A collaboration of companies has designed the soon-to-open International African American Museum (IAAM) in response to its site, Gadsden’s Wharf, South Carolina, the port of arrival for nearly half of all enslaved Africans brought in North America on the 18th.th and 19th centuries
The IAAM is housed in a building designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Moody Nolan, with landscape design by Hood Design Studio and exhibition design by Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA). The companies worked closely to create an architecture and environment that honors the history of the site, while supporting a range of exhibitions, events and educational resources.
The building’s form reflects the guiding principle articulated by its principal designer, the late Henry N. Cobb, who believed that location was paramount. “As the place where many thousands of Africans of various cultures first set foot in North America,” Cobb wrote, “Gadsden’s Wharf is not only the right place to tell this story; it is hallowed ground. From here the IAAM’s special design challenge: to build on this site without occupying it.”
In service of this goal and the mission of the IAAM, the finished structure gives primacy to the seascape, the landscape and the memorial. In collaboration with executive architect Moody Nolan, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners designed the single-story volume 129.8 m (426 ft) long, 84 ft (25.6 m) wide by hover over the ground at 3.96 m (13 ft), supported by 18 cylindrical pillars arranged in two rows. A deliberately contextual response to the heavily charged historic site, the long side walls are clad in pale yellow (handmade Danish) brick, while the glazed end walls are framed by African sapel wood louvres, directing views to the Atlantic to the east and in the center of the city. Charleston in the West. The supporting columns are clad in traditional oyster shell tabby, also used as paving in parts of the landscape.
Except for two service cores framing a central staircase with a skylight, the entire ground plan beneath the building remains open, representing the heart of the site’s collective memory. To the east of this open space, facing the harbor and the ocean beyond, a shallow reflecting pool signifies the edge of Gadsden Pier as it was in the early 19th century.th century, the peak of the slave trade. To the west, facing Concord Street and Gadsdenborough Park, the granite pavement delineates a sheltered gathering place for group activities and performances.
Embracing the entire site, the African Ancestors Memorial Garden, designed by Hood Design Studio, acknowledges the history of Gadsden’s Wharf, drawing inspiration from the landscape of the Low Countries and the vast heritage of the African diaspora.
A series of sub-gardens, nestled within the overall landscape, celebrates the art, craft and labor that African Americans have contributed throughout history.
A centerpiece of the garden is a large water feature that evokes the crossing of the Atlantic, a tribute to the perilous journeys endured by enslaved Africans. Inspired by the 18th Brooks’s turn-of-the-century map, showing enslaved individuals packed into the lower decks of a slave ship, the water feature has a dynamic quality as it gently flows and descends, alternately revealing figures beneath the surface and covering- those with sky reflections.
Beside the water fountain is a stainless steel band that traces the historic line of the Gadsden Pier. This band serves not only as a reflective border, but also as a book of memory engraved with the names of ports that marked the beginning and end of countless voyages during the transatlantic slave trade.
The design team envisioned the entrance sequence as a destination and transitional space between landscape and exhibition. Visitors are drawn into the museum through a luminous atrium in the center of the building, passing from shadow to light as they ascend the monumental staircase. On the upper level, large windows at either end offer unobstructed views of the harbor to the east and the city to the west.
The exhibition designer, RAA, planned the narrative flow of the installations around the architecture, organizing the eastern part thematically, with an introductory corridor and an orientation theater leading to multimedia displays of the culture of South Carolina and Gullah Geechee, African Roots and the Atlantic World.
The west side features a chronological and interactive gallery called “American Journeys,” juxtaposed with media related to the legacies of slavery and current movements around racial equality and social justice.
The Family History Center, at the west end of the building, provides an important resource for the study and advancement of African American genealogy, where genealogists and the public can research the collection of primary sources , documents and texts of the museum.
“The IAAM is more than an architectural brand, it’s an extraordinary landmark,” says Curt Moody, founder of Moody Nolan. “Having worked for the past 15 years to dream it up, we are intimately aware of its cultural significance to American history. Without this building, this sacred place would have been unknown and the stories of our ancestors would not have It’s an honor and a privilege to work on a project that has this kind of tenacity, and we recognize that the opportunity to leave an impression on people around the world, for generations to come, is a rare gift. “.
Some of the other contributors to the project are the structural engineer, Guy Nordenson and Associates; Arup as a provider of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire protection engineering (MEP/FP), acoustic consultancy, communications infrastructure, security consultancy and lighting design (base building, exterior, landscape); SeamonWhiteside, Registered Landscape Architect; Venue Consulting, as a construction cost consultant; the civil engineer, Forsberg Engineering; S&ME as a geotechnical and environmental engineer; Bihl Engineering as traffic engineer; CCI as code consultant; and Turner and Brownstone as construction managers.
