Building the Obama Presidential Center: Meet Dina Griffin

there are like a hundred and eighteen thousand architects in the United States point four percent are black women 0.4 we don't even have a whole percentage point which is crazy my name is Dina Griffin proudly I grew up in Chicago on the South Side I was in high school at Kenwood Academy just down the street from the Presidential Center my pursuit of this profession had everything to do with Mike Brady of The Brady Bunch because one semester in high school they taught architectural Drafting and the first reference I heard about was on The Brady Bunch that was my entree into the profession at the University of Illinois I noticed right away that we were outnumbered on campus there were only 1100 black students I had to do a compulsory engineering class I was the only person of color in the class and the only female I remember one occasion I went up to asking a professor a question after and he said oh I wasn't talking to you you should just find another major is too difficult and of course that just lit a fire under me our firm we've been very fortunate to be exposed to incredible projects and opportunities having one of those projects be the modern Wing at the Art Institute I think really shed the light on our firm and brought the attention of other Global firms to partner my first thought when the Obamas decided to locate their Presidential Center here was this is going to be fantastic for the city of Chicago [Music] when we got the call saying that we won the project I screamed a little here we are getting another project of a lifetime and it happens to be for the first black president I was just over the moon we know that for a project that size that we would need to partner with somebody Todd and Billy of course they're designing the building our role number one is to support that effort and within our firm we had roles for each architect my role is doing the furniture fixtures and equipment plans Furniture is a big part of a finished space especially in a cultural institution like the Obama Presidential Center so making sure that space represents the vision of the client we are so excited to be working on this because it's a good team it's just not about building a building and then moving on this is about building a movement I'm most excited for visitors to see the Skyrim because it allows an opportunity to see the city in a perspective that you wouldn't otherwise get and anybody can go up there and enjoy the view you're also looking out through the words of President Obama and I think once that acknowledgment is realized how powerful it is to be in that space it's been amazing working on this project the pool of talent that is involved it's awe-inspiring it's just amazing to see who's getting it built and who's going to carry on once the project is over that to me has always been the number one focus of the Obamas I try to encourage other black women to pursue whatever their career may be I try to go to elementary schools high schools colleges and universities if you just let your career happen to you it's just going to happen you're going to have no Rudder you're not going to be able to guide yourself and that's one thing that I'm hopeful people walk away with is advocate for yourself [Music]

Channel: Obama Foundation

Views: 3,937

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Id: NUAW7dPzW_E

Length: 4min 9sec (249 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 03 2023