The Smithsonian’s Newest Museum Takes First Steps Toward the Creation of Its Museum Building

The Smithsonian’s Newest Museum Takes First Steps Toward the Creation of Its Museum Building

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has selected Freelon Bond, an association of architectural and design firms The Freelon Group and Davis Brody Bond, to conduct a study that will be used to plan the design of the museum building.

The 18-month study will examine the various needs of the museum—technology, acoustics, fire protection and security—in collaboration with Lord Cultural Resources, a museum-planning firm with offices around the world, including New York and London, and Amaze Design, an exhibition design firm based in Boston. The study team will hold a series of meetings and focus groups across the country to hear what visitor-oriented features—such as auditorium, library/book store, restaurant and conservation center—should be included in the interior space. The study is scheduled to be completed by Jan. 31, 2009 and will outline the full spectrum of requirements for the new building.

The selection of Freelon Bond as the planning team does not guarantee that this firm will be selected as the architect of the building.

The museum is expected to open its doors to the public in 2015. It will be erected on a 5-acre tract of land on the National Mall known as the “Monument site” (bound by Constitution Avenue, Madison Drive, and 14th and 15th streets N.W.). The site is adjacent to the Washington Monument and across the street from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

The Freelon Group and Davis Brody Bond have extensive experience in the planning, programming and design of African-American-themed museums. Their major museum credits include the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama; the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta; and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture in Baltimore.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture was established as a Smithsonian Institution museum by an Act of Congress in 2003. The new museum will be the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African-American life, art, history and culture, with collections and educational programming covering such varied topics as slavery, post-Civil War reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights movement.

 

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