Archinect - News

Curtis J. Moody, FAIA, NOMA, founder of Moody Nolan, passes away at 73

2024-10-14T19:45:00-04:00

Curtis J. Moody, a trailblazing architect and founder of Moody Nolan, passed away peacefully yesterday, on October 13th, 2024. He was 73. Moody leaves behind a remarkable legacy as the leader of the largest African-American-owned architecture firm in the United States. His contributions to the field of architecture extended far beyond design, serving as a beacon for future generations of Black architects. His firm, Moody Nolan, shared the news in a statement on Facebook, noting that arrangements will be announced later this week.

Previously published on Archinect: A Conversation with Curtis Moody, FAIA on What It Means to Help Shape a Future for Black Architects

In a 2020 interview with Archinect, Moody shared insights about his early challenges, career, and vision. Reflecting on his journey, Moody described how his upbringing in a low-income neighborhood near Columbus, Ohio, and exposure to architecture through a family friend inspired him to pursue the profession. Despite facing di...

Building permits granted for Moody Nolan's Obama Presidential Center contribution in Chicago

2024-10-10T19:13:00-04:00

Building permits for Moody Nolan’s Programs & Athletics Center contribution to the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago have been granted by local planning officials, reports Urbanize Chicago. The project is to be realized at the south end of the 19-acre campus in Jackson Park by the end of 2025, an improvement from the firm's previously stated 2026 opening. Its 45,000-square-foot program includes gyms, an NBA regulation-sized basketball court, and several wellness-oriented community spaces.

Obama Presidential Center pushes opening to 2026, Moody Nolan's athletics center to break ground this month

2024-03-11T12:04:00-04:00

The Moody Nolan-designed Obama Presidential Center Programs & Athletics Center project in Chicago’s Jackson Park has been scheduled to break ground later this month.

Project updates were reported late last week by the Chicago Sun-Times on the occasion of former President Obama's visit to McCormick Place to see a half-scale mockup of the 88-foot "Power of Words" video installation, the largest of 50 that will grace the Obama Presidential Center when it opens at a recently revised date in 2026.

The new opening date was provided by Obama Presidential Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett in an update to local reporters. The Center is slated to include three other buildings: the main museum tower from TWBTA, a new Chicago Public Library branch, and a forum/auditorium space with an indoor winter garden, completed by Maya Lin's water garden design and a 19.3-acre landscaped design by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.

Rendering of the upcoming Obama Presidential Center Athletics Center. Image ...

Weiss/Manfredi, Hood Design Studio, and Moody Nolan to design new Amsterdam Avenue enhancements at Lincoln Center

2024-03-04T16:32:00-05:00

The new Amsterdam Avenue face of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will be designed by a team that includes Weiss/Manfredi, Hood Design Studio, and Moody Nolan, the beloved New York City cultural institution announced Monday.

The revitalization plan entails first a radical overhaul of Damrosch Park, which will be transformed into a dynamic new outdoor area for artistic performance and public gatherings. All three firms will impart their extensive experience in public realm designs that has recently included work on the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina and master plan of the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum in Los Angeles, respectively.

East side of Amsterdam Avenue, north of 62nd Street. Photo by Lawrence Sumulong

The design will take shape in response to a participatory planning process that drew the opinions of over 3,400 New Yorkers and surviving former residents of San Juan Hill, the neighborhood that was demolished to make way for the 14-y...

Moody Nolan reveals design for $342 million research complex at Morgan State University

2023-11-17T13:11:00-05:00

Moody Nolan has shared an update to its previously announced Science and Research Complex project at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

The new, 246,000-square-foot complex comes equipped with the industry’s latest technological features and will be designed to achieve R1 (very high research activity) Carnegie classification, aiming to bolster the school’s STEM education offerings and national position as a research university.

New renderings released by the firm showcase the direction of the project, whose programmatic elements include Collaborative Teaching and Research Spaces, Information Technology and Computer Labs, Tutoring and Learning Centers, a 3,000-square-foot Environmental and Botanical Rooftop Greenhouse, and space for Remote and Hybrid Technology Integration.

Image courtesy of Moody Nolan

The building will house MSU’s School of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (SCMNS) and be constructed alongside pre-set minority business enterprise (MBE) goals of 47.75%...

MVRDV sets its feet in Boston with a two-tower residential design near Harvard University

2023-11-02T14:54:00-04:00

A new residential project in Boston from MVRDV and co-architect Moody Nolan will deliver much-needed housing accommodations for the burgeoning Enterprise Research Campus (ERC) district on the southern edge of Harvard University in Allston, Massachusetts.

