Sited at the port of arrival for nearly half of all enslaved Africans brought to North America, the design serves and celebrates the museum’s mission by granting primacy to the seascape on which it fronts, the landscapes that frame it, and the memorial for which it provides shelter.
The museum is housed in a one-story building volume measuring 84 feet wide, 426 feet long, and 24 feet high, raised 13 feet above the ground on a double row of cylindrical columns. The underside of the museum shelters a large open space that is the heart of the site’s collective memory. On the eastern section of this outdoor space, oriented to the harbor and ocean beyond, a shallow reflecting pool signifies the edge of Gadsden’s Wharf as it was at the beginning of the nineteenth century, at the peak of the slave trade.
The materials reflect a careful contextual response to a highly charged historical site. On its north and south sides, the building is clad in a warm brick, while the east and west ends are enclosed in clear glass shaded by angled wooden louvers. The structure’s supporting columns are clad in an oystershell tabby, a material also used as paving in portions of the ground plane.
SITE
On the site of the former Gadsden’s Wharf on the Cooper River, overlooking Charleston Harbor
AREA
41,800 sf gross floor area
DIMENSIONS
main building volume: length: 426’, width: 83’-8”, height: 24’; ground level columns (18): 13’ tall
AWARDS
Project of the Year
Architect's Newspaper, 2023
Design Award
American Institute of Architects, New York City Chapter, 2024
Best of Design Award, Cultural Projects
Architect's Newspaper, 2023
Best of Design Award, Landscape Architecture
Architect's Newspaper, 2023
Engineering Excellence Awards: National Recognition Award
American Council of Engineering Companies, 2024
Apollo Award Nominee
Apollo Magazine, 202323
MAJOR COMPONENTS
Exhibition area, Center for Family History, administrative offices, museum shop, café, African Ancestors Memorial Gardens, Tide Tribute
MATERIALS
north/south walls: handmade Danish Brick
east/west ends: African Sapele wood
ground-level column cladding: oyster-shell tabby (GFRC)
exterior flooring: Jet Mist granite and cast-in-place concrete with tabby finish
CLIENT
International African American Museum
PCF&P SERVICES
Architecture; exterior envelope; interior design of public spaces
SUSTAINABILITY
Designed for LEED certification