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Four design teams shortlisted for former KKK site reclamation project in Texas

2023-10-11T17:51:00-04:00

A four-finalist shortlist for Transform 1012 N. Main Street’s adaptive reuse and racial equity project has been announced as part of a multiphase selection process that will eventually deliver the new Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing to Fort Worth, Texas.

The chance at redesigning what was once the Ku Klux Klan Klavern No. 101 Auditorium will fall on a proposal that best expresses and reflects the group’s reclamatory mission while “[prioritizing] community, equity, and collective healing in the design of the space” above all other considerations of site and material.

“The exceptional quality of the submissions prompted us to expand the initially envisioned shortlist from three to four teams and to extend our selection deadline for a few days,” Ben Crawford, the Chair of Transform 1012’s Design Architect Selection Committee, added. “We are thrilled to welcome these architects to Fort Worth to see how they could be a partner in reimagining the processes for enacting th...

Selection process detailed for historic reuse of former KKK site as a cultural arts center in Fort Worth

2023-06-29T19:56:00-04:00

Transform 1012 N. Main Street, the non-profit coalition responsible for a new reclamation project targeting a former Ku Klux Klan auditorium in Fort Worth, Texas, has just announced the next phases of the selection process for an architect who will eventually deliver The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing in what is being pitched as an "act of reparative justice" for the community.

Eight months after the process began, work will now continue towards the ultimate goal of creating a unifying cultural hub replete with state-of-the-art performance spaces, arts educational offerings, room for social service organizations that work with LGBTQ+ youth, a maker space, and exhibition areas dedicated toward social justice programming.

The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing Exterior. Concept rendering by MASS Design Group. Courtesy of Transform 1012 N. Main Street.

The space is named in honor of Fred Rouse, a local Black man who was lynched by a white mob in 1921, t...

Former KKK auditorium to be reborn as a cultural arts center in Fort Worth

2022-05-20T15:28:00-04:00

A Texas-based, non-profit by the name of Transform 1012 N. Main Street (Transform 1012) has announced the purchase of a former Ku Klux Klan auditorium in Fort Worth, Texas. It will be converted into The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing, a new cultural hub and space for reconciliation and reclamation for the community.

The auditorium, located at 1012 N. Main Street, originally opened in 1924, when Fort Worth had one of the largest KKK memberships in the United States. It served as the group’s headquarters in Texas and was designed to intimidate Black, Hispanic, and immigrant residents returning home from the city center.

The acquisition served as the driving force behind the formation of Transform 1012 in 2019. The non-profit is a coalition of local arts, grassroots, and service organizations as well as pro bono partners and individuals. The purchase of the building was made possible by a significant donation from the former owners and a grant from the Rainwater Char...