The scheme remade a former industrial site located across from the Harvard Business School on Western Avenue into a new urban district with a 343-unit housing component (25% of which is considered ‘affordable’), new green spaces, and areas reserved for local small businesses.

Developed by Tishman Speyer using a master plan from Studio Gang and Henning Larsen, the district will serve as an innovation center with added laboratories, an office component, hotel, and a new conference center for the university. MVRDV says it will be sited in the middle of the plan, offering a connection to the Greenway, a two-acre open space linking to the Charles River. Local mainstays Utile, Inc. are also contributing to the master plan's landscape des...

Gensler and Moody Nolan debut terminal design for Columbus International Airport

2023-08-25T15:28:00-04:00

Gensler has revealed plans for a new terminal design for John Glenn Columbus International Airport (CMH) in Columbus, Ohio. The project replaces an existing terminal from 1958 and is aimed at enhancing the regional economy of the state’s capital in the interest of “Connecting Ohio with the World.”

Columbus-based architects Moody Nolan will join the project as a design partner. The construction is necessary to meet the demands placed on the airport by Columbus’ expected demographic change, which will see the population of what is now the Midwest’s fastest-growing city expand to over 3 million by the year 2050.

Image courtesy Columbus Regional Airport Authority

The ‘Y’ form of the design is meant to mirror the confluence of nearby Olentangy and Scioto River while “symbolizing the fluid pathways taken by travelers and the connectivity.” Visitors will move from a ground-level entrance lobby through ticketing and security and into the main concourse’s retail plaza framed by a central gran...

Take a look inside the new International African American Museum ahead of its opening

2023-06-05T17:41:00-04:00

One of the most anticipated projects of the summer is ready to make its official public debut later this month as the finishing touches are being put in place for the new Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed-designed International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.

Sited along the city’s historic harbor that was, in its heyday, the “ground zero” of the slave trade in the southern United States, the museum seeks to educate visitors using a series of nine thematic galleries and the “power of place” present in its location at Gadsden’s Wharf.

The project is the culmination of over two decades of planning, advocacy, and design consultations between both firms, varied stakeholders, historians, politicians, and residents whose collaborations, in the end, beget what ought to become a transformative testament to the power of storytelling for Americans of every background.

Credit: © Sahar Coston-Hardy/Esto. All rights res...

Moody Nolan and Stull & Lee to lead design of mixed-use, affordable Columbia Crossing development in Boston

2023-02-24T15:19:00-05:00

The City of Boston has announced its financial support for a mixed-use, mixed-income development in the Upham’s Corner neighborhood. Called Columbia Crossing, the project will repurpose the historic Dorchester Savings Bank building and adjacent parking lot into an approximately 86,000-square-foot residential, commercial, and retail complex.

The scheme will be developed by nonprofit developer Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH) in partnership with the Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation (DBEDC), a nonprofit Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) based in Upham’s Corner. The endeavor will consist of the construction of a new six-story building addition to the back of the existing Dorchester Savings Bank as well as the adaptive reuse of the bank building. Stull & Lee, Inc. and Moody Nolan are partnering on the architecture.

POAH and DBEDC were chosen through a competitive, community-driven RFP process led by Dudley Neighbors Inc. (DNI), a local community land trust and t...

Opening of the anticipated International African American Museum pushed back due to climate control problems

2022-12-22T17:32:00-05:00

The International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina, will postpone its scheduled opening date next month due to unresolved climate control issues in its new building. The museum was expected to open on 21 January 2023 and now expects to open sometime in the first half of next year, according to a statement released on 16 December.

Construction of the Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners-designed International African American Museum (IAAM) began in the fall of 2019 after nearly two decades of planning. In April, a request for additional funding was submitted to the city of Charleston in order to complete the genealogy center that’s planned for the museum. The board apparently had known about the HVAC issues for some time and is now planning a new special exhibition in the interregnum.

“I was as excited about this opening as everyone else,” museum President Tonya M. Matthews told supporters via email. “I am an overachiever and I am ambitious. I honor and respect things like deadlines, but this is a huge responsibility and we will do what we need to make sure that we present this museum and the stories we tell in an extraordinary light.”

Howard University selects Moody Nolan and KGD Architecture to design new building that will house the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts

2022-11-01T16:35:00-04:00

Howard University has selected Moody Nolan and the Washington DC-based KGD Architecture to design the next piece in its ongoing $785 million campus revitalization.

