Moody Nolan co-founder Curtis Jerome Moody dies aged 73

Architect Curtis Jerome Moody, co-founder of the largest African-American-owned architecture firm in the US, has passed away aged 73.

Curtis Jerome Moody passed away last week on 13 October, Columbus-based architecture firm Moody Nolan announced on its website.

The architect was best known as the co-founder of Moody Nolan, which he established with the late engineer Howard E Nolan in 1982 and grew to be largest African-American-owned architecture firm in the US.

The studio has compleetd numerous high profile projects including the International African American Museum (IAAM) in South Carolina and the ongoing Home Court arena on the Obama Presidential Center.

Curtis Jerome Moody was born in 1950 and raised in Columbus, Ohio. He studied architecture at Ohio State University.

Faced with discriminatory behaviour throughout his schooling and beyond, Moody founded his firm based on ethics of diversity, inclusion, and representation and pushed back against beliefs that minority-owned firms could not deliver larger projects.

The studio now has 350 employees across 12 different locations including its Columbus home base, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston.

Moody received a number of awards throughout his career, including the Distinguished Service Award from Ohio State University in 2002 and the AIA Ohio Gold Medal Award in 2007. His firm was awarded the AIA Firm of The Year Award in 2021, as well AIA Chicago's 2024 Firm Award.

In 2020, Curtis Jerome Moody's son Jonathan Moody became CEO of the firm.

"I was fortunate to share the stage with him at the 2022 NOMA Conference," said Jonathan Moody upon his passing.

"Jason Pugh asked him what was his favorite project and he said, 'the next one'. He paved the way from our past, he's shown us that we're presently ready for this moment, and he would want us focused on 'the next one' that is ahead of us in the future."

Other projects recently completed by the studio include a number of libraries, healthcare and university buildings such as the Martin Luther King branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library and the Schottenstein Center at The Ohio State University, which Moody noted was a personal favourite in a 2020 Archinect interview.

In 2022, it was announced the firm was selected to work on the upcoming Center for Fine Arts and Communications at Howard University, which will house the Chadwick A Boseman College of Fine Arts in honour of the late actor.

The photography is courtesy of Moody Nolan unless otherwise stated

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