LOS ANGELES—Norma Merrick Sklarek, the nation's first female African American licensed architect, has died in Los Angeles at 85.

Sklarek worked on projects that included the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo and a variety of Southern California structures, including Terminal 1 at Los Angeles International Airport, the Pacific Design Center, San Bernardino City Hall and the Leo Baech Temple.

Son David Merrick Fairweather tells the Los Angeles Times that his mother died of heart failure on Monday at her Pacific Palisades home. Sklarek passed the New York state exam in 1954.