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
Top-Five Project Worldwide, Museums
Architizer A+ Awards, 2024
Honor Award
American Society of Landscape Architects, 2024
Design Award
Society of American Registered Architects, 2024
Design Award of Excellence
Society of American Registered Architects, New York Council, 2024
Best of Design Award, Cultural Projects
Architect's Newspaper, 2023
Best of Design Award, Landscape Architecture
Architect's Newspaper, 2023
Awards Longlist, Cultural Projects; Awards
Longlist, Landscape and Urban Design Dezeen Awards, 2024
Engineering Excellence Awards: National Recognition Award
American Council of Engineering Companies, 2024
Apollo Award Nominee
Apollo Magazine, 2023
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