Archinect - News

Historic NYC African American burial ground marketed for $13.8M

2019-06-03T14:54:00-04:00

A site in Queens home to the United African Society of Newtown, the first community of free African Americans founded in New York State, is currently being marketed by real estate entity Cushman & Wakefield for $13.8 million as a development opportunity.

What's left of the 1828 community now exists on a mid-block plot of undeveloped land that contains, among other elements, a cemetery holding at least 300 graves. The community was founded the year after New York State abolished slavery in 1827. The site was once home to the Union African Church, a modest frame structure that served the community and administered the cemetery. According to 6sqft, construction workers in 2011 discovered the remains of Martha Peterson, a formerly-enslaved person who died in the 1850s from smallpox.

Historical photograph of the Union African Church that currently occupied the site, Image courtesy of EHCPS.

The nonprofit Elmhurst History & Cemeteries Preservation Society (EHCPS) is working to preserve an...

A Conversation with Theaster Gates; Archinect Sessions Episode #136

2019-02-14T19:13:00-05:00

This week on Archinect Sessions we’re sharing our inspiring conversation with Theaster Gates. For those of you who aren’t already familiar with Theaster, you’re in for a treat. Theaster Gates often refers to himself as a potter, and while it’s true that he is, through years of training and practice, he’s also an extremely talented multidisciplinary artist, urban planner and community-focused social activist.

Theaster may be most well known for his non-profit Rebuild Foundation. The foundation purchases abandoned buildings in the south side of Chicago, the neighborhood Theaster grew up and still resides in, and transforms them into beautiful community hubs that connect and inspire the local residents through art, creativity, and professional skill training.

Gates work extends into academia as well. He is a full professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago, where he is also a Senior Advisor for Cultural Innovation and Advisor to the Dean. It’s in this con...

The Alabama memorial dedicated to African-American lynchings

2018-04-09T20:52:00-04:00

Uneven, rusted steel is meant to echo the many shades and skin tones of those African-Americans lynched.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which Oprah Winfrey
visited, opens to the public on April 26, 2018. She talked with criminal
defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, which is behind the project.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Flashback: Floyd McKissick's unfinished “Soul City” suburb in NC

2016-05-13T13:13:00-04:00

There would be homes and industry surrounded by trees, hills and lakes. Above all, there would be no prejudice, poverty or slums, according to a Soul City brochure...Despite its name, Soul City was never intended to be an all-black town, but rather, a multi-racial community built and managed by black people. [But] Portions of the area resemble a ghost town, rotting – or perhaps waiting. Could Soul City ever be resurrected?

Read up on the rise and halt of Soul City, a suburb that attorney and civil rights activist Floyd McKissick envisioned for North Carolina's Warren County in the late 1960s-70s.

Norma Merrick Sklarek obituary: Pioneering African American architect was 85

2012-02-10T14:22:00-05:00

Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first African American woman in the country to become a licensed architect, who helped produce Terminal 1 at Los Angeles International Airport and the American Embassy in Tokyo, died Monday at her home in Pacific Palisades. She was 85.