Archinect - News

Future National Asian Pacific American Museum passes first major test

2022-05-02T18:21:00-04:00

A national museum of Asian Pacific American history and culture is one major step closer to reality after the US House of Representatives unanimously approved on 26 April a bill to create an eight-person commission to study the feasibility of establishing such an institution in Washington, DC. The bill now heads to the Senate.

The bill was sponsored by Congresswoman Grace Meng, who represents the sixth congressional district of New York, and was passed by the House just days ahead of the beginning of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

“Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been pivotal in contributing to the growth and prosperity of our nation since its founding,” Meng said. “We have helped make the United States the greatest country in the world, but unfortunately many remain unaware of the crucial role we’ve played throughout our history. It’s time for that to change and creating a national museum would ensure there is a physical space to commemorate and share our story with future generations.”

If plans for the proposed museum work out as envisioned, it would join the planned American Women’s History Museum and the recently approved National Museum of the American Latino.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in 2016 as one of the latest additions to ...

First biography on architect Max Bond to be published by Princeton University Press

2020-08-24T13:36:00-04:00

Princeton University Press (PUP) has announced plans to publish If Architecture Were for People: The Life and Work of J. Max Bond., Jr., a forthcoming biography on the pivotal 20th century architect written by architectural historian Brian D. Goldstein.

A PUP announcement explains that Bond's works, which include the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, among others, offer "a new perspective on two sweeping forces that transformed architecture, urban planning, and American culture: modernism and the Civil Rights movement."

View of the Bolgatanga Library in Ghana. Image courtesy of Willis E. Bell and Davis Brody Bond.

Bond, often considered among the most prominent Black architects working in the United States during the late 20th century, was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1935 and ea...

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.

A plan for the Johnson Publishing Co. photo archives is taking shape

2020-03-11T14:40:00-04:00

A nonprofit consortium consisting of the Getty Research Institute, the J. Paul Getty Trust, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution has taken another step toward preserving the photo archives of the Johnson Publishing Company in Chicago.

A press release published by the group indicates that the consortium has created an Advisory Council that will "inform the preservation and future use of the historic photographic collection," which contains some 3.35 million negatives and slides, 983,000 photographs, 166,000 contact sheets, and 9,200 audio and visual recordings. The collection, according to the group, is "the most significant collection illustrating African American life in the 20th century."

Previously on Archinect: "Consortium Led by Getty Trust Purchases "Ebony" and "Jet" Photo Archives." Photograph of Ebony editor Lerone Bennett working in his office at the Johnson Publishing Compa...

Consortium Led by Getty Trust Purchases "Ebony" and "Jet" Photo Archives

2019-07-25T14:22:00-04:00

The Chicago-based company Johnson Publishing, which filed for bankruptcy in April, has sold the archive of images from Ebony and Jet Magazine to the J. Paul Getty Trust, which, according to court documents filed Wednesday night, paid $28.5 million at auction in the Windy City yesterday. The archive includes millions of iconic images of African American figures like Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., and Billie Holiday.

A consortium led by the Getty Foundation has acquired the iconic Ebony and Jet magazine archives. The group includes the Ford Foundation, the Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Julie Bosman of The New York Times reported via Twitter that the group has pledged to donate the archive to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and the Getty Research Institute so that its contents can become available to the public, researchers, and scholars. The acquisition is pending court approval and the closing of the sale.

In a press release announcing the sale, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker said, “We’re thrilled with the outcome. This archive is a national treasure and one of tremendous importance to the telling of black history in America. We felt it was imperative to preserve these images, to give them the exposure they deserve and make them readily available to the public.”

In 2018, Chicago-based Rebuild Foundation a...

Harvard GSD launches digital repository highlighting the work of African American architects and designers

2019-05-31T12:41:00-04:00

The Design Nexus seeks to honor the work of African American designers from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds together on a single platform to showcase their craft and the places they work.

The Harvard University Graduate School of Design has launched the African American Design Nexus (AADN), a new virtual collection that highlights African American architects and designers from various generations, practices, and backgrounds.

National Museum of African American History in Washington, D.C. Image: Rex Hammock/Flickr

The collection profiles noted African American architects, including Mabel O. Wilson, founder of Studio &, and Paul Revere Williams, as well as specific projects and sites that are designed by African American architects or have played a significant role in African American history. Chronicled sites include the city of Los Angeles, as well as the National Museum of African American History in Washington, D.C., which was designed in collaboration between Adjaye Associates, The Freelon Group, Davis Brody Bond, SmithGroupJJR, and Perkins + Will. Perkins + Will's August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh is also highlighted in the collecti...

Zena Howard: Architecture's powerhouse strategist and advocate for diversity

2019-02-12T15:58:00-05:00

There are little more than 400 African American female architects in a profession of over 110,000. Although an improvement over the roughly 90 that existed when I entered the profession, the current numbers continue to reflect the obvious dearth of women like me. [...] My primary advice to young people is to seek mentorship as early as possible. Take advantage of many architects like myself who are willing to expose you to our studios, our staff, our work, and our own experiences.

