Bustler: Architect Named for Atlanta’s Center for Civil and Human Rights

Architect Named for Atlanta’s Center for Civil and Human Rights

Posted: Thursday, March 26, 2009 | ↓ 1 comment

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The Freelon Group, a Research Triangle, N.C.-based architecture and design firm, has been selected as the winner of a design competition for the new Center for Civil & Human Rights (CCHR) in Atlanta.

Under the leadership of Philip Freelon, FAIA, The Freelon Group will partner with HOK, an Atlanta-based architecture and design firm, as the Center’s Architect of Record. The announcement comes on the heels of a multi-month competitive design process in which dozens of firms worldwide competed for the contract. The Freelon Group and HOK will work with Center leadership, exhibit designer Gallagher & Associates and project manager Cousins Properties/Gude Management Group to finalize the facility’s design prior to breaking ground on the $125 million, 100,000 square foot Center this winter.

Winning design for the new Center for Civil & Human Rights in Atlanta by Freelon Group and HOK: Aerial View from North East

The final five teams presented their designs to more than 700 members of the public on March 5 and 6 with feedback collected on the CCHR web site. Taking into account building functionality, aesthetics, cost, and public feedback, a jury of design experts and community leaders made a recommendation to the CCHR board of directors, who made the final selection. The jury of 12 included: civil rights activist Andrea Young, community leader Mtamanika Youngblood, theater and film director George Wolfe, Executive Director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Sara Bloomfield, architect and Yale University professor Deborah Berke, and Atlanta Architect Craig VanDevere.

The Selected Design

The winning design is inspired by “the simple yet powerful image of interlocking arms that signifies the linkages that empower individuals and groups of seemingly divergent interests to find common ground,” said Philip Freelon, president of The Freelon Group. The design, conceived with sustainability as a primary consideration, features a terracotta-clad building surrounding an exterior courtyard, which serves as an amphitheater and exhibit space. The King Papers exhibit, which extends towards Auburn Avenue, is a reminder that non-violence triumphs over bigotry and brutality, and a special events space overlooks the Ellipse at Pemberton Place.

Street Level View from North East

The Freelon Group is noted for their work on the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture in Baltimore (opened 2005), the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco (opened 2005), and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture in Charlotte (opening Fall 2009).

Close up of the terracotta-clad facade

“We were incredibly impressed with the level of thought and emotion put into all five designs, which made it very difficult to choose just one design. However, The Freelon Group and HOK exceeded the criteria we set forth for the project’s design and truly captured the spirit of exploration and collaboration that is central to the Center’s mission,” said Doug Shipman, executive director for the Center.

Next Steps

Since March 2008, when the Center confirmed its 501(c)3 nonprofit status, the Center has progressed along an aggressive development timeline. This timeline is driven by many factors, including the desire to capture first-person stories from the unsung heroes of the Civil and Human Rights movement while they are still living. To meet a 2012 open date, the Center continues its public engagement efforts to further awareness of its mission and increase community involvement.

View from Pemberton Place - Entrance

A recent donation from Atlanta’s corporate community will also help the Center reach its goal. Early this year, The Home Depot gave customers the chance to contribute to the Build the Dream campaign, commemorating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The company offered a campaign gift card in its stores and matched 5% of the total that customers put on their gift cards. The Home Depot Foundation today announced a donation of $430,000 to the Center as a result of more than 65,000 gift card purchases as part of the Build the Dream campaign.

Shipman added, “We are thankful for the support Atlanta’s corporate community has put behind this project. Today’s donation announcement gives us a lot of momentum toward reaching our fundraising goal, and we hope this announcement will encourage other corporations and individuals to support our efforts through similar contributions.”

About the Center for Civil and Human Rights

The Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta will commemorate the landmark contributions of Atlantans and Georgians to the historic struggle for African-American freedom and equality as well as present the continuing story of human rights efforts around the world. The Center will be a space for ongoing dialogue, study and potential resolution of current and future freedom struggles for all people, at the local, national and international levels.

Images: Freelon Group

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usa, atlanta, georgia, hok, center for civil and human rights, freelon group

Comments:

D.E.B.
Atlanta
Wednesday, April 01, 2009

I must apologize in advance as I am sure that this comment will seem extremely abrasive to many fans of this design proposal—needless to say I am not a proponent. On a side note, I was only able to attend the second day of the design presentations, so I can only scrutinize Freelon’s and DS+R’s proposal; the other images posted on the web are the equivalent of pornography and they explain nothing about the actual design. I realize that designing a building of this magnitude is not an easy task—there is an abundance of public scrutiny, people with axes to grind, and secret political agendas at play—and I must commend both Freelon and DS+R on producing a final product. However, I feel that there are serious issues present in the Freelon proposal and I feel that if such a structure were allowed to be built a serious injustice would be committed.
Firstly, Freelon’s use of the metaphor, the embracing/interlocking arms, translated into massing is extremely sappy and patronizing to many people—personally, it offends me. I feel that the designer’s use of such a charged image was done in order to manipulate the general public into believing that they created a powerful symbol for Civil and Human Rights. Ultimately though, all that was created was a neutral and impotent building. Additionally, the translation of the metaphor directly into a built form is banal and elementary. The image of the embracing arms is only visible from a bird’s-eye-view and does not appear to occur anywhere else in the program itself. This was an extremely poor use of a metaphor the likes of which I would equate to a roadside attraction such as the ‘shoe house.’ Furthermore, with regards to public speaking, getting the audience to take arms and then sit down was very anticlimactic and a poor use of public speaking strategies.
Secondly, the program itself appears to be very hermetic and disjointed and I do not believe that proper mood was achieved for such a structure. Ultimately, the building feels very ‘museum like’ which is the wrong mood to convey regarding such issues as Civil and Human Rights—these are issues relegated to the yellow pages of history. The introverted courtyard is awkward and appears to have been addressed towards the end of the eleventh hour.
Thirdly, the green roof is another area of contention that I have with the design not only because of its inaccessibility, but also because of its double meaning. Historically, any culture living below the poverty line has been subjugated to the worst parts of town (e.g. near the railroad, dumps, power plants, etc.) Environmental justice plays a major role in not only the civil rights movement (which is still occurring) but also in human rights. Freelon’s design does not address environmental justice and the images presented seem to suggest that this green roof is a monoculture composed of only grass. The double meaning of which is that Freelon is proposing that a biological wasteland be placed on top of the CCHR. Furthermore, the green roof would require copious amounts of fertilizer and water to be pumped up to it during the sweltering heat of Georgia’s summer. As it stands our water situation in Georgia is precarious. What should have been proposed was the use of Georgia native plants which are drought resistant and do not require fertilizer instead of grass.
Finally, the design proposal by Freelon seems to imply that the Civil Rights movement is over and that the lessons have been concretized into a static form—this is simply not true. This is evident in Freelon’s inability to thoughtfully address The Sweet Auburn district in the design proposal, and underscored by buildings blatant prostitution towards Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard named after a segregationist. Do your research!!!
Overall, I find that Freelon’s proposal serves as a testament to the designer’s incompetence to address key issues present in the site, the program, and the social issues of the CCHR.