According to a press announcement by Moody Nolan, once completed, the new Center for Fine Arts & Communications will contain the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, Cathy Hughes School of Communications, and house the University's television and radio stations (WHUR/WHUT.) The new fine arts center was named after the late actor and class of 2000 graduate last year in recognition of his dedication to preserving and fostering arts education at the University.

In September 2021, the school installed letters to the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. Image still courtesy of Howard University.

"For the KGD | Moody Nolan team, this represents a transcendent design opportunity," shared Howard alum, Moody Nolan Partner, and the project's design executive Renauld Deandre Mitchell. "The Center for Fine Arts and Communica...

Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed set an opening date for South Carolina’s International African American Museum

2022-08-04T13:50:00-04:00

The much-awaited debut of the Moody Nolan and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners-designed International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina, now has an official opening date after the latter announced it will be available to the public for the first time on January 21st, 2023.

This is an important project to both offices as over 22 years of planning have gone into the creation of the almost $100 million new institution. Its location on the site of the city’s former Gadsden’s Wharf is significant, too, as Charleston Harbor is considered the “ground zero” of the North Atlantic slave trade, a place where 48.1% of all enslaved Africans entered the United States, according to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard professor, historian, and early contributor to the project.

Image courtesy International African American Museum.

The museum's website, therefore, outlines a mission to “create an opportunity for visitors to engage with authentic and lesser-known history through tran...

Looking to the future, Moody Nolan will lead the design of a new science center at Morgan State University

2022-07-11T14:36:00-04:00

In the face of many recent setbacks and other challenges befalling America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), the country’s largest African American-owned architecture firm, Moody Nolan, is now setting out once again to improve the prospects and educational resources of their community by leading the design services for a new science center for the campus of Morgan State University (MSU) in Baltimore, Maryland.

Coming in at a total project cost of $150 million, the 246,435-square-foot science center is expected to be completed by the year 2027 and will take the school even further toward its ultimate aim of becoming the first HBCU-classified R1 university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

To date, the firm has completed more than 30 projects at HBCU campuses throughout the country, including the soon-to-be-opened Thurgood Marshall Hall residential housing at MSU, which has been pursuing an expansion of its STEM and other research...

A new $51 million Tulsa Arts District proposal will turn a parking lot into a boutique destination

2022-05-27T15:28:00-04:00

Tulsa, Oklahoma’s ongoing transformation into the premier cultural capital of the southern Midwest region may about to get a useful new addition as local news outlets are reporting that Palm Spring-based architect Chris Pardo will design a $51 million mixed-use development located on a blacktop space in the city’s burgeoning Arts District.

“We really do specialize in urban-core redevelopment projects,” a spokesperson for developer Pivot Project recently told the Tulsa World newspaper. “We saw this opportunity for this site right in the middle of the Arts District. … We like to try to effect positive change on the buildings that we renovate, the blocks that we develop on, the neighborhoods we develop in. This site just fit right in our core values as a company.”

enders courtesy of Chris Pardo Design via Tulsaworld

Renders courtesy of Chris Pardo Design via Tulsaworld

Tulsa is in the process of redefining its historic downtown area with a host of major arts and cultural projects that in...

Manica and Moody Nolan team up for a renovation of Cleveland Guardians' Progressive Field

2022-03-16T14:30:00-04:00

Several Midwest practices are joining forces for a timely renovation project at Cleveland’s Progressive Field.

Kansas City-based Manica Architecture is now teaming up with Ohio’s own Moody Nolan for the multi-year project with additional help from Cleveland-based studios Van Auken Akins and Robert P. Madison International, who will cover the interior renovations and construction support respectively.

The renovation will include a reworking of the upper deck concourse and seating area behind home plate, the left-field Terrace Club, and the team’s clubhouse and front office areas. The erstwhile Jacobs Field was considered a forebearer for a new breed of well-integrated “destination” baseball stadiums when it opened in 1994.

Interior view of Progressive Field in 2019 while still branded under its former offensive moniker. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Erik Drost. (CC BY 2.0)

“We feel very fortunate to live in a community that is unified in maintaining momentum in Northeast Ohi...

NADAAA chosen to lead $40 million renovation of the Met's Ancient Near East and Cypriot Art galleries

2022-03-16T14:17:00-04:00

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has appointed Boston architect Nadaaa to the $40m reconfiguring of a suite of its galleries. The practice, led by principal designer Nader Tehrani, will work with Moody Nolan, the US’s largest African-American-owned and -managed practice, as architect of record on the 15,000sq ft project. The pair will undertake the complete renovation of the Met’s galleries for Ancient Near Eastern and Cypriot Art which currently occupy 11 rooms on the second floor.

