Archinect - News

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...

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.”

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...

Moshe Safdie's National Medal of Honor Museum is off to a rocky start

2018-07-13T14:45:00-04:00

It isn't often that architect Moshe Safdie is sent back to the drawing board. But that's exactly what happened earlier this year when his soaring vision for the National Medal of Honor Museum clashed with a local height ordinance. [...] planning commission in the Charleston suburb of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, unanimously denied its Safdie-concieved proposal because it would exceed by 75 feet the elevation limit on land zoned for no more than 50 feet.

"Ultimately, it all came down to a lack of communication," writes Jolee Edmondson. "What has transpired in Mount Pleasant underscores the importance of builders engaging in community outreach before submitting a formal plan for public property. Safdie's design was unveiled in 2015, but it was mainly confined to the foundation's website."

With modern Charleston building off the table, Clemson looking to lease space for its architecture center

2015-07-20T13:15:00-04:00

Clemson University plans to lease space in downtown Charleston to house all of its locally based architecture and historic preservation programs until it decides on a permanent location. The decision comes about eight months after the university scrubbed plans for a contemporary architecture center at George and Meeting streets. The proposed building’s sleek design sparked a lawsuit by neighborhoods and preservation groups.

Previously: Clemson scraps its modern building plan

Quo vadis, Charleston architecture?

2015-01-23T14:15:00-05:00

Long accustomed to basing its reputation on the grandeur of its old buildings, the city now finds it almost impossible to agree on how to build new ones. In recent months, traditionalists have blocked efforts to introduce contemporary architecture in the historic core [...]. Modernists are rolling their eyes at new buildings that copy traditional styles, arguing that they pervert a record of architectural progress long documented in mortar and stone.

Don't miss these heated discussions on the subject matter:

Michael Rotondi in-studio for Episode 8 of Archinect Sessions, "A Sense of Place"

2014-11-26T14:49:00-05:00

Michael Rotondi joins us in-studio this week, for a special conversation with Orhan Ayyüce about architecture education and Rotondi's Los Angeles roots. Paul, Amelia, Donna and Ken also discuss ol' fashioned southern contextualism in Charleston, South Carolina, in response to Clemson University's scrapped modern building plans.

Listen to episode eight of the Archinect Sessions podcast, "A Sense of Place":

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Download: this episode

Shownotes:

Gigaom Roadmap conference

Clemson scraps its modern building plan

“Modern Oakwood” lawsuit

Olson Kundig case

Renzo Piano will design the new Kum & Go corporate HQ in Iowa

Yaohua Wang wins 2014 Harvard GSD thesis prize...

Editor's Picks #378

2014-07-30T15:14:00-04:00

Amelia Taylor-Hochberg Editorial Manager for Archinect, penned another essay in the "non-conclusive series" AfterShock. Titled Brains and the City, in it she explores a new world of EEG urbanism, GSAPP’s Cloud Lab, brain computer interfaces and human architect-slash-neuroscientist designer(s).

Chris Teeter is very interested in this line of research. He believes, "I think as a good option for finding a 'legitimacy' to the art and science of architecture, neuroscience, and more specifically phenomenology-neuroscience-architecture is a very exciting path what tons of potential." Thayer-D is "Looking forward to the next installment, conclusive or not".

Plus, #21 of Screen/Print: featured Log 31, "New Ancients"

News
As an offshoot of the Deans List editorial series, Archinect interviewed a few of the newly appointed leaders in architecture education, to survey their plans for the position at the very beginning of their tenure. anonitect defended Donna Sink's earlier comments which "are tot...