By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times
Asked a question most students get while in elementary or middle school — “What do you want to be when you grow up?” — Jeremy Cutts remembers saying he “wasn’t really sure.” But that would soon change in a major way.
“My dad was an electrical engineer, so I figured maybe that. But then somebody said to me, ‘Hey, man, you like to draw and you’re good at math. Have you ever thought about being an architect?’”
Cutts said he looked up the career of an architect and figured it was something he’d like and “the rest is history,” he told The Birmingham Times in a recent interview.
“I made the decision that I [was] going to go for it, and it turned out to be something that I love,” he added. “I was fortunate in that regard.”
Cutts is an Auburn University graduate and Associate at Williams Blackstock Architects, a Birmingham-based full-service architectural design firm with expertise on projects of varying size and scope. He’s been with the firm for the past 14 years.
His body of work across Alabama includes being a project manager on some huge efforts — Lott Middle School, in Citronelle; the historic Ramsay McCormack building in Ensley; the Tuskegee Center for Genomics and Health Disparity Research, in Tuskegee; and the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Pavilion, in Montgomery.
And for his work on these and several other projects, Cutts was recently named Rising Star of the Year by Multifamily Executive (MFE) magazine, a national honor that recognizes an individual in the housing industry who has demonstrated vision, innovation, and strong leadership while making significant contributions to their company, community, and the industry at large.
The 2 Percent
The 38-year-old Cutts is part of a small group in a specialized field — African American architects. The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), a nonprofit that helps set up state guidelines for exams and licensure, reported that as of 2023 there were 121,603 licensed architects working in the U.S. The proportion of Black or African American architects has seen slight change over the past five years, with Black architects making up just 2 percent of practitioners.
“I feel proud to be part of that small group, but I also feel a sense of responsibility to help grow that percentage,” said Cutts. “I think just being aware of that fact that there are not many Black architects, I do my best to honor that truth.”
About his chosen profession, he added, “Most people do not know what architects do, and even fewer know that architects do care. … What I’ve learned over time is that, as it relates to the community and specifically to Black people, [many] of the landmarks we hold dear, … such as the 16th Street Baptist Church [were designed by Black architects].”
The historic house of worship, organized in 1873 as the First Colored Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, was the first Black church in Birmingham. In 1880, the congregation moved its present-day location at 16th Street and 6th Avenue North and Wallace Rayfield, Alabama’s only Black architect, was commissioned to design the new church building.
Love for Giving Back
Cutts grew up between Huntsville, Alabama, where he spent most of the year with his mother, Tammy Allen, and two younger sisters, and Atlanta, Georgia, where he spent summers with his father, Raymond Cutts Jr., an engineer.
While attending the now-closed Edwards H. White Middle School in Huntsville, the young Cutts had to write a paper about what he wanted to be when we grew up. Becoming an architect “just turned out to be something that really spoke to me,” said Cutts, whose educational path led him to the Auburn University School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture (APLA), where earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 2010.
While in college, he developed a love for his craft and giving back : “I saw the opportunity once I got into [architecture] to be able to impact people in communities in ways that I’ve always wanted to.”
“I started to travel a little bit more,” Cutts added. “I was in different spaces and learning about architecture, and I realized that there were some really wonderful spaces, just the quality of space, that, growing up in the places where I grew up, I’d never been exposed to.”
These experiences led to volunteer stints with DesignAlabama, a nonprofit that helps local leaders imagine new forms of housing to improve community design and quality of life in Alabama. His work with DesignAlabama allowed him to work in smaller towns throughout the state, giving him a personal look into the need for compassionate solutions to affordable housing.
One of his most memorable projects has been working on the Equal Justice Initiative Pavilion in Montgomery, Cutts said.
“To have been aware of [EJI Executive Director] Brian Stevenson and all the work being done by him and his group, I mean, I can’t even really put into words the appreciation I have for it,” he said.
The EJI is an Alabama-based nonprofit organization that advocates for racial and economic justice by providing legal representation to those unfairly convicted or sentenced, challenging the death penalty, and offering re-entry assistance to people leaving prison.
“Being able to contribute in any small way to the work, to the mission of EJI is something that will live with me forever,” said Cutts.
“The Housing Laboratory”
Cutts currently lives in Birmingham with his wife, Sierra, and two sons, Justice, 8, and Judah, 5, who he enjoys making music with. The family has several instruments, including a keyboard, drums, and guitars, but “my kids really have gotten into using [artificial intelligence (AI) tools] to create music,” Cutts said.
“First they’ll beatbox, [imitate the sounds of a drum machine using the voice], or hum a melody, then we can load that into an AI generator, which will create a whole track.”
One of Cutts’s career aims is to extend quality design to the people in places that are often beyond the reach of typical architects.
“There are levels of quality to design, and the quality of space can have a real impact on someone’s quality of life,” he said. “That is what really drives me in terms of reaching out to communities that often, again, a lot of people are not serving at the same capacities. Whether it’s volunteering … or even just going out and being in those communities, you learn about people who have needs. I just so happen to have a skill set and a passion for being able to help support in those situations.”
Another goal is to spend time in Mexico studying a project called the Housing Laboratory, a small campus of 32 affordable housing prototypes located in the city of Apan.
“The intent of the Housing Laboratory is to serve as a place where architects can visit, study, and then apply the relevant aspects to affordable housing ideas in their home country,” said Cutts, adding that his focus is to reshape the future of multifamily housing, particularly affordable communities, through thoughtful, equity-driven design.
“At the heart of my ambition is a desire to bridge the gap between rental housing and home ownership,” he said. “Design can empower residents to take pride in their homes and, over time, become stakeholders in their neighborhoods. The goal is to integrate pathways to ownership into future multifamily models, giving residents the opportunity to benefit directly from the improvements and economic momentum of the communities they help build.”
