Accelerating Success: Kathryn Tyler Prigmore on Mentoring and Volunteering for Impact
By Amy Stone
Kathryn Prigmore has over forty years of architectural experience as a practitioner, educator, and regulator. Her strong project management skills include an inimitable understanding of the dynamics that facilitate project delivery. Kathryn has provided design, technical oversight, and project management for award-winning projects of a wide range of sizes, types, and delivery methods – including those with sensitive and classified defense and federal missions.
Active in professional and civic affairs, Kathryn has served on industry committees at the national level that serve to bridge the chasm between education and practice. In her interview with Amy Stone, Kathryn talks about her mission to increase the number of African American architects, advising those just starting their careers to find their focus while keeping an eye on the whole profession.
AS: How did your interest in architecture first develop and what did you learn about yourself while studying architecture?
KTP: I studied architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. What I learned there, ironically, is that I could learn a lot more by working than I could as a student. I graduated a semester early with a BS in Building sciences and my Bachelor of Architecture, as well as two minors and additional credits.
At what point did you realize you were getting more out of work than school?
I worked for VVKR Incorporated (the largest firm in the DC area at the time) starting after my first year at RPI. I worked in every department including the print room, marketing and interiors, and also architecture, of course. By my fourth year of school, I was assigned to work projects. Everybody was supportive. I learned so much from my colleagues that set me apart from my classmates.
1001 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC, Harman Cox and Segreti Tepper Architects.
Did you start with that firm right after you graduated?
I continued with VVKR for about three years and left shortly after getting licensed. At the time there were three other licensed women in the firm. We soon came to realize that we were making much less than our male colleagues in similar positions. Within about a year we had all left the firm
Wow!
I was lucky to use my network to quickly find a job in another firm. I have always been able to use my connections when transitioning from one firm to another. I never burn bridges and I advise others to not burn bridges. I value being able to do that, and I look to be that connection for other women.
Walk me through your career, especially through the significant moments and milestones.
One thing I often forget to mention is that I have a Masters in Engineering. I only bring it up when someone starts questioning my credentials [laughs]. As an African American woman, frequently encounter bizarre moments where my qualifications are questioned.
I pursued that degree as way to study for the AREs. I needed to study contracts and the firm where I worked stored the contracts under an area where no one was permitted to go. It was completely blocked off unless you were specifically invited to speak to a principal. Many of the courses leading to that degree to help me study for the ARE.
I was licensed by the time I was 25. I practiced for fourteen years or so, then during the recession in the 90s, I entered academia on a part-time basis. I was soon promoted to Associate Dean at the Howard University School of Architecture and Planning a full-time position I held for about 8 years. Academia gave me a lot of flexibility -- I could bring my kids to campus, which was helpful because they were young when I first started. Academia also helped broaden my network of connections in the architecture field all around the country.
“I love architecture and I love to facilitate everyone else’s love for it.”
While at Howard, I was appointed to the Virginia registration board (APELSCIDLA). That began my parallel career in the regulatory part of our profession. I was also very involved with NCARB during the period we transitioned from the paper and pencil exams to the computer and eventually chaired the Committee on Examinations. I am really proud to have been a part of that paradigm shift and to have had an impact on how the ARE is developed and delivered today.
I ended regulatory aspect of my professional service on AIA National Ethics Council, which I also chaired. Since then, I have been active with the AIA DC and AIA NOVA Fellows Committees. I have also been active with the AIA NOVA women in Architecture Committee for most of my career and was one of 5 Co-Chairs of the 2017 AIA National Women’s Leadership Summit.
Yes! How has motherhood played into your profession?
As a single mother foremost of my children’s lives, I was lucky to have a lot of family support. Also, two really great neighboring families helped each other raise all of our kids together. I could not have had such a great professional and service career – and raised two wonderful children without all of their support. Also, every firm I worked for had family friendly policies.
DC Municipal Office Building on Opening Day, Washington DC, VVKR/D&P/RTC Joint Venture.
I completely understand that. You’ve done something I don’t see very often, which is leaving academia and go fully back into practice. Can you tell me about that?
Re-entering the professional world in 1998 was a challenge! The computer revolution had taken place and as hard as I tried, I just could not draw in AutoCAD. I tried! I worked at different firms as a project manager and it was during that time that I became a Fellow, largely in part for the mentoring work I had done at Howard, and for my contributions to the profession through NCARB and AIA. I was the fifth African American woman elevated to a Fellow and one of the youngest elevated during that era.
After becoming a Fellow, I moved into a senior project management position at one of the largest AE firms in the country. I had to fight for that title. After working thee for a while, I realized I had more credentials than other senior managers. Fighting for the title paid off in the long run. Raising my voice eventually played a role in my promotion to vice president. My responsibilities suited the aspects of architecture that I really like, which is managing very technical projects with complex schedules and difficult budgets. I realized project management was a skill that was more highly valued than design at that firm. A consummate volunteer, I became involved with strategic planning and with the corporate education and training in addition to my project and studio leadership responsibilities.
I left that firm to become COO and Risk Manager at another national firm. I loved reviewing and negotiating contracts so much that I often wished I had gone to law school something I had considered off and on much earlier in my career.
