Exhibitions

Design Models: National Museum of African American History and Culture's Architectural Design Competition

March 27, 2009 – April 19, 2009

Smithsonian Institution Building (The Castle)
1000 Jefferson Drive, SW
Washington, DC

Schermer Hall, West Wing

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On view are six architectural design models submitted to the Smithsonian in a design competition for the new National Museum of African American History and Culture to be built on the Mall and completed in 2015.

Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup is the winner of the design competition, announced Tuesday, April 14, by the design competition jury.

The design competition teams (in alphabetical order) are:

  • Devrouax & Purnell Architects/Planners, P.C, and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects, LLP
    A joint venture. Devrouax & Purnell, led by Marshall Purnell, recently completed the Washington Convention Center and the Washington Nationals Park baseball stadium. Among the best known projects of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners are the East Building of the National Gallery of Art and the Holocaust Memorial Museum, both in Washington, D.C., and the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
  • Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with KlingStubbins
    Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio and Charles Renfro will serve as architect and KlingStubbins will serve as associate architect. Diller Scofidio + Renfro was the architect for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and for the renovation and expansion of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, including the Juilliard School and the School of American Ballet.
  • Foster + Partners/URS joint venture.
    These two firms have collaborated for the past five years on a variety of projects in the United States and Europe. Foster + Partners of London, led by chairman and founder Norman Foster, will serve as architect and URS will be the engineering design firm. Foster recently designed the Kogod Courtyard in the Smithsonian's Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture, and redesigned the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Dallas Center for Performing Arts.
  • Freelon Adjaye Bond in association with SmithGroup.
    Three firms have joined together for this project -
    the Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond.
    The Freelon Group designed the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture in Baltimore.
    David Adjaye was the architect of the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver.
    The SmithGroup designed the Normandy American Cemetery Interpretive Center in France.
  • Moody Nolan Inc. in association with Antoine Predock Architect PC
    Moody Nolan, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, will be the architect of record. The Moody Nolan and Predock team designed the Ohio State University Recreation and Physical Activity Center in Columbus, Ohio. Architect Antoine Predock of Albuquerque, New Mexico, designed the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and the expansion of the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington and the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. Curtis J. Moody and Antoine Predock will be the lead designers.
  • Moshe Safdie and Associates Inc. in association with Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates, Baltimore
    Moshe Safdie will be the lead architect. He has designed the U.S. Institute of Peace headquarters now under construction in Washington, D.C.; the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa; the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts; and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem.