Starchitect David Adjaye Accused of Sexual Misconduct

Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye has withdrawn from a number of roles and positions within the fallout of a Financial Times report that outlined three feminine former staff’ allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct. Within the report printed yesterday, July 4, three anonymized girls accuse Adjaye of abusing his energy as their superior and as a widely known architect to coerce them into sexual exercise. Adjaye, recognized for his profitable design of the Smithsonian Establishment’s Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition constructing and different architectural initiatives spanning a number of continents, launched an announcement calling the allegations “unfaithful.”

In accordance with the Monetary Instances report, the three former staff are Black single moms who knew Adjaye personally previous to their employment along with his transcontinental structure agency Adjaye Associates. Beneath the pseudonyms Maya, Gene, and Dunia, the three girls shared their accounts of Adjaye’s alleged misconduct and exploitation, starting from his agency’s failure to safe work visas and pay their salaries in a well timed style to situations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct, wrongful dismissal from the office with out warning, and feedback in addition to bodily habits from Adjaye that they characterize as “misogynoir” (a portmanteau time period referring to a kind of misogyny towards Black girls).

Maya and Gene alleged {that a} dinner with Adjaye to deal with their considerations about late paychecks and visa insecurities in 2018 took a flip for the more serious after they accompanied the architect again to his company residence. In accordance with their accounts, Adjaye propositioned them sexually in his bed room and Gene refused to interact, however Maya, who mentioned she drank that night time, alleged that Adjaye instructed her, “You’ve simply bought to do that,” and described “feeling his penis towards [her].” She referred to as the incident “an assault.” In her second account, Maya alleges that Adjaye sexually assaulted her in a public restroom throughout a return journey from South Africa, claiming that she pushed him away and yelled “no” and that he “ejaculated within the sink, fastened himself up and walked out the door,” in keeping with the Monetary Instances.

Dunia instructed the Monetary Instances that she had dinner with Adjaye after assembly him at an occasion within the UK in 2019 and was excited on the prospect of working with him. After their dinner, Dunia alleged that he forcibly kissed her on the Royal Academy of Arts, which they accessed after hours. Dunia continued to pursue work for his agency after this incident, and she or he alleged that there have been a number of “emotionally abusive sexual encounters” with him, that she felt pressured to work with out pay and meet his sexual calls for on account of his affect within the artwork world, and that he made inappropriate feedback about her look and capabilities as a Black girl all through the period of her three-month contract along with his agency.

In an announcement launched by the UK-based disaster administration communications agency Kendal Advisory quoted within the Monetary Times, Adjaye vehemently denied any claims of “sexual misconduct, abuse or felony wrongdoing.” A follow-up report from the New York Times famous that the architect mentioned he would step down from ceremonial and trustee roles in order to forestall the allegations from “turning into a distraction.” He has since been suspended from his work on the competition-winning design of the UK Holocaust Memorial in London and has resigned as an architectural advisor to the mayor of London.

“These allegations are unfaithful, distressing for me and my household and run counter to all the things I stand for,” Adjaye’s assertion continues. “I’m ashamed to say that I entered into relationships which although fully consensual, blurred the boundaries between my skilled and private lives. I’m deeply sorry. To revive belief and accountability, I shall be instantly searching for skilled assist so as to be taught from these errors to make sure that they by no means occur once more.”

The Princeton College Artwork Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem have but to substantiate with Hyperallergic whether or not Adjaye will or won’t proceed his design work and planning for his or her new buildings in New Jersey and New York City respectively.

A spokesperson for Kendal Advisory specified to Hyperallergic that whereas Adjaye has withdrawn from some honorary positions, he has chosen to not step apart from his roles and obligations at Adjaye Associates. With regard to Dunia’s alleged references to her id as a Black girl in relation to her look and consulting capabilities, Adjaye strongly rejected her characterization that he “belittled and mocked” her. Nonetheless, he did concede that his “sexual interactions” with Dunia that continued after her skilled companies for the agency had been “inappropriate.”