Lectures
Dr. Kwesi Daniels and Helen Brown Bechtel
The Tuskegee Chapel: Paul Rudolph X Fry & Welch
This lecture is delivered by the curator of the Spring 2025 exhibition The Tuskegee Chapel: Paul Rudolph X Fry & Welch at the Yale Architecture Gallery in partnership with the chair of the Tuskegee University Department of Architecture.
Speaker Bios
Helen Brown Bechtel is an architect and independent curator who specializes in exhibitions that feature design and the built environment. Helen is the curator of The Tuskegee Chapel: Paul Rudolph X Fry & Welch on view at the Yale School of Architecture January 9–July 5, 2025. This exhibition features the collaboration between architects Paul Rudolph, Louis Fry, Sr. and Col. John Welch in the design and construction of the Tuskegee Chapel, completed 1969.
Previously, Helen was the Curator for Special Projects at the Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building, partnering with Amazon Web Services and Autodesk to establish commissions for two works of installation architecture for the 2022 exhibition Futures. As a Guest Curator for the Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., Helen ran the 2017 invited design competition Above the Renwick, resulting in the site-specific installation “Parallax Gap” by architects FreelandBuck (2017). She has served as an adjunct professor in the Design and Decorative Arts department at the Corcoran School of Art at George Washington University, and on the editorial board of Cite: The Architecture and Design Review of Houston. Helen started her career as an architect for Beyer Blinder Belle in Washington, D.C. and New York, NY.
Helen earned a BA in Urban Studies and Civil Engineering from Stanford in 2004 and a Masters in Architecture from Yale in 2010.
Dr. Kwesi Daniels is the Department Head of the Architecture Department at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama. He is currently a tenured associate professor at Tuskegee University and an adjunct professor at New York University. His professional experience ranges across various disciplines, including historic preservation, architecture, sustainability, and urban geography. His doctoral research focused on the positive and negative social impact universities can have on communities around their campuses, particularly communities of color. He also earned a Bachelor and Master of Architecture, and a Master of Sustainability Management.
Dr. Daniels is a community development thought leader who has given lectures at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Pennsylvania (UPENN), Boston Architectural College, Columbia University, and Pratt Institute, to name a few. His work has also been published in Architect Magazine, NOMA Magazine, and Veranda, in addition to being incorporated into multiple book chapters and documentaries. In 2022, Dr. Daniels was recognized as a “Game Changer” for his ground-breaking work around preservation education at Tuskegee University.
Dr. Daniels began developing a historic preservation program at Tuskegee University, within the Robert R. Taylor School of Architecture and Construction Science in 2018. The program trains architecture and construction science management students to handle the nuances of historic properties, using technology like laser scanning, photogrammetry, 3D printing, drones, virtual reality and augmented reality. This preservation work has expanded the resources of Tuskegee University to support African American communities in Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Tuskegee, Alabama. Through these efforts, he successfully secured over $1 million in grant funding for Tuskegee University and other community organizations. He and his students are currently working to preserve the Armstrong School in Macon County, Alabama, a Tuskegee rural school model building and precursor to the Rosenwald School program.
Some of Dr. Daniels’ civic work includes serving as an advisory board member for the UPenn Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Heritage Sites, board member of the Rosenwald Park Campaign Advisory Council, and the third Congressional District Representative of the Alabama Black Heritage Council. He previously served as the Green Homes Coordinator for the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. Within this capacity, Dr. Daniels was responsible for “greening” over 4,000 units of affordable housing throughout the state by implementing renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green financing products, which developers could use to improve the sustainable performance of the properties within their portfolio. He has also worked with Ian Smith Design Group (IS-DG) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During his tenure with IS-DG, he worked on residential and commercial buildings throughout the city, conducted site and building surveys, and economic development research. Dr. Daniels also serves as an Assistant Boy Scout Scoutmaster with Troop 224, co-chair of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) Educate Committee, and is a past board member of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA).
Dr. Daniels is married to his college sweetheart, Aaliyah Daniels, and through their union, they have five beautiful children, Adia, Indigo, Harmony, Serenity, and Ajna. When he is not focused on changing the world, he enjoys taking walks in the park with his sweetheart, wrestling around with his son, riding bikes with his children, shooting pool, and kane twirling.
