World of Culture reassesses ties to David Adjaye after misconduct allegations

A library project in Portland, Oregon, bid farewell to David Adjaye, the charismatic Ghanaian British architect. A sculpture park in Lincoln, Mass., canceled a show of his work scheduled for the fall. And other cultural institutions from Princeton, NJ to Liverpool, England, expressed serious concern in response to allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against Mr. Adjaye that surfaced this week.

“Adjaye Associates is no longer associated with Multnomah County and the East County Library project,” Portland’s Multnomah County Library said in a statement. rack Wednesday, add that Holst architecturea local partner, “proceeds with design and construction as planned.”

A day earlier, The Financial Times reported that three women, not named in the article, had “accused him and his company of various forms of exploitation — from alleged assault and sexual harassment by him to a toxic work culture — that went unchecked for years.”

For arguably the world’s first black “starchitect,” the allegations have sparked speculation about what impact the case would have on his business and future projects, including many already in the works. Mr Adjaye has denied the allegations.

“I absolutely reject any claims of sexual misconduct, abuse or criminal misconduct,” Mr Adjaye said in a statement released on Tuesday by Kendal Advisory, a communications and crisis management firm. “These allegations are untrue, distressing to me and my family and contrary to everything I stand for.”

Mr Adjaye added that he was “embarrassed to say I entered into relationships which, while completely consensual, blurred the lines between my professional and personal life.” He said he “will seek professional help immediately to learn from these mistakes and make sure they never happen again.”

The architect, who has offices in London, New York and Accra, Ghana, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2017, has stepped down from a number of roles in the wake of the allegations. These include being an architectural consultant to the Mayor of London and being part of the team working on it a British Holocaust memorial next to the Palace of Westminster. Mr Adjaye said in his statement that he did not want the allegations to “be a distraction” to those projects. He has also agreed to distance himself a major housing project in Chicagoreported The Chicago Sun-Times Thursday.

Adjaye’s global architectural commissions include 130 William, a recently completed residential tower in Lower Manhattan, and an acclaimed charter school in the Bronx, an adaptive repurposed ice warehouse.

Among the company’s highly anticipated U.S. projects is the Studio Museum in Harlem, for which Mr. Adjaye has designed a new building on West 125th Street in Manhattan, and Princeton’s new University Art Museumin Princeton, NJ Both buildings are currently under construction.

“We find the nature of the allegations extremely disturbing,” said James Stewart, Princeton University’s museum director. “It’s fair to say that most of our work with Adjaye is behind us. We have an obligation to all people involved in this project to bring it to a successful conclusion.”

Still on the drawing board is the Cuyahoga Riverfront Masterplan in Cleveland. Bedrock, a Detroit-based developer who hired Adjaye Associates for a major waterfront revitalization, said that “in light of” the serious allegations, “we are evaluating the corporate associations as we move forward with the project.”

mr. Adjaye recently took a foray into sculpture. An immense spiral made of crushed limestone from New York City was featured at the Gagosian Gallery in 2021.

The Trustees, an organization that manages the Cordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, which planned to display an earthenware sculpture by Mr. Adjaye this fall, said in an email Thursday that it was closing its exhibit “indefinitely”. put time on hold”. ”

As the allegations have only just surfaced, those professionally associated with Mr Adjaye said they would only speak on condition of anonymity until they had more information.

But some people who have worked closely with Mr Adjaye, and who consider themselves his friends in many cases, said that under the circumstances an architect could hand over work to collaborators, or step back from day-to-day operations, if the prominent architect. Richard Meier had to do it after allegations of sexual harassment in 2018.

Whether Mr. Adjaye will remain involved in his assignments depends in part on the stage of development of a project, according to those in the field. Those under construction, such as the Princeton Studio Museum and Art Museum, can go on without him, though they will lack the architect’s earlier star power. People in the architectural world also wondered aloud how the people in Mr Adjaye’s company would react, including considering whether to resign.

Mr Adjaye has stepped down as a trustee of the Serpentine Gallery, an acclaimed contemporary art museum in London. “We have accepted his resignation effective immediately,” a museum spokesperson said in an email. Mr. Adjaye has also resigned from the Serpentine Committee that makes the high-profile committee for a summer pavilion each year and has been awarded to the likes of Rem Koolhaas and Theaster Gates.

Several of Mr Adjaye’s clients said the allegations had jeopardized their projects – potentially halting progress, hindering fundraising and damaging public perception – and that Mr Adjaye had failed to inform them of the allegations So they can do their own damage control.

Whether the allegations against Mr Adjaye will affect his completed or nearly completed projects remains to be seen. Completed in 2016, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., is closely associated with Mr. Adjaye, and its success is widely regarded as responsible for the architect’s celebrity status.

Lonnie G. Bunch III, the secretary of the Smithsonian and founder and director of the African American Museum, declined to comment.

While some members of the public have decided to swear off the creative output of cultural figures accused of wrongdoing — such as Chuck Close’s paintings, Woody Allen’s films, or Michael Jackson’s music — buildings are tougher in their sturdiness and durability. to cancel. It’s harder to break them down or avert them.

Mr. Adjaye’s fall from grace is particularly stark in light of how high he had risen. In 2021, when Mr. Adjaye received the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, one of the world’s highest honors, President Barack Obama described the architect’s work as “genius – pure and simple” in a video message.

In a statement Wednesday, RIBA said that if it is found that the organization’s standards have not been met, we will not hesitate to take appropriate action.

A representative for National Museums Liverpool, for which Mr Adjaye is redeveloping its International Slavery and Maritime Museum, said in an email that it “takes the allegations described very seriously”.

So far, the response to Adjaye’s allegations has been concentrated in Britain and the United States, and it’s unclear how other countries where he has projects will respond. In many parts of Europe and Africa, the response to the #MeToo movement has been muted. Several cultural figures who lost employment in the United States following allegations of sexual harassment, including singer Plácido Domingo and ballet master Peter Martins, found employment in other countries.

In recent years, Mr. Adjaye has won a host of high-profile engagements in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, including The National Cathedral of Ghana (a personal project of the president of the country); part of a mega city in Saudi Arabia; and a museum in Nigeria to showcase African art. He’s also designed the forthcoming Kiran Nadar Museum of Arta huge contemporary art museum to be built in Delhi.

In Ghana, where Mr Adjaye’s success is a source of great pride, the news media have covered the accusations widely – often emphasizing the architect’s vehement denials.

Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, a Ghanaian opposition politician, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Adjaye had to leave the cathedral project and “be told to clear his name before interfering any more”.

“This should be a symbol of holiness and virtue,” said Mr. Ablakwa. “These allegations don’t fit in with that.”