February 4, 2009
Dear Coalition Friends:
The Washington Post reported on selection of finalists for the design competition for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History. Click on the link here to see the sensitive location on the National Mall (actually part of the Washington Monument grounds) between 14th and 15th Streets.
Here are excerpts from the article:
THE WASHINGTON POST
By Jacqueline Trescott
Friday, January 30, 2009; C01
The National Museum of African American History and Culture yesterday named six award-winning architecture teams that will compete to design its signature building on the Mall in the shadow of the Washington Monument.
...The museum's site, selected by the Smithsonian Board of Regents, is a five-acre parcel on the southwest corner of Constitution Avenue and 14th Street NW that has never had a permanent building on it. It is 800 feet from the monument and will sit next to the National Museum of American History.
"You want a building that is respectful of the Washington Monument and reflects the resilience, optimism and spirituality" of black life in America, said Lonnie G. Bunch III, the African American History Museum's director. He added it also has to "work as a museum."
Sheryl Kolasinski, an architect and the director of the Smithsonian's Office of Planning and Project Management, said the museum planners did not have a preconceived notion of what the building should look like. The architects have to consider several technical issues, such as the water table underneath the Mall, a 50-foot setback ordered by the federal government after the 2001 terrorist attacks, utility issues in an open space, and the height of a structure within sight of the Washington Monument and the White House. It is two blocks from the Federal Triangle Metro stop.
"It is not going to be a tall building," Kolasinski said. However, the building will be 300,000 to 350,000 square feet, roughly the size of the National Museum of the American Indian. Several large artifacts have already been identified by Bunch for the museum, such as a slave cabin and a Jim Crow railroad car.
Bunch said yesterday that this step in the museum's development is a turning point, and he has said in past that having a design in hand will accelerate the fundraising. "People are always asking me what is it going to look like," Bunch said. The estimated cost is $500 million, with half of the amount coming from the federal government.
The museum staff has started several projects to let the public know it is an active enterprise, including a virtual museum online, shows in other parts of the Smithsonian and the recording of 1,800 oral-history interviews with StoryCorps.
Each architectural team is receiving a $50,000 stipend from the Smithsonian. One of the hurdles is that the architects have to demonstrate they can complete the project in three years. Construction is to start in 2012, and the museum is scheduled to open in 2015.
The architect will be selected in mid-April by an 11-member jury that includes Robert Kogod, a Smithsonian regent and president of Charles E. Smith Management; Adela Naude Santos, dean of the MIT school of architecture; Richard D. Parsons, co-chair of the African American museum's council and former chairman of Time Warner; and two former chairmen of Fannie Mae, James A. Johnson and Franklin D. Raines.
Read the full story.
Back to the top
| 
