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Three feminine former workers of Sir David Adjaye have accused the famend architect of sexual misconduct, emotional abuse and dangerous employment observe, the Monetary Instances (FT) reviews.
Though he rejects the allegations towards him, Adjaye introduced on Tuesday that he would step again from various main roles and trusteeships. This consists of his work as an architectural adviser to Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London. His work on a brand new British Holocaust memorial has additionally been suspended, the New York Instances reported.
In a press release issued to the Architects’ Journal, a spokesperson for Adjaye mentioned the architect was stepping again from his most public-facing work so the allegations towards him do “not develop into a distraction”.
Based on the FT article, the ladies, who labored for Adjaye between 2018 and 2019, “felt compelled to come back ahead about their experiences so as to forestall different girls from encountering related abuse and to make public the architect’s personal behaviour”.
The British-Ghanaian architect has denied every of the claims, stating, through his lawyer, that the ladies have “their very own grievances” towards him. Adjaye mentioned in a press release to the FT: “I completely reject any claims of sexual misconduct, abuse, or felony wrongdoing. These allegations are unfaithful, distressing for me and my household and run counter to every little thing I stand for.”
Nonetheless, Adjaye did acknowledge that he had began relationships along with his workers. “I’m ashamed to say that I entered into relationships, which, although fully consensual, blurred the boundaries between my skilled and private lives,” he mentioned within the assertion. “I’m deeply sorry. To revive belief and accountability, I will probably 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.”
Adjaye’s agency, Adjaye Associates, has designed—or is within the technique of designing—a number of main worldwide artwork galleries, museums, and heritage websites. They embody the Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition in Washington DC and the Museum of Modern Artwork Denver, each within the US. His agency can also be within the technique of engaged on the UK’s new Holocaust memorial, which is because of be situated subsequent to the UK’s Homes of Parliament. Moreover, Adjaye Associates is presently constructing Ghana’s nationwide cathedral within the nation’s capital, Accra, in addition to the Edo Museum of West African Artwork, which will probably be in-built Benin Metropolis, Nigeria. Adjaye was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 and is a trustee of the Serpentine Gallery in London as of December 2016.
The FT investigation particulars how Adjaye allegedly engaged in behaviour starting from undesirable and aggressive sexual advances to sexual harassment and sexual assault in direction of the three girls, who haven’t been named by the FT; their names are as an alternative given as Gene, Maya and Dunia. The ladies are all Black, of their 40s and single moms, and had social connections to Adjaye past the office, in line with the publication. Every has said that their monetary safety, psychological well being and profession development have been critically impacted by Adjaye’s behaviour in direction of them.
The report centres round three incidents, the primary of which dates again to September 2018, and allegedly occurred within the bed room of the company condominium Adjaye utilized in Accra, Ghana. After a dinner held below an expert aegis, Adjaye invited the 2 girls named as Maya and Gene again to the condominium earlier than allegedly making undesirable sexual advances on every of them. Adjaye’s lawyer says the architect “strongly denies making any sexual advances in direction of” them and “categorically denies forcing [Maya] to enter his bed room and sexually assaulting her”, he advised the FT. He additionally cited “extraordinarily cordial” textual content messages over the next weeks and months between Adjaye, Maya and Gene, which he mentioned was “proof of the optimistic relationship between the 2 workers and their boss”.
The article additionally particulars how, in mid-2019, in a disabled rest room in an airport in South Africa, Adjaye tried to sexually assault Maya once more. Maya tried to report Adjaye to the police in Ghana with out success as “they lacked jurisdiction for a felony allegation out of the country”, and in South Africa in September 2021. The South African police authority acknowledged Maya’s grievance to the FT.
Adjaye’s lawyer advised the FT that the architect didn’t “have interaction in sexual exercise along with her throughout this encounter” and denies the allegation “within the strongest attainable phrases”. His lawyer added that “this allegation was framed properly after the occasion so as to extract a fee”.
Each girls had been later dismissed by Adjaye; Gene was ousted in late 2019, 4 months after the condominium incident. In January 2020, eight months after the lavatory incident, Maya additionally had her employment terminated with out discover. Adjaye’s lawyer advised the FT that they had been dismissed “attributable to issues about their conduct and capabilities, which had been raised by different workers”.
The article additionally particulars how, in a separate incident on the Royal Academy in London in January 2019, Adjaye made a forceful sexual advance on one other lady, named as Dunia, who later turned his worker. Adjaye then allegedly engaged in a marketing campaign of coercive management towards Dunia as soon as he was her employer, in line with the article. The FT article states: “Over the next months [after the Royal Academy incident], she mentioned that she endured a collection of controlling and emotionally abusive sexual encounters with him.”
The FT report additionally states that Adjaye made remarks on Dunia’s pores and skin tone as a method of undermining her, telling the newspaper he advised her she was not “Black sufficient” to know his observe. He would contact her hair to make sure it was actual and she or he was not carrying extensions. “He described Black girls as ‘low-hanging fruit’, which means they had been ‘straightforward, low-cost — like we’re sitting ready to be picked’,” the article quotes Dunia as saying.
Dunia claims to have despatched a authorized letter to Adjaye’s agency in February 2022 accusing him of sexual misconduct, which was rebutted on the idea that the connection was consensual. Adjaye’s lawyer advised the FT that Adjaye had kissed Dunia on the Royal Academy however “categorically denies” that her model of occasions is appropriate or that “he exhibited abusive and controlling behaviour in direction of [her]”.
The FT sought to corroborate every of the ladies’s accounts by buying contemporaneous emails, textual content messages and different paperwork, in addition to interviewing 13 former workers of Adjaye. Interviews had been additionally carried out with family and friends members who had been used as confidants on the time of the alleged incidents.
Josh Spero, the co-author of the FT article, tells The Artwork Newspaper: “We’ve labored on this story for a yr. It’s been an extended course of. However this isn’t the top of the story for us. We’re carrying on talking to individuals, and we’re nonetheless eager about listening to from anybody else who may need a related story to inform us.”
David Adjaye didn’t reply to a request for remark from The Artwork Newspaper.
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