to be active. You got to be driven. You have to be purpose driven. The work I do gets me up in the morning and gets me excited to go in because it's so much bigger than me. And so it requires humility, it requires passion, commitment, integrity, all these qualities that essentially translate to one being a citizen architect. And I can proudly call myself that.

Steven Lewis [00:43:45]:
I got the bona fides to stand up behind it.

Nakita Reed [00:43:51]:
Thank you so much for listening. Links to amazing resources can be found in the episode's show notes. Special thanks to Sara Gilberg for allowing me to use snippets of her song fireflies from her debut albumen other people's secrets, which, by the way, is available wherever music is sold. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe to the show. And now that Tangible remnants is part of the Gable Media network, you can listen and subscribe to all network partner content@gablemedia.com. that's g a b l dash dash media.com. until next time, remember that historic preservation is a present conversation with our past, about our future. We don't inherit the earth from our parents, but we borrow it from our children.

Nakita Reed [00:44:35]:
So let's make sure we're telling our inclusive history.

Steven Lewis [00:44:39]:
I saw the first fireflies of summer.

Interviewer [00:44:44]:
And right then I thought of you. Oh, I could see us catching them.

Steven Lewis [00:44:52]:
And setting them free.

Interviewer [00:44:56]:
Honey, that's what you do.

Nakita Reed [00:45:02]:
That's what you do to me.