Transform 1012 N. Main Street, the non-profit coalition responsible for a new reclamation project targeting a former Ku Klux Klan auditorium in Fort Worth, Texas, has just announced the next phases of the selection process for an architect who will eventually deliver The Fred Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing in what is being pitched as an "act of reparative justice" for the community.
Eight months after the process began, work will now continue towards the ultimate goal of creating a unifying cultural hub replete with state-of-the-art performance spaces, arts educational offerings, room for social service organizations that work with LGBTQ+ youth, a maker space, and exhibition areas dedicated toward social justice programming.
The space is named in honor of Fred Rouse, a local Black man who was lynched by a white mob in 1921, three years before the dubious building was inaugurated. It will also include an outdoor agricultural market and meeting spaces for racial equity groups in addition to affordable live/work spaces for artists- and entrepreneurs-in-residence.
"It is important to our mission that we create a beautiful and welcoming space, but beyond that, a cultural hub that serves our communities," Transform 1012's Executive Director Carlos Gonzalez-Jaime says. "Our design architect will need to share our passion for creating an environment that celebrates the arts and acts as a locus for social change."
Whoever is selected will, therefore, "be a partner in reimagining the processes for enacting the interrelationship between the built environment, city planning, neighborhoods, and people," according to the coalition.
As of today, committee members include HOK Senior Principal Ben Crawford (chair); MASS Design Director Jha D. Amazi; University of Texas at Arlington Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture Joowon Im, and seven others.
Further details, including a timeline for the remaining selection process, can be found on Transform 1012 N. Main Street’s website.
4 Comments
It would be a shame if they don't preserve the original facade, which isn't without interest. Doing so would serve as a reminder of what it once was and announce, by contrast, what it has become. We remember the past so we can transform it.
Actually, it looked like this when built, 1924.
Carlos Gonzalez-Jaime: I would like to clarify that although the former owner applied for a Certificate of Appropriateness to demolish the building, it was unclear if they ever intended to do that. In our research — we held thousands of conversations with community members — we found that many Fort Worth residents were unaware of the building’s origins before Transform 1012 N. Main Street was organized and formed. It was important to us to repurpose the building instead of demolishing it, to acknowledge its role in racism, racial terror, and violence, and use it as a precaution for the future.
text and picture from:
https://www.papercitymag.com/culture/transform-1012-fred-rouse-carlos-gonzalez-jaime-interview/
And the version in my previous comment burned down in 1924 and was immediately rebuilt into this, again as a Klan hall, as it more or less stands today.
But if many American cities, including Fort Worth, are still arguing about removing Confederate monuments, why would anyone want to save this particular brick embodiment of hatred?
Adam McKinney says, as a Black man, he’s aware people may find preserving the Klan hall hurtful. But he stresses, he’s not trying to preserve it. The building has a kind of power, he says, and he wants to use that.
from:
https://artandseek.org/2019/12/19/the-last-meeting-hall-of-the-knights-of-the-ku-klux-klan/
This is a good read.
Here is the home of a historically racist institution yet to be rehabilitated….
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