“I see architecture not as Gropius did — as a moral venture, as truth — but as invention, in the same way that poetry or music or painting is invention.”
“As an architect, I invent spaces that are made to be widely experienced. They become masterpieces that reflect my creativity, passion and experimental nature. But along with invention comes responsibility, because really, what is a great invention without reason? This is where my avant-garde evolves; I always keep in mind that architecture designs the world, and through design, architecture changes the world, giving me the responsibility to continually evolve the world. It is this progression of thinking that I want to bring to architecture, with designs that are truly capable of creating innovative and phenomenal inventions, altering the world one design at a time.”
These were the words of this week’s profile, Chanel Chéri, when she was a budding student going after her dream.
Since then, she’s had the chance to create some of those lasting designs and also has found time to pursue an entirely new career.
PGN: Let’s start with a little background. Where are you from?
CC: All over Philly. Me and my mom bounced around a lot when I was little. Our first stable home was in Frankford and our last stable home — stable for sure this time — was in Mt. Airy.
PGN: Why all the bouncing around?
CC: She was a single mother and had to work a lot. A lot of times I took care of myself or lived with different people. At one time, she was working so many jobs and I didn’t see her for a while. I actually didn’t see her consistently until I was about 11, so we moved around while she worked to save money and build credit to buy our own home. She did eventually and we were able to get our first home. I don’t think we ever dealt with the fact that I didn’t ever see her much because even when she finally did get us a house, she was still gone trying to make money for the mortgage, so I only saw her on the occasional weekends. My father wasn’t really in the picture either, so I pretty much grew up on my own. I will say that my mother always called and checked in to see how I was, so we had a good relationship and it was never something that I was angry about.
PGN: Do you think you got your work ethic from her?
CC: [Laughs] No. What I think I got from her or what I learned from that experience was that I wanted to pursue a career so that I wouldn’t have the same struggles that she did. Not because there was anything wrong with what she did, but I saw how hard it was for her, how difficult things could be trying to create a sustained life, and wanted something different. And I realized that if I just worked to sustain, I wouldn’t be able to help her when I got older the way I wanted to. Back then, a lot of people didn’t finish school and it was hard for them to get into viable careers. And now I’m able to sustain myself and help my mother, which was always very important to me.
PGN: How did you get into architecture? Were you the kid always playing with building blocks?
CC: What happened was that I was a little frazzled at one point from the constant not knowing where I belonged, and kids are horrible when you’re most vulnerable, so I became a bit of a hermit. My mother was an artist and did a lot of fashion drawings. It’s funny, the first time she noticed that I had artistic abilities, I’d traced a picture of Winnie the Pooh. She saw me tracing it and when I finished it and tried to show her what I’d drawn, she tore it up and I was like, “Oh my God! What are you doing?” but she said, “No, that wasn’t drawing, go back and do it freehand, not traced,” and that’s how I started drawing, which eventually somehow led to an interest in interior design.
PGN: That’s a jump, from Winnie the Pooh to interior design!
CC: [Laughs] I know! There was some show I used to watch, it was before HGTV, but one of those types of shows that got me hooked. I’d ask my mom if I could repaint the walls and stuff like that. I’d fix holes in the drywall and when I was around 12 I put down a wood floor. I started doing sketches of ideas and would say to her, “Look, we can do this or this!” and she’d let me go for it. When I was doing all that, I didn’t know that architecture was a thing, but I somehow landed in the Charter High School for Architecture and Design (CHAD) and realized, Oh, this is what I’m doing. And there’s a name for it! And a title! And you can get a job doing this? I didn’t know anything about the professional world because there weren’t any professionals in my family. But one of my teachers, Mr. Reigngold, realized that I had a knack for it. Then I got an internship and then I got work in California and kept going and going in the field. Sorry, that was a long story!
PGN: And what is it that you do now?
CC: Well, I was giving a speech at my old high school and the vice president of Liberty Property Trust was there and pulled me aside after my speech and asked if I had any interest in real estate. I said, “Sure, why not?” And he told me he was going to see if they had anything open for me. Next thing I knew, I was going for an interview and had a new job. So I got my real-estate license and have been there ever since.
PGN: Tell me about some of the nonprofit work you’ve done. What was Architecture for Humanities?
CC: It was part of an internship I did during my last year of school when I got my bachelor’s degree in architecture at the California College of the Arts. It was pretty cool; we designed a soccer field in Haiti. I did most of the graphic stuff and the 3-D models for the donors. I love building models.
PGN: You must have steady hands. Are you really good at that carnival game where you have to slide a ring over a wire without touching it?
CC: Yes! I remember in high school the first time we were assigned to use X-ACTO knives, everybody sliced themselves! We had a new teacher who just handed them out without much instruction. The nurse’s office was full and the nurse was like, “What is happening?” The school was only in its third year so we were all test dummies!
PGN: And what do you do outside your professional job?
CC: I run my own studio for my artwork. I do graphic design and I’ve done some commissioned art pieces, as well as a few architecturally based art installations for groups like Design Philly. The latest installation was for Art in the Open and I’m currently working with the artist Je, who’s doing an installation for the Pew Center of the Arts. It’s pretty cool. It will involve film being projected onto buildings and a lot of technical things we’ll have to consider. It’ll be fun to stretch my abilities.
PGN: Why do you love what you do?