If you're unaware of her name, you know of her work. Zena Howard's contributions to the architecture profession are rooted in design strategy and advocacy. With over 25 years of experience, the seasoned architect has worked on several notable projects. As Principal and Managing Director of Perkins+Will's North Carolina practice, her work is a reflection of her passion as an architect, mentor, team builder, and strategist. Several of Howard's projects focuses on public and private institutions, museums, and other educational typologies.

Motown Museum Detroit, Michigan. Image © Perkins+Will

Tenley-Friendship Library District of Columbia Public Library. Image © Perkins+Will

Earning her Bachelor of Science degree in architecture from the University of Virginia, Howard's expertise revolves around creating and leading design projects in sustainability, inclusive design, and historical and cultural buildings. Her background in LEED certification projects allows her to drive projects that no...

DC's African American History and Culture Museum allowing walk-ins in April

2018-04-06T13:45:00-04:00

If you still haven’t been able to sneak your way into the newest museum on Washington DC’s National Mall, April may be your best bet. Last week, the museum announced that the month would feature Walk-Up Wednesdays, allowing people who haven’t scored entry passes to go into the museum on a first-come, first-served basis, a pilot program to test no-pass entry.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture located in Washington DC opened back in 2016, and has been solidly booked ever since. To help visitors gain entry who were unable to procure tickets, the museum is introducing Walk-Up Wednesdays for the month of April.

Founding director Lonnie G. Bunch III stated, “We don’t want to disappoint our visitors by reaching capacity and having them wait in long lines for space to become available inside the galleries. The goal of this pilot program is to provide greater access for the public while maintaining the safety and security of our visitors.”

U.S. Postal Service Honors the National Museum of African American History and Culture

2017-10-13T13:25:00-04:00

The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened on September 24th, 2016. In celebration of recently reaching their one year anniversary, the U.S. Postal Service is commemorating the occasion with the museum's very own "forever stamp." Announced on Septemeber 26th, the stamp—featuring art based on a photograph of the museum showing a view of the northwest corner of the building—is officially available nationwide today.

National Museum of African American History shows sign of aging

2017-09-25T13:53:00-04:00

Now that the reflective space is open, and has become a favorite spot in the museum, it stands for both the strengths and weaknesses of the museum’s larger form, created by lead designer David Adjaye and lead architect Philip Freelon. The drama of light and water in the Contemplation Court is as beautiful and striking as the basic design of the corona on the building’s exterior, but there is already corrosion on the ceiling panels near where the water is released.

A year after its opening the building of the National Museum of African American History already shows signs of aging, but the museum attracts a diverse, engaged, multicultural and international audience. "Like so many large buildings in the ceremonial core of Washington, now that it’s there, it seems always to have been there."

An American Story; A conversation with Phil Freelon

2017-03-02T17:21:00-05:00

For this episode of Archinect Sessions, we're sharing our conversation with Phil Freelon, an architect that has dedicated his life to creating meaningful, thoughtful works of architecture that contribute to American culture and civil rights.

Recent notable projects lead by Mr. Freelon include the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Atlanta's National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco and Emancipation Park in Houston. We hope you enjoy our conversation with him discussing his work, growing up in a creative, activist household, his recent diagnosis with ALS, and his love of science fiction.

Phil Freelon on Engaging with Black History Through Architecture

Listen to episode 98 of Archinect Sessions, "An American Story":

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Oliver Wainwright finds the National Museum of African American History "embodies its complexities and contradictions"

2016-09-15T13:12:00-04:00

Standing assertively in the middle of a 15-acre lawn, between the sharp white obelisk of the Washington Monument and the colossal stone shed of the National Museum of American History, the latest arrival to this hallowed parade ground certainly holds its own. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture erupts from the ground, an inverted pagoda of three angular bronzed tiers on an all-glass base, departing from its neighbours’ sombre palette...with joyous glee.

Like the exhibitions inside it, the museum building embodies its complexities and contradictions, charged as it is with a brief and a site as impossibly fraught as the history it is telling. Despite some clunks, the result has a compelling, spiky otherness, standing on the Mall as a welcome rebuke to the world of white marble monuments to dead white men.

More on the newest addition to the National Mall:

David Adjaye on the National Museum of African American History and Culture (and other projects)

2016-06-21T17:49:00-04:00

“It’s about architecture, but also about memory and history,” Adjaye says when we meet at the site on a cloudy afternoon in mid-May. “I got exactly what I wanted on the exterior, which was a dark, brooding, bronzelike building.” Before going inside, he points out what he calls the “oculus,” a circular raised platform at the west entrance through whose glass windows you can see the room below. “We found out that this spot was once a slave market, right on the Mall,” he says.

“The oculus is like a slave pedestal, levitated off the ground. I’ve tried to make every decision here have some history.”

For more on the British-Ghanaian architect, check out past Archinect coverage: