Finalists for the National Museum of African American History and Culture
The Smithsonian Institute has announced the finalists for the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. The museum will be located at the end of the Washington Mall, being the latest addition to this location. The design concepts will be on show at the castle building until April 6. The, a jury will select a winner. The museum will open in 2015, at a cost of 500 million dollars.
Finalists are:
Foster + Partners and URS
Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with Klingstubbins
The Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond
Devrouax & Purnell and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Moody Nolan in association with Antoine Predock Architects
Moshe Safdie and Associates in association with Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates
Seen at designboom. More images after the break.
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- Foster + Partners and URS
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- Foster + Partners and URS
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- Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with Klingstubbins
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- Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with Klingstubbins
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- The Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond
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- The Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates and Davis Brody Bond
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- Devrouax & Purnell and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
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- Devrouax & Purnell and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
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- Moody Nolan in association with Antoine Predock Architects
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- Moody Nolan in association with Antoine Predock Architects
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- Moshe Safdie and Associates in association with Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates
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- Moshe Safdie and Associates in association with Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates
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25 comments »
Fosters….if there has to be one selected from these.
Diller + Scofidio’s is the typical caricature of themselves. Lack of innovation and pure form massaging with no attention to detail. I’m tired of proposals that do not take into consideration the end when proposing these lofty so-called solutions latent with ambiguity….and moreover, why do the juries keep falling for these shenanigans?
Geez, what a collection of horrible proposals!!!! Foster’s might be the only decent one.The others are just…I dunno, what were they thinking?!!!
Bit depressing I might say…
oh
i like foster’s project
it like simple but it have an eye for simplicity
Remembers me cheese.
I’m curious. I wonder if any of these projects had an overall metaphorical design respsonse that pertains to African-American culture,history, etc. I would love to hear them.
that is all.
I was thinking something similar to Fino’s comment. Exactly. I’m not one for metaphors in architecture, but how does one orient themselves within the greater spectrum of African American history in these proposed edifices? The building MUST speak for itself while representing the ideas, ideals and aspirations of the content inside.
Devrouax & Purnell and Pei Cobb Freed’s project is awful! What a waste of time…
The Predock building is pretty interesting, and its nice to see Foster doing something different then a space truss curtain wall. I would be interested to hear the concepts behind Foster’s proposal and how he came at such circular diagram.
very sad to say that this time only Foster made some decent architecture!:(
( which has not been seen in some of his previous projects)
the native american museum lives and breathes the cultures represented with beauty, nature and dignity. i see nothing here that suggests the import and influence of the african american cultures.
i like the freelon group entry.
non of these entries is interesting, even foster’s, its so simple , and i doubt it has any interesting spaces inside, like the ceiling of freelon group.. other proposals are aweful
I vote for freelon group
As an African American architect I think these projects should speak more for African Americans. Safdie accomplished an understanding of a culture that wasn’t of his own with his structure in Jerusalem; this attempt fails. Its hard to comprehend from these pictures how any of these Architects captured the full scope of African American culture. I only find the Freelon Group proposal interesting just from the interior rendering.
i like the freelon group project too… by far
The Scoffidio it’s Okay, Foster I dought the quality of space (and he is doing great works, only a full can say the opposite…)but it’s interesting the idea of a spiral witch ends in the up, and represent the “life” of the africans all over the history. Safdie is nice, but fragil. Adjaye I have to see more stuff, the others are poor…
The Pei and Safdie proposals have something to do with the design language of the mall and of the city of Washington itself – oh and they are possible to construct.
I gather Norman Foster’s office (Lord Foster hasn’t touched a project personally in twenty years from what I understand) took their inspiration from “the Day the Earth Stood Still” because that swirly parking garage has a definite Klatu vibe going.
As for the rest, what and more importantly why?
Particularly the Diller and Predock entries are just bizarre. What ever happened to Antoine Predock’s design language?
Has three dimensional modeling with computers really brought us to this level of visual pollution and inanity? It is interesting, to me anyway, to contrast the Foster, Diller, and Predock proposals with Tadao Ando’s artwave proposal for Oslo – the Ando project had an extremely clear design language, a reason for being what it was, and a reason to exist.
Another interesting comparison to be drawn is between this concourse and the project actually realized by I.M. Pei for the Islamic museum in Doha Qatar. The Qatar project is a masterpiece and this one is not precisely for the reason that others have pointed out. In Doha a successful bridge is made between Islamic tradition, siting, and modernist language. However, in this project the response is entirely to site and the language of Washington, none of the intent of the building comes through the too heavy coat of context.
Neither is a museum a monument, it doesn’t have the same purpose as Maya Lin’s Vietnam Are Memorial or Peter Eisenmann’s Holocaust Memorial. It would be better, though, if some middle ground could be found without making something that is totally middle of the road.
When Norman Foster’s project is the best in a competition that means the competition was very weak indeed. None of this proposals reflects africa in any way but then again the US doesn’t care to much about africa anyway. The spiral form of foster though not very delicate(but what can you expect from a full time jet pilot,part time architecT)is reminiscent of the purity of forms of the iluministic period that you can see on most of the washington’s public buildings…I wonder if thought of a enourmous hall in which to put a gigantic Obama statue…the model for the new black man of the XXI century together with Will Smith.
not very impressive entries..Freelon/adjaye’s interior is best, but the exterior rendering is hard to understand. Safdie’s looks typical like the rest of his work – frames, interior atrium – but what is that shell-like promontory got to do with african american culture? That needs to be reworked! The lattice-work interior is pleasing..
I think this should have been an open competion instead!
Foster’s circular/ spiral theme works well as a floorplan and footprint, within the context, but loses this idea and feeling with the elevation views. Safdies’ overall idea works, but need to rethink materials and surfaces. The rest fails in terms of context.
I liked the Foster rendering, thoug Freelon Adjaye et al took it (http://www.sceneadvisor.com/todays-headlines/smithsonian-announces-national-african-american-museum-architect-11408.html). It’s probably ’cause it was the least standoffish.
anything but safdie, pei or predock!
One word: VOMIT!
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