Marcell Snodgrass, a Black architect and CEO of EVNTH, shed light on his career path as an entrepreneur and what it took for him to get started in a field that lacks Black representation.
He reflected on being viewed as an “other” during various times in his career but said he has found a small but strong community of Black architects here in Los Angeles that keeps him grounded.
“My time here in LA has been amazing. I feel like the community out here is incredibly strong. There is an acknowledgement of being labeled as an ‘other,’ right? We all know that, but it has been such a welcoming experience being here, creating a practice, and navigating through this community.”
A licensed architect in California and Washington, D.C., and a member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Snodgrass has been an architect for over a decade and created EVNTH in 2023. He told Our Weekly that the field of architecture is an arduous process that consists of multiple exams, hours of training, and degrees necessary to earn the title. In short, it is not for the faint of heart but is a rewarding path.
Before creating his own company, EVNTH, Snodgrass specialized in multifamily affordable housing and made it a point to work with BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities, nourishing spaces that elevate living experiences. The origin of the name of the company is “something that is even, something that is fair, something that’s balanced,” said to Snodgrass.
“We love creating intimate spaces, really bringing out the narrative of what each client is hoping to achieve.” He continued, “I love influencing very warm and welcoming tones and textures and fabrics within our projects. That’s the philosophy, the guiding voice of trying to create something that really just welcomes you in every project that we do.”
So far, EVNTH has worked on 60 properties on the West Coast and even helped fire victims in the Eaton and Palisades fires. These projects include single-family, commercial, and hospitality spaces, and they span all phases of the design and construction process, including feasibility, design, planning & permitting, and construction.
“Providing homes for people is done with a gentle approach that I bring to every project. It has incredibly prepared our firm to service a lot of the people, specifically those who have been impacted by the Altadena Eaton fire and Palisades fire.” He continued, “We have clients that have experienced that loss, so being positioned to be able to help them in that way has been incredibly fulfilling.”
Snodgrass went on to share how his education at Howard University and mentorship through being a member of organizations such as NOMA and AIA played a pivotal role in his career path, attributing the importance of relationships, commitment to his craft, and patience to having helped him sustain.
“It has a profound influence on my life; the stewardship that I learned going to Howard University is unmatched. It was such a defining point in my life that the values it taught me, the network, and the experiences that I had and learned there really shaped the trajectory of all the decisions that I made thereafter.”