A Monumental Man

As a globally feted architect, Sir David Adjaye has reached the upper stories of his profession. Famed for his beguiling facades, he talks to Robb Report about deeper questions of race, history and politics.

A little more than a decade ago, David Adjaye hovered on the verge of bankruptcy, his budding architectural practice devastated by the Great Recession. “Budgets were slashed. I was employing about 30 people and had about six decent projects, which was a lot for a young architect. But I was winging it. I wasn’t a business person. I lost all my savings, going through the insolvency system and paying off everyone personally.”

It was a rough comedown for an architect whose early works had gained notice for their rigorous and subversive designs. But only a year later, in 2009, Adjaye won the heated competition to design the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, marking a stunning reversal of his fortunes. “Just when people thought that I was done with, the Smithsonian revived me and introduced me to America. It felt supernatural.”

As well as being a personal redemption, the museum, which opened in 2016, won the Ghanaian British designer several awards and catapulted him into the starchitect stratosphere. The following year, thanks to a knighthood, he added Sir to his name. Adjaye has become a go-to man for monuments and museums, including a planned Holocaust memorial by the Houses of Parliament in London. He has also become something of a spokesman for black architects, a role he inhabits eloquently, though reluctantly.