International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina by PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

Article source: V2COM

On the waterfront site that was the port of arrival for nearly half of all enslaved Africans brought to North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a long-anticipated museum dedicated to telling their stories and celebrating the contributions of their descendants has at last broken ground. Proposed in 2000 by Charleston’s longtime mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., the International African American Museum (IAAM), designed by New York–based architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, is now under way. Moody Nolan, the largest African-American-owned design firm in the United States, is architect of record.

The International African American Museum, now in construction at the site of historic Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston, South Carolina, Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

• Architects: PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP
• Project: International African American Museum
• Location: Charleston, South Carolina
• Area: 41,800 sf gross floor area

IAAM, at the site of historic Gadsden’s Wharf, Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

The museum is rising on what was once Gadsden’s Wharf, built by slave labor in 1767 and the most important disembarkation point for enslaved Africans brought to the United States. It is estimated that 80 percent of African Americans alive today can trace their ancestry to the wharf, and the significance of the site informs the design throughout.

“As the place where thousands of Africans from diverse cultures first set foot in North America, Gadsden’s Wharf is not just the right place to tell this story; it is hallowed ground,” said the lead designer for the project, Henry N. Cobb. “The special design challenge of the museum was to build on this site without occupying it.”

The response is a work of architecture that will serve and celebrate IAAM’s mission by granting primacy to the seascape it fronts, the landscape that frames it, and the memorial it shelters. The museum will be housed in a 426-foot-long, 84-foot-wide single-story volume hovering thirteen feet above the ground and supported on eighteen cylindrical pillars arranged in two rows. Reflecting a careful contextual response to the highly charged historical site, the long side walls will be clad in pale yellow brick, while the glazed end walls will be framed by African sapele louvers, directing views to the Atlantic on the east and downtown Charleston on the west. The supporting columns will be clad in traditional oyster-shell tabby, also used as paving in portions of the landscape.

Views from the eastern end of the main level of IAAM are oriented slightly south across Charleston Harbor toward the Atlantic Ocean and the west coast of Africa., Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

IAAM, overlooking Charleston Harbor, Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

With the exception of two service cores framing a central skylit stairway, the entire ground plane beneath the building will remain open, representing the heart of the site’s collective memory. On the east side of this open space, oriented to the harbor and ocean beyond, a shallow reflecting pool will signify the edge of Gadsden’s Wharf as it was at the beginning of the nineteenth century, at the peak of the slave trade. On the west side, oriented to Concord Street and Gadsdenborough Park, granite paving will demarcate a sheltered gathering place for group activities and performances.

The African Ancestors Memorial Garden, designed by landscape architect Walter Hood, embraces the entire site, deploying elements of low-country landscape as it celebrates the arts, the crafts, and the labors of African Americans. The garden is bounded on one side by a shallow pool a metaphor for the Atlantic whose sharply defined western edge marks the original seawall of Gadsden’s Wharf, while its soft eastern boundary evokes the limitless ocean beyond.

In addition to historical and cultural exhibits, designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, the 41,800-square-foot building will house a family history center for ancestral research and a social justice action lab. IAAM is scheduled for completion in late 2021.

The city side of the museum, at Concord Street, Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

IAAM, from the north, Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

About Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

With projects in progress in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia, New York–based Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is a leader in architectural design and sustainability. Across more than six decades of exceptionally diverse practice, the firm has completed building and planning projects in more than 100 cities around the world. Consistently recognized for excellence in design, the firm’s projects have received more than 300 awards, including 25 AIA Institute Honor Awards and three AIA Twenty-five year Awards.

About IAAM

The mission of the International African American Museum is to illuminate the story of the enslaved Africans who were taken from West Africa, entered North America through Charleston, South Carolina, endured hardship and cruelty, and along with their descendants contributed so significantly to the United States of America. The museum and its memorial garden will honor the site where they arrived and thousands died, share important narratives that have been overlooked by historians, and promote compassion and empathy across all races and ethnicities. Programming will include a center for genealogical research, a comprehensive education program for life-long learning, and changing exhibitions and special events throughout the year.

IAAM, from the south, Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

The Atlantic Connections exhibit, at the east end of the museum, looks out over Charleston Harbor., Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

Visitors enter the museum from below, in a skylit open-air three-story-high space., Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

The African Ancestors Memorial Garden begins at the approach to the museum from the city and extends through the museum grounds., Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP / Hood Design Studio

Tide Tribute, with water receded to reveal a slave-trade-era diagram of figures that describe the space allotted to each enslaved African on a transatlantic voyage., Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

Tide Tribute, with figures covered. The water fills and recedes hourly, Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

The historic line of Gadsden’s Wharf is commemorated with a 24-inch-wide stainless steel band that cuts on a slight diagonal through the full width of the museum grounds, Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

Ceremonial groundbreaking, with, from left, IAAM Board Chair Wilbur E. Johnson, Burke High School Senior Syasia Coaxum, Congressman James E. Clyburn (Majority Whip in the U.S. House of Representatives), former Charleston Mayor Joseph Riley Jr., Congressman Joe Cunningham, Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, and Yvonne Aki Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Image Courtesy © Office of Representative Joe Cunningham

Ground level plan, Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

Main level plan and longitudinal section, Image Courtesy © PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS Architects LLP

Tags: Charleston, South Carolina

Category: Museum

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