Sir David Adjaye, the acclaimed architect of the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition, has erected architectural masterpieces throughout a number of continents. Nevertheless, new claims from Black ladies employed by his eponymous agency, Adjaye Associates, allege the architect subjected them to a hostile work atmosphere.
Claims of sexual misconduct, sexual assault, coercion, emotional abuse, and extra have been made by three ladies towards Adjaye specifically, as unearthed in a brand new investigation by the Monetary Instances. The allegations, which span from 2018 to 2020, have reportedly led the Ghanaian-British architect, who was knighted in 2017, to step down from his agency and resign as an architectural adviser to the mayor of London. His work on the UK’s Holocaust memorial has additionally been suspended, in keeping with the New York Instances.
In response to the Monetary Instances, the three ladies share widespread traits: all have been Black ladies of their 40s, single moms, well-connected, and from influential households. Every additionally knew Adjaye earlier than becoming a member of his agency and had some prior relationship of an intimate nature with the architect. In response to the Monetary Instances, one other attribute the ladies share is mild pores and skin complexions, an element at the very least one alleges fueled Adjaye’s vitriol towards her.
Two of the ladies, who the Monetary Instances known as “Maya” and “Gene,” declare after they joined Adjaye’s newly established, Ghana-based agency in 2018, they have been met with missed paychecks, visa insecurities, and worse. Each ladies additionally allege quite a few situations of sexual coercion – together with an incident each ladies declare left them traumatized and crying collectively on the ground of Maya’s house – and ongoing harassment by Adjaye.
In one other incident in 2019 involving Maya, the Monetary Instances reported that Adjaye sexually assaulted her in a toilet at an airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“I felt so ailing, I felt so nugatory, like dust, like nothing,” she advised the Monetary Instances of the assault.
The outlet additional reported the lady tried to boost a grievance with Adjaye’s agency, however her claims weres dismissed.
The third girl, who the newspaper recognized as “Dunia,” mentioned her abuse started when she met Adjaye at an business celebration in London. She mentioned over the course of the night, he instructed her to drive them to the Royal Academy of Arts regardless of it being previous closing hours and used his standing to realize entry. As soon as inside, he allegedly pushed Dunia towards an alcove and forcibly kissed her.
However, she nonetheless accepted a job with Adjaye’s agency due to its potential for her profession. Over the subsequent few months, she claimed to have skilled a sequence of controlling and emotionally abusive sexual encounters with the architect, although she refuses to characterize their interactions as a “relationship.” Dunia added she felt pressured to work for Adjaye with out pay for a time frame and to conform together with his sexual calls for due to his affect.
All three accusers advised the publication the alleged abuse has “disrupted their careers, left them in precarious monetary circumstances, and triggered them severe psychological misery.”
They additional advised the publication they felt compelled to return ahead about their experiences to stop different ladies from experiencing the identical and to highlight the architect’s conduct behind closed doorways.
In all three circumstances, the Monetary Instances defined reporters labored to corroborate the ladies’s accounts by interviewing colleagues, relations, and mates they’d confided in. Contemporaneous emails, paperwork, police statements, and textual content messages have been additionally reviewed.
A lawyer for Adjaye advised the outlet the three ladies have been appearing upon “their very own grievances” towards the architect. In response to questions concerning the allegations, Adjaye advised the Monetary Instances: “I completely reject any claims of sexual misconduct, abuse or prison wrongdoing. These allegations are unfaithful, distressing for me and my household, and run counter to the whole lot I stand for.”
He added: “I’m ashamed to say that I entered into relationships which although solely consensual, blurred the boundaries between my skilled and private lives. I’m deeply sorry. To revive belief and accountability, I might be instantly looking for skilled assist with a view to study from these errors to make sure that they by no means occur once more.”
If true, these allegations level to habits occurring not solely as Adjaye was constructing throughout continents however whereas publicly advocating for the rights of underrepresented teams within the structure business, together with ladies.
In a 2017 interview with Dezeen, an internet design journal, Adjaye mentioned that he discovered “it exhausting that ladies are nonetheless preventing for gender parity.
“We’re within the twenty first century,” he added: “That is such an outdated story, we must be well beyond this. I’m embarrassed, as a male.”
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