Hilyard Robinson (1899 – July 2, 1986) was a prominent

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

architect and engineer.

Biography

Hilyard Robinson was born in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, where his mother was a seamstress and his grandfather had a shoe-shining business. Robins graduated from

M Street High School M Street High School, also known as Perry School, is a historic former school building located in the Northwest Quadrant of Washington, D.C. It has been listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites since 1978 and it was listed on ...

and then studied at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Arts. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Robinson served as a U.S. Army artillery officer where he spent time in Paris at the

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the La ...

and observed the style of the buildings there. Upon his return to the United States, Robinson transferred to the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

before eventually graduating from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1924 with a degree in architecture and working for several architectural firms and teaching at Howard University. In 1931 after he married Helena Rooks and completed a master's degree at Columbia, the Robinsons went to Europe to study in Germany, where Robinson was influenced by the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

style, as well as Scandinavia, France and elsewhere. Robinson taught architecture at Howard University from the 1920s to 1960s, and he also designed many campus buildings. The U.S. Department of the Interior commissioned Robinson to build the

Langston Terrace Dwellings Langston Terrace Dwellings are historic structures located in the Langston portion of the Carver/Langston neighborhoods in the Northeast quadrant of Washington, D.C. The apartments were built between 1935 and 1938 and they were listed on the Nat ...

for which he gained prominence, and Robinson also served as an architectural consultant to the government of

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...

. Robinson died in 1986 at Howard University Medical Center. Robinson worked closely with other American architects such as

Ralph A. Vaughn Ralph A. Vaughn (1907–2000) was an African-American academic, architect and film set designer. Born in Washington, D.C., he was an assistant professor at Howard University before moving to Los Angeles, California, where he designed many buildi ...

and Paul Williams.Ethridge, Harrison M. "The Black Architects of Washington, D.C., 1900-Present." Ph.D. diss., The Catholic University of America, 1979.

Notable works

Aberdeen Gardens (Hampton, Virginia) Aberdeen Gardens is a national historic district located at Hampton, Virginia, United States. The district was part of a planned community initiated by Hampton University under New Deal legislation. The neighborhood is listed on the Virginia ...

(1934) *

(1935-1938) *Parkland Homes at

Willow Run Bomber Plant Willow Run, also known as Air Force Plant 31, was a manufacturing complex in Michigan, United States, located between Ypsilanti Township and Belleville, built by the Ford Motor Company to manufacture aircraft, especially the B-24 Liberator heav ...

(1943) *

Ralph Bunche House (Washington, D.C.) Ralph Bunche House was the home Ralph Bunche commissioned from Hilyard Robinson in 1941. It is located at 1510 Jackson Street, Northeast, Washington, D.C., United States, in the Brookland (Washington, D.C.), Brookland neighborhood. He lived th ...

(1941) *

Sharpe Field Sharpe Field is a closed private use airport located northwest of the central business district of Tuskegee, a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. This airport is privately owned by the Bradbury Family Partnership. Formerly known a ...

Airport (1941) *

Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg was a housing project on Capitol Hill in Southeast Washington, D.C., bounded by Virginia Avenue, M Street, 2nd Street, and 5th Street, SE. Arthur Capper was known to the residents as "Capers." First built in 1958, the pr ...

(1958) *Multiple Howard University buildings (Cramton Hall, the Ira Aldridge Theater, the School of Engineering, the Home Economics Building (now School of Human Ecology), Locke Hall)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Hilyard 1899 births 1986 deaths Architects from Washington, D.C. University of Pennsylvania alumni University of the Arts (Philadelphia) alumni Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation alumni African-American architects Howard University faculty United States Army personnel of World War I United States Army officers 20th-century American architects 20th-century African-American artists