2024-11-08T08:27:23-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/149968720/oliver-wainwright-finds-the-national-museum-of-african-american-history-embodies-its-complexities-and-contradictions Nicholas Korody 2016-09-15T13:12:00-04:00 >2022-03-16T09:16:08-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/2d/2dos47kzqui5aisf.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>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&rsquo; sombre palette...with joyous glee.</p></em><br /><br /><p><em>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.</em></p><p>More on the newest addition to the National Mall:</p><ul><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/149942639/quintessential-america-at-play-in-the-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Quintessential America" at play in the Museum of African American History and Culture</a></li><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/149940808/what-architecture-means-to-zena-howard-project-leader-of-the-national-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">What architecture means to Zena Howard, project leader of the National Museum of African American History and Culture</a></li><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/39005328/watch-first-look-at-the-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Watch: First Look at the Museum of African American History and Culture</a></li></ul> https://archinect.com/news/article/39005328/watch-first-look-at-the-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture Archinect 2012-02-22T19:27:00-05:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/2y/2yqar4ntig507va9.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>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.</p></em><br /><br /><p> Related: <a href="http://www.bustler.net/index.php/article/freelon_adjaye_bond_smithgroup_to_design_national_museum_of_african_america/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup to Design National Museum of African American History and Culture</a></p>