When the Princeton University Art Museum began construction, Sir David Adjaye was hailed as the genius architect behind its construction. Now, after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced in 2023, the only remnant of his name on campus is an international internship that will be offered by the University for the third summer in a row.
Adjaye has been entirely absent from the University’s promotion of the art museum and was not invited to the building’s grand opening on Halloween. His firm, Adjaye Associates, declined to comment on his relationship with the University.
Adjaye is known for his work on the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, Colorado. Lauded by former U.S. President Barack Obama and the late Queen Elizabeth II, the Ghanian-British architect was knighted in 2017 and received the 2021 Royal Gold Medal for his innovative work in diversifying a field that had been predominantly populated by white men.
He and his firm, Adjaye Associates, were widely praised for their design of the art museum, a hulking neo-brutalist structure. Adjaye had designed the building with the goal of creating “a campus within a campus.” Unlike many art museums, the vast majority of collections are laid out on one expansive floor, a move meant to “place all the cultures on a more equitable level.”
Prior to the allegations, he had also been commissioned to design a new student center for Rice University, and a new housing complex for Grinnell College. Both projects were in development at the same time as Princeton’s art museum.
In 2023, Adjaye was accused of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and fostering a toxic work environment by three anonymous former employees in a story reported by The Financial Times. Despite forcefully denying the allegations, his name was scrubbed from many of his high-profile projects, including the University art museum’s external lettering and the Studio Museum in Harlem, N.Y.C.
Both Rice and Grinnell decided to end their relationships with Adjaye. Grinnell switched to the firm OPN Architects, while Rice announced earlier this year that the firm Olson Kundig would be taking over the project.
However, Adjaye’s firm retains at least one link to Princeton.
Every year, the University’s Office of International Programs (OIP) offers a wide selection of international internships through its International Internships Program (IIP). The program will be offering an internship with Adjaye’s firm for a third year this summer, in Accra, Ghana.
According to OIP spokesperson Michelle Tong, the idea for offering the internship initially sprung from a “Create Your Own” internship that a student proposed for the summer of 2023. After the student reported having “an excellent experience that confirmed their interest in architecture,” OIP decided to offer an official Adjaye Associates internship as an “opportunity to work in a multi-national firm with a foothold in both Europe and Africa.”
In her statement to The Daily Princetonian, Tong said that OIP has consistently received positive reviews from the students who complete the internship.
Applications for IIPs close in the winter before the summer they are offered. The controversy surrounding Adjaye was made public in July 2023, after the first student had already begun the internship.
However, Tong wrote that students who participate in the internship do not interact with Adjaye himself. Rather, students “were mentored and supervised on a day-to-day basis by professionals within [Adjaye Associates],” she said.
“Our priority is to continue to offer internships that are relevant, meaningful, and help students achieve their academic, professional, and personal goals,” she added.
Adjaye currently retains two high-profile projects in his portfolio: the Museum of West African Art, which will open Nov. 11 in Nigeria, and an expansion for the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in Delhi, which will open in 2026.
Luke Grippo is an assistant News editor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from South Jersey, and typically covers University and town politics, on a national, regional, and local scale. He can be reached at lg5452[at]princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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