Robert T. Coles

Biography

Robert Traynham Coles (24 August 1929 – 16 May 2020) was an architect, educator, and social justice activist. Coles was the first African American to win the Rotch Traveling Scholarship awarded by the Boston Society of Architects, the first African American Chancellor of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the first AIA Vice-President for Minority Affairs, and a founding member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). In 1963, Coles opened his firm Robert Traynham Coles, Architect in Buffalo, New York, making it the first African American owned firm in New York State and in the Northeast.

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