John C. Norman Blueprints

Staci Leech-Cornell’s John C. Norman Blueprints was completed in 2016. The paint on metal planter is one of four painted planters commissioned by Charleston Main Streets West Side Urban Design Committee, Charleston Urban Renewal Authority, and private donors. Leech-Cornell chose to use her planter to honor John C. Norman (1892-1967), an influential West Virginia architect. Norman was born in New Jersey and studied architecture and structural engineering at Carnegie Technical Institute. He then moved to Charleston in 1919 and became the state’s second African American architect. He was also the state’s first African American structural engineer. Over the course of his career, Norman designed a great number of residential, commercial, and civic buildings. Leech-Cornell’s tribute has the planter painted almost entirely blue to resemble architectural drafting materials. Thin white lines outline various elevations of a building. It is unclear if Leech-Cornell’s imagery is taken from a real drawing Norman created, or if it is imagined. One possibility is that it depicts the historic building behind the planter as it looked when first constructed. Regardless, John C. Norman Blueprints serves well to tie historical heritage to modern beautification.