Eight-page promotional brochure for Architecture + Advocacy  (Buffalo Arts Publishing, 2016) by Robert Traynham Coles MArch ’55. The richly-illustrated book is a success story of inspiration and hope that carried the African American son of a postal worker, through a 50-year career as an architect. Coles' native ability and perseverance propelled him through a master's degree from MIT to opening his own firm in 1963 and leading to senior positions in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the AIA College of Fellows and co-founding member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). In 2018, the AIA honored Coles with a 2019 Edward C. Kemper Award.

I believe that because architects have the ability to see things as they can be, they have a special task, which goes beyond simply designing the physical environment. They must be activists involved in the social and political life of the community. They must address their efforts to change in these areas as well, so that people can make the needed adjustments to an increasingly challenging and rich urban world. They must, in their works, build the demonstrative alternative to the way we live today. They must be initiators as well as implementors – leaders, more than followers. They must truly be revolutionaries who see their architecture as a broad movement to enhance the quality of life of urban people.

Robert Traynham Coles, 2004