Five decades ago, the powerful sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reverberated inside the halls of Ebenezer Baptist Church, inspiring a generation of civil rights activists who shared his dreams of equality. This summer, less than 2 miles from the neighborhood where Dr. King made history, the civil rights movement is experiencing a rebirth with the opening of the long-awaited National Center for Civil and Human Rights. The 43,000-square foot Center, designed by The Freelon Group and HOK, opened to the public on June 23 with three exhibitions connecting the legacy of the American civil rights movement to the modern-day fight for human rights around the world. In addition to the Center’s galleries, the building also houses conference rooms and special-event space.
The Freelon Group, led by founder Phil Freelon, was selected from a pool of top-tier architects after an international design competition. Freelon himself is no stranger to projects rooted in history and culture: the architect has worked on buildings such as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. (currently under construction), and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. “I established my firm based on several tenets and ideals, and one of them was that we were about knowledge-sharing, education, and creating environments that enhance the communities in which they’re built,” says Freelon. (The Freelon Group merged with Perkins+Will this spring.)
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