Marking the journey is a series of cast-concrete sculptures of life-size crouching Black figures. “It’s an evocation of those who were lost there,” Hood says—but also, a tribute to those who are still here.
Misery may permeate these grounds, but it’s also a place of hope. Surrounding IAAM is a 2.3-acre landscape and memorial garden designed by multidisciplinary landscape firm Hood Design Studio. “We wanted the site to be sullen at times, but also a place of celebration,” the firm’s founder, award-winning landscape artist Walter Hood, tells ELLE DECOR.
CAMILLE OKHIO, ELLE DECOR
The IAAM was designed to respect the site by offering programming and exhibitions reflecting on the history of slaves in the United States and to "celebrate the contributions of their descendants".
"The International African American Museum is more than a mark of architecture, it's an extraordinary milestone," said Curt Moody, principal at Ohio-based studio Moody Nolan, which served as the executive architect on the project.
"Having worked for the last fifteen years to dream this into being, we are intimately aware of the cultural significance it has for American history," he continued. "Without this building, this sacred site would have remained unknown and the stories of our ancestors untold."
BEN DREITH, DEZEEN
The much-anticipated opening is highlighted further by a striking design created by a team comprising architects Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Moody Nolan, landscape designers Hood Design Studio, and exhibition designers Ralph Appelbaum Associates.
As the place where thousands of Africans from diverse cultures first set foot in North America,' wrote lead designer the late Henry N. Cobb at the project’s inception, commenting on the site, which was the port of arrival for nearly half of all enslaved Africans brought to North America, 'Gadsden’s Wharf is not just the right place to tell this story; it is hallowed ground. The special design challenge of the museum is to build on this site without occupying it.
ELLIE STATHAKI, WALLPAPER*