CC: It’s a feeling of accomplishment that’s tangible. I like sitting in a restaurant like at Chops and looking around and saying, “Oh yeah. I was responsible for helping build this.”
PGN: Must be impressive on a date!
CC: Definitely! When I was in school I took a girl to Rittenhouse Park because one of the projects I worked on at the KlingStubbins architecture firm was to design the plans for the new security kiosk in the park. [Laughs] So I was like, “Ah yes, that was me … ” It was silly, but the idea that if I have kids someday or whatever, being able to walk through the city and say, “I was part of this,” is pretty cool. Especially the Navy Yard, which is like another city within the city, and I was there from the beginning when there was nothing there.
PGN: And your art?
CC: That started as a coping mechanism as a kid and it acted as a way for my mother and I to connect. I didn’t even know she was an artist until the whole Winnie the Pooh incident. It also allowed me to make our house a home wherever we were.
PGN: Any hobbies?
CC: I like to make mead, honey wine. I enjoy the fermenting process and all that goes into it. Now I go to wine tastings and mead tastings, which I didn’t even know existed. I even went to a beer tasting and I hate beer! It’s interesting to learn about the different subtle notes and the different hops and things. In theory, beer is good, I just don’t like the taste!
PGN: Tell me about coming out.
CC: I come out a lot. I think because I’m feminine-presenting, people assume I’m straight. So at work it’s usually the Christmas party when someone says, “Bring your husband or boyfriend” and I tell them, “I don’t have one,” and then they joke, “Ha. Then just bring your girlfriend!” and I respond, “I would but she’s away right now.” In my family, it was pretty casual. I’d been hanging out with this one woman quite a lot and bringing her home and my mother started noticing something was up. One time we were in the kitchen cooking and she said, “So you never bring any guys around, what’s up with that? Are you gay or something?” I responded, “Yup,” and she was like, “Come on, stop kidding.” And I was just like, “OK, you know I’m not kidding. It’s time.” She was OK, but I think she thought and sometimes still thinks it’s just a phase. Every once in a while, she’d try to hook me up. She’d invite a coworker over for dinner and they’d just happen to bring their eligible sons with them. I had to put a stop to that. It’s funny, she’ll do things like that and then turn around and send me posts about things in the news: “Did you see they’re trying to stop gay marriages? That’s just not right!” So she has her moments. My dad’s side is cool. They’re all my Facebook friends, so I didn’t have to tell them; it was pretty evident. A lot of it has just been organic.
PGN: OK, random questions: If you had to gain 10 pounds, what would you eat?
CC: Tacos.
PGN: What did you get into the most trouble for when you were young?
CC: Sarcasm. I always got, “What did you just say?” or “Stay out of grown folks’ business” and I’d retort, “I’m a person too, you know!”
PGN: A tradition from a religion you admire?
CC: Buddhism and Muslim a while back, but now I’m more into the Yoruba religion and what I admire is their connection with the natural world and the ancestors. You make an altar and are asked to research your family history. I learned a lot from talking to family elders, including the fact that I had a gay great-great Uncle Alfred who was in the military and was outed within the family. So he moved to Italy and lived a fabulous life. He was in some Italian movies and I found some wonderful pictures of him. I even found out that he left my mom some money, which we were able to recover, which was pretty cool. You’re also encouraged to talk to your ancestors so when I was going through some relationship troubles I started talking to him, I won’t lie. He never talked back, but there was something therapeutic about it.
PGN: What would you say to a young black woman you were mentoring in the field?
CC: I’d say that architecture is a very romanticized field. It’s known to be hard but it’s also considered very artsy and kind of bohemian. But what they don’t talk about is all the doubt that comes with it. I constantly have people asking, “How did you get here? Why are you here?” and I’m like, “The same way you got here. Or maybe not, I don’t know, maybe someone helped you. I’m pretty sure your father was friends with the guy who got you the job here.” I remember when I got promoted, I was feeling great and walking down the hall when one guy in the company said, “I heard you got the job. I guess they have to have at least one black person on the team.” I was like, Wow, really? The weird thing was that it was a white gay male. And I just thought, With all of the discrimination that the gay community already gets, you’re going to discriminate a bit more? It’s such a shame, there are a lot of gay white male architects and I don’t know why, but more often than not, I find them to be the most discriminating of all. When you’re in meetings, your ideas are shot down and I found myself going over people’s heads when I was like, Gee, we should be pulling together, not tearing each other apart. It’s often not a good idea unless it comes from one of them. The first time I encountered that was when we were working on a project and I said something very technical about lining up joists and the guy shut me down. Then 20 minutes later, he reworded it and presented my idea to the group and I had to stop the meeting and say, “No, this is not what we’re doing today. I just said that, it was my idea and you’re not stealing it.” The other thing that happens is that you have to constantly reintroduce yourself. People always assume I’m someone’s assistant, or should be serving them, and I’m like, “No, I’m your peer,” or even, “No, I’m your advisor on this project.” I used to get stressed or angry over it, always having to convince people that I was educated in this field and that I belonged where I was, but I learned to let it go. So my advice is that when you look like me and you’re young, you have to fight for yourself and continuously have to reintroduce yourself. But at the end of the day, you know who you are and what you’re worth. Don’t back down when others try to define you or make you feel like less. At the end of the day, brush it off and move on. Don’t let it get you down or take it home. Keep moving forward and never give them a reason to doubt you.
For more information about Chanel Chéri, visit www.chanelcheri.com.
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