Obits: Norma Merrick Sklarek

The LA Times reports that Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first black woman in the US to be licensed as an architect, has died at 85. Sklarek worked at Brentwood-based Gruen Associates for two decades starting in 1960, and later at Santa Monica-based Welton Becket Associates and the Venice-based Jerde Partnership. One of her most high-profile projects was Terminal 1 at LAX, finished in 1984. She passed the New York state architecture exam in 1954; she was also the first black woman to be licensed in California, in 1962, and to become a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, in 1966. [LAT, image via]