Brick by brick, Deryl McKissack is building on a legacy. If you've ever taken in the magnitude of memorials, you've seen her handiwork.

"In a project like this, you know, there are a thousand moving parts," McKissack said.

For her, it's in the blood. She's part of a long line of architects, builders and dreamers.

"My family goes back to my great-great-grandfather who was a slave and came to this country in 1790. And he was a builder as a slave. And he passed a trade of building down to my great-grandfather," McKissack continued.

He would pass it down to his sons, who would become the first Black licensed architects in the southeast and officially start the family business in 1905. But it didn't end there. McKissack's father also took on the family legacy and her mother continued the work after his illness.  

"I started at six in the family business with my father. He would take us to work with him on Saturdays. I'm a twin and my mother needed a break," McKissack said. "And so he would take us on Saturdays and prop up on the drawing boards — because we didn't have computers back then — and he would have us draw."

In 1990, armed with a degree in civil engineering and $1000, McKissack launched her own firm.

"I had a lot to prove," she said. "I was one person. I was Black. I was female in a male-dominated industry. Why would anybody want to work with me?"

But somebody did eventually, after she picked up the phone and reached out to 150 potential clients.

"I don't need a handout," McKissack said. "If you give me an opportunity, I'm not going to let you down. And I built on that. My first client was Georgetown. I started with a $5,000 fee project and within six months I signed a million dollars worth of work with them."

From there, the repertoire grew from the U.S. Treasury restoration to modernizing D.C. area schools, to the design of Ghana's Cape Coast museum and project management on several U.S. airports.

"This particular job, you know, there was work on a taxiway in the apron all around the concourse. There was a lot of different activities here in the concourse."

But it was the appointment as architect of record for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial that solidified McKissack's own stamp on history.

"I think about my ancestors and what they went through, the atrocities they went through — Jim Crow laws and you name it, slavery and all of that — for me to be sitting here today and even be sitting there then would just bring tears to my eyes because there had never been a time when a Black firm had designed something on a national mall."

Today her firm handles more than $15 billion in projects. But it wasn't a crystal stair. She says she faced misogyny and racism along the way.

"I've been discriminated against by Black men as well as White men," McKissacks said. "You want to say, you know, 'It's just a white male world and da da da da da.' But that's not true when you're a woman coming into this. And it's microaggressions in the sense that you can see them huddling together. You're left out."

A joint report from two architectural organizations found 2% of the nation's architects identify as African American. The barriers of obtaining licensure include the cost and a lack of support from their employer.

McKissack says she has come up with a plan to diversify the industry, enlisting some of the biggest firms in the country.

"Board members need to be Black in those companies so that there is a true understanding at the top of how policy makes Black people feel uncomfortable or how things are said and written," McKissack said. "So there are microaggressions, and then there's Black companies that need to be sustained."

Because like the McKissacks before her, she's laying a foundation she hopes lasts for generations to come.

"I believe that everybody is unique," she said. "They come here with a special purpose. And when they find that purpose, nothing can stop them. And as long as they're working and walking in that purpose, nothing can stop them."

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MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Miami Beach is home to one of the largest Art- Deco buildings from the last century, including Al Capone's house and the fight to preserve these buildings here and around the country.

“I grew up here in Miami Beach in an old house from the 1930s. I was always so fascinated by the older architecture,” said Daniel Ciraldo of the Miami Design Preservation League.

It was a late morning in Miami Beach when I met Ciraldo at the Art Deco Center in Miami Beach. He’s eager to explain what they do at the Design Preservation League.

“This talks about the main styles that we have in Miami Beach. Art-Deco being one of the predominant styles that we want to protect, but there’s also Mediterranean and mid-century modern,” said Ciraldo.

Yeah. He loves architecture. And he loves Miami Beach.

“What makes Miami Beach the state's number one beach for vacation destinations? We strongly believe it’s the arts and culture, the architecture, and the melting pot of different diverse visitors,” he said.

But Ciraldo and the MDPL have taken on a new fight. They want to preserve a house as a historic site.

“It sits on a man-made island in the middle of Biscayne Bay. And it was one of the first homes built on this island, Palm Island, in 1922,” he said.

The house that sits at 93 Palm Avenue had a very infamous owner. Notorious, bootlegger, mobster, and tax avoider, Al Capone.

“A lot of people will tell you he was a very bad person, and he was, but he also played a real role in the history of our city,” said Ciraldo.

The house was purchased over the summer by a developer who quickly applied for a demolition permit. That’s when Daniel and the MDPL stepped in.

We reached out to the owner but were told he had withdrawn the demolition application because they had sold the building.

The fight to preserve the Capone house and Miami Beach is emblematic of what different parts of the United States are grappling with as the country continues to build.

“Some of these sites which are historic, maybe recognized more so in the future,” said Scott Montgomery, an art history professor at the University of Denver.

“It’s not that old. We still have a memory there. But these places may become storied. They already are storied,” said Montgomery.

Montgomery researches music venues of the ‘60s and beyond. He’s worried that in the pursuit of development and profit, we may cast our history aside.

“My favorite cautionary tale is of the medieval walls of Florence, Italy. They tore the walls down to make circuit roads, to modernize and build it up,” he said, “But, since then, I think most of the city of Florence has lamented the loss of these walls that were part of its identity, part of its medieval charm.”

Ciraldo wants to make sure that Miami Beach doesn’t walk down a similar path.

“We have seen a big increase in applications to demolish historically significant but unprotected homes. In the last 15 years, there have been almost 300 of these homes that have been approved for demolition,” said Ciraldo, “It’s such an important part of our history. It would almost be like cookie dough ice cream and taking all the cookie dough out and just being left with vanilla. If we lose all of these homes to big white boxes, what set us apart from any other city?”