As detailed by The Met, the renovation will introduce architectural and design elements that reflect both the materials and geographic origins of the work on view. This will be evident in the Ancient Near Eastern Art galleries, which will be characterized by a series of architectural backdrops that reflect the materials used in the works such as clay, copper, bronze, gold, silver, and lapis lazuli.

The renovation will unite the formerly separated collection areas, reflecting areas of interconnection between their cultures. The new gallery space will employ an open floor plan in order to establish a sense of scale and grandeur. It will feature vistas that open to the Great Hall Balcony and surrounding collections. This work also meets the museum’s strategy to reduce its carbon footprint, as it aims to reduce energy consumption in this area by around 40%. The new galleries are scheduled to open in 2025.

Moody Nolan is donating a home to 11 different cities as part of its Legacy House Project

2021-07-28T12:25:00-04:00

The firm, cofounded in 1982 by Moody’s father, Curt, and now the largest Black-owned architecture firm in the U.S., moved to refocus its giving on a more tangible outcome. The firm’s architects decided to put their money where their skills are and created the Legacy House project, a planned annual gift that will grant a free home to a family in need in one of the 11 cities where Moody Nolan has offices.

The high cost of homeownership is an increasingly large social and political issue that other architects are addressing with a variety of different experimental housing models.

Moody Nolan was compelled to the measure after re-examining the tangible impacts of its annual donations in each of the communities in which it has an office. Housing stocks in the Columbus area are at an all-time low.

The first two homes are in Ohio and Nashville, Tennessee respectively. Each property will be mortgage-free. The firm has said it would like others to take its lead in donating space in the cities they, too, called home.

Fast Company has more on the program here.

More than a meeting space: Moody Nolan to lead the renovation of Greenwood Cultural Center

2021-04-13T20:19:00-04:00

The importance of rebuilding and reclaiming America's Black communities is essential to honoring and understanding how social justice and design reform can improve the systemic and racial histories of cities across the nation. The Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is no exception.

On June 1, 1921, the deadly and destructive events of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre is still to date a tragic example of racial violence and domestic terrorism in U.S. history. While the tragedy and loss should not be forgotten and the lives lost continue to be honored, the Greenwood District persevered and rebuilt its community. Now, in 2021 the historic district announces its plans for the renovation of the Greenwood Cultural Center.

On April 12, 2021, the City of Tulsa announced the selection of award-winning architecture firm Moody Nolan to lead the Greenwood Cultural Center's renovation. If you visit the Center's website, it's the following statement that amplifies...

Moody Nolan CEO Jonathan Moody delivers hopeful TED Talk on the power of design

2020-12-16T11:08:00-05:00

Moody Nolan CEO Jonathan Moody, AIA, NCARB, NOMA, LEED AP, delivered a hopeful TED Talk at a TEDxKingLincolnBronzeville event back in October. Moody begins the talk with a confession — that designers have failed citizens in the community and that designers have been complicit in allowing systemic challenges to be introduced in underrepresented communities.

Previously published on Archinect: A Conversation with Curtis Moody, FAIA on What It Means to Help Shape a Future for Black Architects

Moody uses the design of the Martin Luther King Branch Library of the Columbus Metropolitan Library as a backdrop for his case that design is a vehicle for hope and a tool for protest. Citing Dr. Martin Luther Kinf Jr., the architect argues that buildings should be places where people can connect to resources to build a better future. Spaces with public internet access, affordable childcare, and education, are some of the examples Moody presents.

Check out the full talk below.

Edward Mazria honored with 2021 AIA Gold Medal, Moody Nolan receives AIA Architecture Firm Award

2020-12-08T16:24:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects has revealed the recipient of this year's top accolades.

The 2021 AIA Gold Medal goes to architect, educator, and sustainability pioneer Edward Mazria, FAIA, FRAIC. In a statement, the AIA points out that Mazria is being recognized for "his work sounding the alarm on climate change and motivating the profession to take action."

Previously published on Archinect: Architecture 2030's Ed Mazria outlines an environmentally-responsible plan for the architecture and design industries

In 1979, Mazria published the groundbreaking The Passive Solar Energy Book: A Complete Guide to Passive Solar Home, Greenhouse and Building Design and continued to apply these principles in a number of passive solar and highly contextual buildings, such as the Stockebrand Residence, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, and Georgia O’Keefe's estate, Sol y Sambra.

Mazria helped fou...