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  • Designing a Nation’s MuseumAn Interview with David Adjaye
  • Charles Henry Rowell and David Adjaye (bio)

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Construction progress shot taken July 2015.

Courtesy of EarthCAM.

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Photograph courtesy of Ed Reeve

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ROWELL:

When people think of the design and building of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), they often think of only you and Phillip Freelon. These same people forget that originally there was another lead architect with you: J. Max Bond, Jr. (1935-2009), along with your architectural firms. Each one of you came to this project already as distinguished architects. Examining your practices and production, one could argue that each of you had your own very strong vision of what constitutes a very good public building or structure. Your vision is international or global, but the work of the other two architects—that is, Bond and Freelon—is largely US American. What attracted you to this North American project? That is, what brought you to this project?

ADJAYE:

This is a monumental project and arguably the defining project of my career. For me, it has always been about creating a museum that has a specific narrative alongside a universal message. The African American story is about one culture having empathy with another. My hope is that the museum will transcend the uneasy fact of racial tension though an open exploration of history, culture and society—thereby addressing profound aspects of the human condition and the positive value inherent in creating a forum for multiple interpretations of America’s history and demography, however uncomfortable those may be.

ROWELL:

Your initial background is TransAfrican, Middle Eastern, British, and European—a reality that has stood you in good stead in this and numerous other architectural projects. One wonders whether it is not your international experiences and cosmopolitism that directed your mind and imagination as you designed a building that has no external similarities to other large public buildings in the United States. And here, again, I am referring to the NMAAHC. Let me add, too, that I am partial to that distinction. Like African Americans from 1619 to the present, the exterior design of the museum bears marks of triumphant elegance, distinction, transcendence, and persistence, echoing elements of traditional West Africa—attributes that I witness in African Americans each day. That is, while it is truly a national US American institution, the external design of NMAAHC also reflects the African continuum that persists in our culture even today. In all its splendid difference and regal declaration—as a contrast to the other architecture on the National Mall—the external design of NMAAHC reflects and recalls what we as a people, these four hundred odd years, have become predominantly here in North America—an explication of what the name “African American” ultimately means.

ADJAYE:

Exactly. Narrative is essential to my design process, and exploring the meaning of “African American” was central to this project. I intentionally layered different access points—materials that mirror the iconic Washington Monument, a form derived from Yoruban art—to make a very specific point about how the migration of a group of people fundamentally [End Page 764] changed a nation. America was quite literally built on the backs of Africans; its culture is fundamentally imbued with an African sensibility. America cannot be fully understood without this conceptual lens.

So, the building is a representation of African American heritage in this global context, as one that is in fact about the beginning of modernism and about global cultural engagement. And the design is very much meant to honor that triumph you referenced—it is meant to honor African Americans’ contributions to culture and to honor the struggle that has given America so much. The design asks you to consider these sacrifices and successes, to rethink the connection between Africa and America, and to ultimately recognize that African American history is American history. The building stands with, but against, the other institutions on the Mall with exactly this purpose: to say that this too is American history; this too is America.

ROWELL:

As you...

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