Do you feel like you carried forward any specific lessons from being Associate Dean at Howard?
One of the things it did was as an Associate Dean, especially because our budget was limited, is that I learned to look for creative ways to solve problems. I was pretty shy when I started but I eventually became very comfortable asking people for support and donations. I learned to craft questions in a way that doesn’t offend or elicit a negative reaction. That skill was easily transferrable to communicating with clients and contractors.
Another thing I developed was the ability to know and understand young people. I enjoyed having them on my team professionally and I worked with them in ways that were very atypical of my peers who were senior project managers. My approach to managing the team is to find people’s capabilities, their interests, what they are good at, and enthusiastic about. I assign project roles partly according to those traits in addition to their skills and knowledge. That approach doesn’t always play well in a firm, but I find it to be effective in maximizing quality and output on complex projects with challenging schedules because team members at all levels understand they have a stake in the project’s success.
“When I became a Fellow, I said, “You have every credential this professional has to offer. It is time for you to change.” The way I look now is the expression of my true self. I have one wardrobe, not two.”
Looking back, what have been your biggest challenges?
My biggest challenge is not knowing why individuals would not respect my qualifications or achievements. Until J.E.D.I became a mainstream topic, no one would talk about these issues directly. Is it because I look younger than I am? Because I’m always happy and upbeat? Is it because I’m African American? Because I’m a woman? Not knowing which of those things, or if all of those things are an issue with a colleague or client or contractor is a layer of unnecessary uncertainty that no one should have to contend with on a daily basis. How do I resolve this? Why should I be the one who has to make the other person feel comfortable with me?
For the first 25 or so years of my career I chemically treated my hair and dressed like a CBS news anchor woman. This was the uniform I had to wear to work in the type of firms I wanted to work in. I couldn’t wear the wonderful colors that that reflet really connects to how I feel as a creative person. When I became a Fellow, I said, “You have every credential this professional has to offer. It is time for you to change.” The way I look now is the expression of my true self. I have one wardrobe, not two. My recent professional photos reveal the true me. When I look at them I say, “That’s me. That’s finally me.”
What are your biggest highlights?
My highlights are my two beautiful daughters. They are my best projects.
Other highlights are the projects I’ve worked on that I feel really proud of. Most of them I can’t talk about. I think about the management side and how I was able to get my team to do what they are great at so they can be happy and productive. I supported them and helped them to excel. I love architecture and I love to facilitate everyone else’s love for it.
Another highlight was being a part of the NCARB leadership during the part of the final transition of the ARE to computerized delivery and the conception of the exam format as it is currently delivered.
My most recent highlight occurred during the horrible year of 2020. I was so proud when one of my former students called to tell me he had been elevated to Fellowship! He called me right after he found out. I started crying. It just warms my heart that there is this other generation coming up and being successful. That’s my 2020 highlight.
Federal Headquarters Building Client/AE/GC Project Management Team with Prigmore 6th from left and PA Anna Barbour 5th from left.
Tell me about your mentorship and creating Riding the Vortex. You’re a master mentor. How did that organization come to be?
I, along with another woman, created this entity called Riding the Vortex: African American Women in Practice. The purpose of VORTEX to inspire architects at all levels, to encourage us women to stick with the profession, to give us a voice on the national stage, and to inspire students and emerging professionals to pursue licensure. We mentor. We are a support network. We support programming and seminars for women spanning all phases of the profession, from student to Fellow, and give these people a voice who wouldn’t normally have one. We have connected women through programming across the country and we continue to do so today virtually. Several of the young women who you see or hear from regularly now, like Tiffany Brown and Pascale Sablan, were presenters of Riding the Vortex.
We also maintain statistics. When I was licensed in 1981, there were about twenty of us. In 1993, there were fifty of us. In 2007, there were around one hundred and seventy. As of 2020, there are over five hundred of licensed African American women architect in the United States. Only nineteen of us are Fellows.
Amazing! I’m struck thinking that’s still only about ten per state. We need more African American women architects! I’m thrilled to hear how you’ve been a long-term mentor who is promoting that on the national scale.
What is the impact you want to have on the world? What is your core mission?
That is my core mission: to increase the number of African American architects.
“You have to keep an eye on the whole of the profession, or you will become obsolete.”
Who are you admiring right now and why?
I’ve come to admire Isabel Wilkerson for her book called Caste: Origins of Our Discontents. I admire her because throughout my career in architecture I couldn't figure out what was driving the inequities in our country. She writes about it with so much clarity that it became clear that we have a similar caste system in architecture.
Today, representative Liz Cheney for standing for the truth. If you had asked me last week I would have had a different answer. I may not believe everything she believes in, but I really admire her for standing up for the truth.
What’s something you know now that you wish you would have known when you were just starting out?
I mentioned I’d have gone to law school. I would have added that into my architectural path. I feel I would have really enjoyed that profession.
What advice do you have for those just beginning their career?
Find your own passion in architecture but maintain a connection with its entirety. Remain connected to the breadth of developments and evolutions of the practice. You have to keep an eye on the whole of the profession, or you will become obsolete.