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A national museum of Asian Pacific American history and culture is one major step closer to reality after the US House of Representatives unanimously approved on 26 April a bill to create an eight-person commission to study the feasibility of establishing such an institution in Washington, DC. The bill now heads to the Senate. — The Art Newspaper
The bill was sponsored by Congresswoman Grace Meng, who represents the sixth congressional district of New York, and was passed by the House just days ahead of the beginning of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been pivotal in... View full entry
Princeton University Press (PUP) has announced plans to publish If Architecture Were for People: The Life and Work of J. Max Bond., Jr., a forthcoming biography on the pivotal 20th century architect written by architectural historian Brian D. Goldstein. A PUP announcement explains... View full entry
The National Museum of African American History and Culture has launched Rendering Visible, a digital collecting initiative intended to celebrate the "creative production" of Black architects. Through a call for submissions, the initiative will allow the museum to to select architectural... View full entry
A nonprofit consortium consisting of the Getty Research Institute, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution has taken another step toward preserving the photo archives... View full entry
The Chicago-based company Johnson Publishing, which filed for bankruptcy in April, has sold the archive of images from Ebony and Jet Magazine to the J. Paul Getty Trust, which, according to court documents filed Wednesday night, paid $28.5 million at auction in the Windy City yesterday. The archive includes millions of iconic images of African American figures like Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., and Billie Holiday. — ArtNews
A consortium led by the Getty Foundation has acquired the iconic Ebony and Jet magazine archives. The group includes the Ford Foundation, the Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Julie Bosman of The New York Times reported via Twitter that the... View full entry
The Design Nexus seeks to honor the work of African American designers from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds together on a single platform to showcase their craft and the places they work. — Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard University Graduate School of Design has launched the African American Design Nexus (AADN), a new virtual collection that highlights African American architects and designers from various generations, practices, and backgrounds. National Museum of African American History in... View full entry
There are little more than 400 African American female architects in a profession of over 110,000. Although an improvement over the roughly 90 that existed when I entered the profession, the current numbers continue to reflect the obvious dearth of women like me. [...] My primary advice to young people is to seek mentorship as early as possible. Take advantage of many architects like myself who are willing to expose you to our studios, our staff, our work, and our own experiences. — Forbes
If you're unaware of her name, you know of her work. Zena Howard's contributions to the architecture profession are rooted in design strategy and advocacy. With over 25 years of experience, the seasoned architect has worked on several notable projects. As Principal and Managing Director of... View full entry
If you still haven’t been able to sneak your way into the newest museum on Washington DC’s National Mall, April may be your best bet. Last week, the museum announced that the month would feature Walk-Up Wednesdays, allowing people who haven’t scored entry passes to go into the museum on a first-come, first-served basis, a pilot program to test no-pass entry. — hyperallergic.com
The National Museum of African American History and Culture located in Washington DC opened back in 2016, and has been solidly booked ever since. To help visitors gain entry who were unable to procure tickets, the museum is introducing Walk-Up Wednesdays for the month of April. Founding... View full entry
The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened on September 24th, 2016. In celebration of recently reaching their one year anniversary, the U.S. Postal Service is commemorating the occasion with the museum's very own "forever stamp." Announced on Septemeber 26th, the... View full entry
Now that the reflective space is open, and has become a favorite spot in the museum, it stands for both the strengths and weaknesses of the museum’s larger form, created by lead designer David Adjaye and lead architect Philip Freelon. The drama of light and water in the Contemplation Court is as beautiful and striking as the basic design of the corona on the building’s exterior, but there is already corrosion on the ceiling panels near where the water is released. — Washington Post
A year after its opening the building of the National Museum of African American History already shows signs of aging, but the museum attracts a diverse, engaged, multicultural and international audience. "Like so many large buildings in the ceremonial core of Washington, now that it’s there... View full entry
For this episode of Archinect Sessions, we're sharing our conversation with Phil Freelon, an architect that has dedicated his life to creating meaningful, thoughtful works of architecture that contribute to American culture and civil rights. Recent notable projects lead by Mr. Freelon include... View full entry
Standing assertively in the middle of a 15-acre lawn, between the sharp white obelisk of the Washington Monument and the colossal stone shed of the National Museum of American History, the latest arrival to this hallowed parade ground certainly holds its own. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture erupts from the ground, an inverted pagoda of three angular bronzed tiers on an all-glass base, departing from its neighbours’ sombre palette...with joyous glee. — the Guardian
Like the exhibitions inside it, the museum building embodies its complexities and contradictions, charged as it is with a brief and a site as impossibly fraught as the history it is telling. Despite some clunks, the result has a compelling, spiky otherness, standing on the Mall as a welcome rebuke... View full entry
“It’s about architecture, but also about memory and history,” Adjaye says when we meet at the site on a cloudy afternoon in mid-May. “I got exactly what I wanted on the exterior, which was a dark, brooding, bronzelike building.” Before going inside, he points out what he calls the “oculus,” a circular raised platform at the west entrance through whose glass windows you can see the room below. “We found out that this spot was once a slave market, right on the Mall,” he says. — Vogue
“The oculus is like a slave pedestal, levitated off the ground. I’ve tried to make every decision here have some history.”For more on the British-Ghanaian architect, check out past Archinect coverage:David Adjaye is releasing a vinyl record with his brother"Quintessential... View full entry
