African Americans have historically occupied an in-between space where things are not always what they seem as boundaries are under constant negotiation and identities re-affirmed. This condition has a particular complexity in Los Angeles, due to the synthetic landscape of American dreams of the West; conquering of the Western landscape; and the possibilities of forming new identities in the land of sunny Southern California. The architectural design exploits the ambiguities of the site, its polite fictions, and of the histories of African Americans relative to the issues presence, visibility, and identity to allow for a multiplicity of readings of this liminal condition
Huff + Gooden Architects is the lead design architect along with executive architects, Hammel, Green, and Abrahamson to expand the California African American Museum while addressing the growth and development related to the Exposition Park cultural campus and California Science Center Master Plans.
The primary goals of the renovation and expansion to the museum facility are to increase exhibition space, improve support components, provide better visibility and presence of the museum in Exposition Park, optimize flexibility in programming, exhibition and event activities, and to provide additional public event spaces to foster increased revenue opportunities.