Archinect - News

Historic civil rights-era church in Memphis to undergo $25 million renovation

2024-02-19T12:02:00-05:00

Memphis’ Clayborn Temple, a historic civil rights landmark, is set to undergo a $25 million renovation. The five-year-long project hopes to “not only preserve its historic significance but also usher in a new era of vitality for this cultural gem and the surrounding community,” as seen in new renderings by Self+Tucker Architects.

Image credit: Self+Tucker Architects

The building was originally constructed in 1892 as Second Presbyterian Church, where it served an all-white congregation. In 1949, the building was sold to an African Methodist Episcopal congregation for $100,000 and renamed Clayborn Temple.

Image credit: Self+Tucker Architects

Throughout the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the church served as an important node for social, cultural, spiritual, and political expressions for the city’s African American communities, ultimately becoming the organizing headquarters for The Sanitation Workers’ Strike of 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last campaign.

Image credit: Self+Tu...

MASS Design Group's touching Hank Willis Thomas MLK memorial commission debuts in Boston

2023-01-17T15:57:00-05:00

The wait for artist Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group’s public memorial to Martin Luther King on the Boston Common finally ended over the weekend with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included the sculpture's design team and a host of local political dignitaries.

They were on hand to witness the unveiling of Thomas’ monumental The Embrace sculpture that now sits at the southern edge of America’s oldest public park in the newly-created 1965 Freedom Plaza, a short distance away from the 236-year-old statehouse and Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ memorial to the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. By rights, putting the legacy of its subjects in proper place alongside the Hub’s other paragons of social justice causes from centuries past.

Image courtesy MASS Design Group

Dr. King met his wife, the late Coretta Scott King, at Boston University’s Myles Standish Hall while the two were both graduate students at different institutions in early 1952. Thomas wanted to create a lasting monumen...

New photos of Mecanoo's refurbished Mies-designed Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in D.C.

2021-11-19T17:47:00-05:00

Mecanoo has shared updated imagery of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C. the firm revamped together with OTJ Architects.

Photographers Robert Benson and Trent Bell have provided new photos detailing the modernization of the landmark building that was completed in 1972 as Mies van der Rohe’s only library design and final act as an architect.

Following a three-year transformation, the library opened to the public on September 25th but has gone largely undocumented thanks to restrictions over the coronavirus, which shut out much of the renovated areas from public view since its official reopening in October 2020.

Scroll down to have a look at a selection of the latest photos and learn more about the project here.

Image © Trent Bell

Image © Robert Benson

Image © Trent Bell

Image © Robert Benson

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Documentary looks at the Mecanoo-led modernization of the Mies-designed Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington D.C.

2020-10-26T12:50:00-04:00

Originally opened in 1972, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library was Mies van der Rohe's only library and his last building. The landmark was closed in 2017 to commence modernizations which have been completed this year, recently reopening the building last month.

The three-year design and modernization project was led by Mecanoo and OTJ Architects. A full-length documentary has been released investigated the design process and transformation of the library. Check it out below:

Happy MLK Day! Here's to celebrating equality and diversity in architecture

2020-01-20T15:08:00-05:00

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Today marks the 34th year the federal holiday has been observed, in celebration of the great civil rights leader. Dr. King fought against racial inequality through nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience, seeking progress in the U.S. on matters of civil rights. Shortly after King's assassination, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson, marking a step towards the "progress" King fought for.

The fruits of Dr. King's work can be seen throughout numerous facets of our society, and undoubtedly, progress is still being made. In architecture, we've seen issues of equality addressed, something only possible due to the foundations of early civil rights leaders like King. In celebration of this special day, here is a round up of some of Archinect's coverage on issues of equality, and the amazing people working to further progress in this area.

↑ A Black Architecture Education Experience

Demar M...

That new Texas Confederate Memorial on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive

2015-06-22T14:15:00-04:00

In Orange, Texas, the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans just built a large Confederate memorial park, complete with a classical-ish monument featuring 13 columns—one for each of the states in the short-lived, and utterly defeated, Confederate States of America. [...] And this being Confederate sympathizers, they did not hesitate to build the memorial where the highway meets Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

A Paraphrased Quote Stirs Criticism Of MLK Memorial

2011-09-01T12:46:41-04:00

The poet and author and one of the memorial's consultants, Maya Angelou, told The Washington Post, yesterday, the quote makes King seem arrogant. Actually, she put it in harsher terms. "The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit," she said.

Today, All Things Considered's Melissa Block spoke to memorial's executive architect, Ed Jackson Jr., who explained the quote was paraphrased because of design constraints. At first, he said, the quote was going to be placed on the south face of the monument, but instead the designers decided that they wanted visitors to see the quotation ("Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope...") that explained the whole concept first. So they decided to move the quotation to the north side, where the sculptor had already done some work adding striations that left little room for a lengthy engraving.

That's the technical explanation. But Jackson also said he disagreed with Angelou. He said the quote did not make King sound arrogant and said the memorial includes 14 other quotations and that the full experience cannot be determined by one small part of it.

Seems like some of our members agree that the monument is not ideal - discuss

Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Opens in Washington

2011-08-26T00:43:15-04:00

We don’t even see his feet. He is embedded in the rock like something not yet fully born, suited and stern, rising from its roughly chiseled surface. His face is uncompromising, determined, his eyes fixed in the distance, not far from where Jefferson stands across the water. But kitsch here strains at the limits of resemblance: Is this the Dr. King of the “I Have a Dream” speech? Or the writer of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech?