Smithsonian Selects Freelon Adjaye Bond To Design National Museum of African American History and Culture
The Washington Business Journal broke the news this morning that Freelon Adjaye Bond submitted the winning design for the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The winning design features two-tiered trapezoidal plinths featuring stone, shimmering bronze, and suspended timber. Somber and geometric from the exterior, the interior offers views through the bronze "corona" both upward into the museum collection and outward into the city. Museum director Lonnie Bunch and designers Philip Freelon and David Adjaye gave a press conference today in which they described the design in detail.
The design group of Freelon Adjaye Bond was unique among the finalists as one whose portfolio included significant African American&ndash themed projects. Their work in that area is quite deep. Philip Freelon of the Freelon Group can claim the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Culture, the Atlanta Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture. J. Max Bond, Jr., of Davis Brody Bond worked to design the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Change, the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Both have done numerous architectural projects for historically black colleges and universities, including Morgan State University, North Carolina A&T State, and North Carolina Central University. Sadly, Bond, Jr., died in February.
Photo used with permission under a Creative Commons license with Flickr user afagen
David Adjaye of Adjaye Associates, a black British designer who calls the commission the "dream of his career," adds to the team experience with larger, standalone projects, like the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver.
The selection committee was quite confident in its decision, voting unanimously for the team. The Freelon Adjaye Bond designers are not the most prominent of those architects who were selected as finalists -- that distinction belongs to Foster & Partners or Moshe Safdie and Associates. Neither are the winning designers the local sons. The D.C.&ndash based firm Devrouax + Purnell has found loyal admirers and detractors alike with projections ranging from Nationals Park to the African American Civil War Memorial to the forthcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.
The selection signals that the Smithsonian hopes to get a building whose design is compelled by its content. In that regard, the museum planners will not be disappointed. As well regarded African American architects whose careers include so many black historical and cultural institutions, Freelon and Bond have the experience, personally and professionally, for the project. Architecture nerds may be disappointed to see that the selection does not represent the boldest architectural vision. (Safdie fans will have to wait for the United States Institute for Peace, whenever that comes together.)
But to hear Bond and Adjaye discuss the "motif of praise" and the environmental performance inherent to the design during the Smithsonians press conference, it sounds as though subtlety will be an asset of the final structure-- if the concept comes off as planned. Whether the final structure is one that resembles the design is a whole different question. Is it something you can live with on the National Mall? Or did you prefer one of the others?