David Adjaye criticises reporting of sexual assault allegations

Architect David Adjaye has called the reporting on his alleged sexual misconduct "deeply unfair", in some of his first on-the-record comments since allegations came to light.

An extensive Financial Times (FT) investigation in 2023 saw three former employees accuse Adjaye of sexual misconduct, including sexual assault. The British-Ghanaian architect denies the allegations.

"There was an interest in just destroying me"

Speaking to Tim Abrahams on the critic's Superurbanism podcast, which largely focused on a programme of building hospitals in Ghana, Adjaye claimed the reporting was unfair.

"The article that the FT wrote really destabilised a lot of people's confidence in me," he told Abrahams.

"And for me, it was deeply unfair, but I get how news cycles work and I get how stories work. And there wasn't an interest in hearing my side of the story," he continued.

"There was just an interest in just destroying me, and I got caught in a sort of version of the #MeToo slam."

Adjaye did not explain why he thought the reporting was unfair. At the time, numerous publications reached out to Adjaye for comment, including Dezeen, but did not receive a reply beyond a statement he issued to the FT in response to its investigation.

The interview with Abrahams is one of the first times he has publicly addressed the allegations.

In the podcast, Adjaye discussed his strategy for dealing with the allegations, describing how he removed himself from the public limelight and waited to "let the wave go over".

"What can I do?" he said. "You can't fight those kinds of social waves, all you can do is go underwater. Wait, let the wave go over and hope there's something when you come up."

"I didn't want to wage a war against women. I support women in my practice," he added.

FT investigation "carefully prepared"

Adjaye's account of "deeply unfair" reporting echoes criticism of the FT made by Adjaye Associates London CEO Lucy Tilley last year, when she described the investigation piece as "really unfair" and said that "there are two sides to a story".

In response to Tilley's remarks, the FT said it stood by its investigation, which details sexual assault allegations from two women who worked in the architect's Accra office, as well as allegations of sexual harassment from a third.

One of the three women reported an assault that allegedly occurred in South Africa in mid-2019 to Ghanaian police, but was told that they lacked the jurisdiction to pursue a criminal investigation in another country.

Later, in 2021, she made a criminal complaint to police in South Africa about the same incident. The police confirmed to the FT that they had received the complaint but did not give any more information.

In its original article, the FT said it had corroborated the allegations by "interviewing colleagues, family members and friends who were confided in by the women, as well as reviewing contemporaneous emails, documents and text messages".

"I don't want to be always looking behind my back"

Although Adjaye denies the sexual misconduct allegations, he has admitted having relationships with each of the three women included in the FT investigation while he was married.

"My personal transgression with my wife, which I've had to deal with, is not something I wanted to have in a crazy, public arena," he said in the podcast. "But I got what the social moment was, and I was a character."

Adjaye also implied that people had tried to extract money from him based on the allegations.

"I got hit and there were a couple people that were very upset with me because of what they wanted from me," he said. "They wanted to blackmail me, but they didn't get what they wanted."

"And so you take the hit, people are like, 'Why don't you just pay 'em off?' It's because I don't want to be always looking behind my back," he continued.

"I'd rather take this heat now and see what I can do later, but I'm free from it."

"The media very much enjoyed it"

Following the allegations, Adjaye lost several major clients, with the Africa Institute in Sharjah cancelling plans for a monolithic campus and the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool dropping the studio from its redevelopment project.

The architect also stepped back from several prominent roles, including as design advocate for the mayor of London and trustee at London's Serpentine Galleries.

Adjaye described how, although some collaborators distanced themselves from him, others had been "very loyal".

"It caused a reflection moment," he said. "What it did was to clarify many issues, but we move on. And, businesses fluctuate. There are ups and downs. It was a kind of sensational moment."

"The media very much enjoyed it," he added. "It scared some clients, but also clients that really believe in us have been incredibly loyal."

In the past week, the first two major projects designed by Adjaye Associates since the allegations opened to the public – the Princeton University Art Museum in New Jersey and the Studio Museum in Harlem (pictured top).

Earlier this month, Adjaye also spoke to US publication Architectural Record, where he questioned how people had reacted to the allegations.

"In light of the cold facts of what this thing was, it feels as though people are making it out to be that something more has happened than allegations," he told Architectural Record editor-in-chief Josephine Minutillo.

"And we live in a world where this is now a thing."

The top photo is by AlbertVecerka/Esto.

The post David Adjaye criticises reporting of sexual assault allegations appeared first on Dezeen.