Name: Rodney Leon

Age: 36

Company: AARIS Architects (www.AARRIS.com)

Company Headquarters: New York City

Tidbit:

Rodney Leon is the heart and mind behind the design chosen for New York’s $3 million African Burial Ground Memorial. He is also president and co-founder of AARRIS Architects, an African-American firm specializing in residential, commercial and institutional design. Leon has accumulated more than a decade of experience in architectural design in the United States and abroad. He has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Pratt Institute School of Architecture and a master’s degree of architecture from Yale. A pan-Africanist at heart, he continues to “look for ways to incorporate cultural forms into architecture.”

Why You Should Care:

Last month, New York City named Leon the winning designer for African Burial Ground Memorial project. Originally selected as one of five finalists from a pool of 61 in 2002, Leon’s design will mark the lower Manhattan site of one of America’s first African-American cemeteries and give us a place to gather, reflect, mourn and celebrate.

“It is a piece that really educates people about the history of the site,” says Leon. His design includes a 24-foot “Ancestral Chamber” for reflection, a sunken “Libation Court” for gatherings, a “Wall of Remembrance” that chronicles African-American history in lower Manhattan; “Ancestral Pillars” to represent the African Americans buried at the site; a “Door of Return” in response to Senegal’s Goree Island Door of No Return (a passageway that led African captives to slave ships coming to America); and a “Circle of the Diaspora” marked with religious and cultural symbols of West Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. “The Circle of the Diaspora acknowledges that we have been dispersed and hopes that we can come together,” Leon says. With each design element, the memorial physically lives up to its inscription: “For all those who were lost, for all those who were stolen, for all those who were left behind, for all those who are not forgotten.”

The African Burial Ground project is the perfect blend of two of Leon’s passions -- African history and architecture. Profoundly influenced by an internship experience in Ivory Coast, Leon exclaims, “It was wonderful and something that I always wanted to do.” In addition to living in and observing a new culture, he also got to work on multiple projects including mosques in downtown Abidjan, the Ivorian capital.

Leon’s work in architecture is not limited to professional practice; he also served as Visiting Professor of Design at his alma mater, Pratt Institute School of Architecture, from 1998 to 2003. “I had the inclination very early on to teach and develop some of my ideas so going back to Pratt was a very rewarding experience.” He credits his professorship at Pratt with keeping him current and helping him to balance the conceptual and practical aspects of architecture.

About the Author
Ayeko Vinton is a freelance writer, teacher and Web developer living in Boston.