Professor James Chaffers

Professor James Chaffers was among 76 members of the American Institute of Architects who received their Fellowship medal during the Investiture of Fellows Ceremony at the
AIA 2007 National Convention and Design Expo in San Antonio, Texas on May 4, 2007.

Professor James Chaffers, FAIA, M.Arch.’69, D.Arch.’71 has a well-deserved reputation as a scholar, teacher, designer, and social activist. His commitment to diversity is not simply about creating equal opportunities for representatives of disadvantaged groups; it is a diversity that translates into creating a genuine community composed of diverse groups of people. He has served as advisor to the Organization of African American Students in Art, Architecture and Planning, as a member of the executive committee of the Center for African American and African Studies, as a member of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Diversity Day Committee, as a committee member for the Program in Scholarly Research for Urban/Minority High School Seniors as well as the Educational Task Force for Handicapped and Disabled to name just a few. Most recently, Jim’s trail-blazing work in starting the college's student and faculty exchange with Ghana has been critical to the success of this exemplary program. It’s one of the first architectural study programs in sub-Saharan Africa. On the community level, his service is no less prolific. For a third of a century, he has been a member of the Detroit Housing Workshop, of which he is also a founder, and has served other community groups. Significantly, he was selected as the sole academic to serve on a 17-member committee of nationally-known design professionals, educators, museum curators and historians, which generated the design criteria and made the site selection for a Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the Mall in Washington.