Archinect - News

Tuskegee University receives $100k gift to support aspiring African American architects

2020-08-14T13:25:00-04:00

Tuskegee University's Department of Architecture has received a gift of $100,000 from the Cooper Carry Charitable Foundation, Inc. to increase access to the architecture profession for African American students. The foundation is the charitable arm of the Cooper Carry architectural firm.

According to a press release, $80,000 of the gift will be used to establish new need-based scholarships for undergraduate students. $20,000 of the gift is designated for a student technology scholarship that will allow students to receive technology assistance by providing laptops and/or architecture design software – as Tuskegee has transitioned to remote instruction.

"We knew Tuskegee University would be the place to develop a new and meaningful partnership – and we believe it’s important to be part of actively developing diverse voices in design and architecture," said Cooper Carry President and CEO Kevin Cantley. "We have great respect for Tuskegee University and have hired several recent Tuskeg...

NMAAHC launches initiative to celebrate the work of Black architects

2020-06-08T11:38:00-04:00

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 illustrations to be considered for inclusion in the Museum's digital collection.

According to the museum website, the goal of Rendering Visible is to document the creativity of Black architects and designers. Submissions should include sketches, renderings, and artistic illustrations that convey the intent and concept of a design project.

Submit your work here.

National Museum of African American Music to open this summer in Nashville

2020-02-24T11:20:00-05:00

The National Museum of African American Music is on track to open in Nashville later this year...it will be the only institution dedicated to showcasing music genres created and inspired by black Americans. In 2015, [mayor] Karl Dean, announced that plans would move forward to redevelop the old convention center on Fifth and Broadway into a brand-new space...Nearly three years from the start of the project, the museum is nearly finished and it is expected to be completed by this summer

Designed by Nashville-based Harold Thompson Architects, the museum will house more than 1,400 artifacts, seven galleries, a theater, and live music. "The perception nationally, I think, is that Nashville is just country music. And while we love country music, I think it’s important to touch base on all the other musical genres African Americans have helped to influence," said Tamar Smithers, director of Education and Public Programs, reports Black Enterprise.

Check out the virtual tour below:

Efforts to recognize African American historic sites are taking flight across the country

2020-01-28T12:30:00-05:00

Since its founding, the National Register of Historic Places has helped to generate an estimated two million jobs and more than a hundred billion dollars in private investments. But, because many biases were written into the criteria that determine how sites are selected, those benefits have gone mostly to white Americans. One of the criteria for preservation is architectural significance, meaning that modest buildings like slave cabins and tenement houses were long excluded from consideration.

Writing in The New Yorker, Casey Cep profiles Brent Leggs, director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The lengthy, eye-opening report delves into the work of preservationists like Leggs who are fighting to uncover, highlight, and preserve a vast but under-acknowledged collection of vital African American sites, structures, and spaces across the United States. That includes growing rosters of African American burial grounds, Historic Black Colleges and Universities, and collections of private homes and other sites once occupied by African American communities.

MSU hosts exhibition of Mississippi’s African American Churches

2019-09-14T18:00:00-04:00

Located in McNeel Gallery at Giles Hall, the exhibition introduces and examines the historical, socio-cultural, religious and architectural influence people and events had on the design and construction of early African American church buildings constructed between 1800 and the 1920s.

According to MSU, the exhibition is part of a broader effort to highlight African American church houses throughout the South.

University organizes tour of notable African-American architects' work in Chicago

2019-08-07T10:45:00-04:00

Black architects are underrepresented yet have made considerable contributions to the Chicago cityscape. Join the Dean of the College of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology and tour notable projects by black architects on the south side of Chicago beginning with the Johnson Publishing building, the first and only downtown high rise project designed by a black architect. We will visit Ping Tom Memorial Park, First Church of Deliverance, 31st Street Harbor Building, and more

National Trust for Historic Preservation forwards the preservation of African American cultural sites

2019-07-08T20:00:00-04:00

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has unveiled $1.6 million in grant funding dedicated to preserving historical sites that demonstrate significance with relation to Black history and African American cultural heritage from around the country.

The funding, part of a larger, multi-year $25 million effort, is being awarded to 22 organizations with the goal of "uplifting the largely overlooked contributions of African Americans by protecting and restoring African American historic sites and uncovering hidden stories of African Americans connected to historic sites across the nation," according to a press release.

The list includes, for example, the Museum of African American History in Boston, an organization that is housed within a building designed by British architect Richard Upjohn in 1835. The building exists today as the oldest extant Black church in the United States and, when originally built, made up the first public educational facility for free Black children in B...