The museum proposed by Freelon Adjaye Bond — comprising The Freelon Group, Adjaye Associates, and Davis Brody Bond — may be the most contextual of the six finalists’ designs; the rhythm of the Freelon Adjaye Bond design aligns it with the more opaque National Museum of American History and other Classical-style buildings lining the northern edge of the National Mall. The joint venture between Devrouax + Purnell and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners (page 84) also strives for harmony with the other institutions along Constitution Avenue by proposing a rectilinear frame that represents the maximum building envelope permitted by the museum’s programming document. Their scheme provides a counterpoint to that straightforward move, however, by filling the armature with a sinuous, glazed volume clad in wood louvers.
The collaboration of Moody Nolan and Antoine Predock Architect (page 86) shows the sculptural imprint of Predock, winner of the 2006 AIA Gold Medal. In this case, a series of shardlike masses stack upward in a variety of gentle angles, as if emerging from the earth. Planted surfaces, as well as the proposed construction of adjacent wetlands, underscore the geological quality of the composition. Yet the Moody Nolan/Predock entry also seeks inspiration from African history, including the legacy of slavery. The patterns on rain screens refer to Yoruban art, for example, and an amphitheater carved into one side of the pile evokes the outdoor gathering spaces common to African villages. Carbon-fiber walkways crisscrossing an upper-story “improvisation space” take their shape from ships’ hulls (a replica slave ship was intended to form the centerpiece of the winning building’s permanent exhibition).
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