Archinect - News

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.

Architect Phil Freelon Has Passed Away

2019-07-09T15:04:00-04:00

Acclaimed North Carolina-based architect Phil Freelon has passed away.

Freelon, 66, had been diagnosed with ALS in March 2016, just prior to the debut of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, a signature project he helped design in partnership with Adjaye Associates, Davis Brody Bond, SmithGroupJJR, and Perkins + Will.

A Facebook post from the NorthStar Church of the Arts in North Carolina confirmed Freelon's passing this morning.

Freelon was a graduate of North Carolina State University's College of Design, where he earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design in Architecture; He earned his Master of Architecture degree from MIT.

He founded The Freelon Group in 1990, a practice that took on many culturally and architecturally significant projects, including the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Emancipation Park in Houston, and the MoTown Museum in Memphis. The Freelon Group was acquired by Perkins + Will in 201...

"Quintessential America" at play in the Museum of African American History and Culture

2016-04-27T17:59:00-04:00

[Project leader Zena] Howard focuses on all of the aspects of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, but hones in on the porch, which happens to span 200 feet and it serves as an transitional space between the outside and inside of the museum. “I think that the porch is…quintessential America,” [...] “This project—not only given the scale, the complexity, the political and contextual sensitivities—is an amalgam of all the problems that we, as architects, love to solve”

Related on Archinect:

What architecture means to Zena Howard, project leader of the National Museum of African American History and Culture

2016-04-14T19:14:00-04:00

"And to me, as an African American, just realizing that this has actually come to be, that there's an actual National Museum for African American History and Culture on the Mall of Washington, D.C., and this museum should have happened years and years ago, but the realization that finally in America we're at a place where we can accept it ... It's one of the most prominent sites on the Mall. It's not somewhere tucked away.

Architect Zena Howard talks about what first drew her to architecture, the National Museum for African American History and Culture on which she worked as Senior Project Manager, and her outlook on the status of women in architecture.

Watch: First Look at the Museum of African American History and Culture

2012-02-22T19:27:00-05:00

When the Museum of African American History and Culture opens on the National Mall in 2015, it will be "not just a record of tragedy, but a celebration of life," as President Obama said during the ground breaking ceremony on the site today.