TAMPA, Fla. — As part of a push to emphasize an ongoing commitment to eliminate discriminatory housing practices across the United States, April has been designated Fair Housing Month.
In Tampa, a local architect has been pushing for more inclusive development, and has called on others to join him.
Jerel McCants has owned and operated his architecture business for 15 years, and in that time, has worked on development projects in Tampa and across the country.
McCants has written a book called "Architecture of Segregation: The Hierarchy of Spaces and Places," which examines how architecture and societal divisions are related, highlighting the influence of buildings on racial, ethnic, and social segregation throughout history.
McCants said it was inspired by his father’s experiences during the Jim Crow era.
“Those stories stayed with me when he talked about as a kid having to go to the doctor’s office, and there was a separate waiting room,” said McCants.
The original floor plan of Tampa’s Union Station had separate entrances for Black and white passengers, which McCants said was an example of architects’ role in perpetuating societal divisions.
“I go through and talk about how different civilizations throughout time looked at creating spaces for division and spaces for opportunity for people that had access to it,” said McCants.
The book explores important moments in history, such as the Supreme Court’s ruling on Plessy v. Ferguson — the 1896 case where the court ruled “separate but equal” segregation was constitutional — and the establishment of Jim Crow segregation laws.
Ybor City serves as an example of this, with two Cuban clubs — one for white Cubans and the other for Afro-Cubans. McCants also highlights the impact of highways such as Interstate 175, which separates South St. Petersburg from the rest of downtown. The book examines the profound and long-lasting effects of architectural decisions.
“It’s a call to action for architects to kind of think better and think of how we can make spaces more inclusive and more inviting,” said McCants.
He said architects can play a crucial role in reimagining affordable housing for future generations by being aware of how a building impacts the community.
“Like in Chicago, you look at these large-scale boxes that were just replicated over pieces of new Black and minority communities to try to cure a need,” McCants said. “But it had an unintended and a tenant consequence where it allowed to proliferate proliferation of crime and, you know, suspicious activity because they created unsafe spaces.”
An older home on Columbus Drive in Tampa serves as the headquarters for his office, Jerel McCants Architecture Inc.
“This is kind of a business corridor,” he said. “This is partly residential, partly commercial, all up and down Columbus.”
According to McCants, remodelling existing structures is an opportunity in Tampa, which currently has only 4% land vacancy.
“It falls back on community planners, urban planners, architects, the city, working hand-in-hand to create spaces that won’t become future projects like the area that Encore (Tampa Housing Authority on Hank Ballard Street) used to be, and like it is now,” he said.
McCants said he encourages innovative thinking when creating a “framework” for the future.