The Radical Practice of James Garrott
SAH/SCC On-Site Gallery Talk, Silver Lake
Saturday, April 13, 2024
Join
SAH/SCC for a behind-the-scenes look at the exhibition “The
Radical Practice of James H. Garrott: Civil Rights Activist and Modern Architect”
at The BAg at Bestor Architecture in Silver Lake.
Curator, author, and scholar Anthony
Fontenot will lecture about the architecture and activism of James H. Garrott (1897-1991).
Garrott was one of the few Black modernist architects in the United States and throughout
his career he maintained a steadfast commitment to progressive politics and civil
rights activism. He designed hundreds of buildings, including single-family residences,
tract housing, schools, civic buildings, libraries, industrial facilities, and medical
buildings, as well as 25 churches.
Garrott had no formal training, but in
1928 he successfully completed the Architect Licensure Examination (now known
as the ARE), becoming the second licensed Black architect west of the Mississippi
River. Among the projects he was involved
with—sometimes collaborating with Paul R. Williams (1894-1980) and William E. Young—are
the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building (1928) and St. Philip the Evangelist
Episcopal Church (1929).
Garrott’s allies included Black and white
progressives, such as developer/builder Robert E. Alexander (1925-1965), architects
and designers Gregory Ain (1908-1988), Charles (1907-1978) and Ray (1912-1988) Eames,
Garrett Eckbo (1910-2000), Harwell Hamilton Harris (1903-1990), Reginald D. Johnson
(1882-1952), and Richard Neutra (1892-1970), photographers Julius Shulman (1910-2009)
and Marvin Rand (1924-2009), and civil rights attorney Loren Miller (1903-1967).
Garrott
Exhibition Talk: Saturday, April 13, 2024; 5-7 PM; The BAg, 2030
Hyperion Ave.
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