The Black Vernacular

http://www.citylab.com/design/2015/07/how-black-vernacular-architecture-is-changing-museums/398111/

Studio Museum
David Adjaye
Harlem, New York City, New York
legacy.soulofamerica.com

Hello Everyone:

Museums are on blogger's radar today because of two upcoming events in Los Angeles: the opening of the Broad Museum in Downtown Los Angeles on September 20 and the Frank Gehry retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  Your truly posted a short video clip on the Broad Museum, please check it out when you have a minute.

Today, we are going to talk about the way British architect David Adjaye incorporate Black vernacular architecture into the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, New York. Kriston Capps's CityLab article, "How Black Vernacular Architecture is Changing Museums," describes how the architect incorporate design elements of the historic African-American community into the museum's first expansion in its almost 50 year history.  David Adjaye is to be commended for wanting to incorporate elements of local design into the $122 million building.  The significance of Mr. Adjaye's inclusion of the Black vernacular into The Studio museum is the subject for today's post.

The most prominent feature of the proposed expansion is the

Studio Museum Entrance Plaza
Photograph by Adjaye Associate/Cooper, Robertson & Partners
nytimes.com

building's entrance, which Mr. Adjaye describes as a reverse stoop.  The reverse stoop is "...a wide staircase that leads from the front area down to the lower level, and will serve as a public gathering space."  The New York Times article on how Harlem inspired the architect's concept for the new museum focused on specific design elements incorporated into the new building.  Robin Pogrebin of the Times writes,

In creating his design, Mr. Adjaye said he was inspired by the surrounding Harlem vernacular: the detailed window framing of the brownstone homes couple with the airy volume of the neighborhood's churches.  "I wanted to honor this idea of public rooms, which are soaring, celebratory and edifying-uplifting," he said.  "Between the residential and civic, we learned the lessons of public realms and tried to bring those elements together."  (http://www.nytimes.com, July 5, 2015)

The National Museum of African-American History and Culture
Entry plaza, Freelon Adjaye Bond/Smith Group
Washington D.C,
usatoday.com

Kriston Capps commends Mr. Adjaye's efforts albeit, somewhat backhandedly, "Without passing any judgement on the design one way or another, it's commendable that a major black architect is drawing on African-American vernacular architecture for a significant museum commission.  And New York isn't the only place where this is happening."

Mr. Capps points to the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, presently under construction in Washington D.C., which features a sprawling entrance plaza dubbed by the designers as the "porch. Mr. Adjaye is one of the designers of this museum, together with  one the most significant African-American architect, Phil Freelon and the firms Davis Brody Bond and SmithGroup.

Lafayette Theater Townhouses, examples of stoops
Photography by Jeff Reuben
Harlem, New York City, New York
untappedcities.com

Kriston Capps cites both the Studio Museum and the National Museum of African-American History and Culture as two examples that Mr. Adjaye either designed or contributed to both of them.  Mr. Capps laments, "While it's dispiriting that so few people of color are present in the design field, it's nevertheless encouraging to see the vernacular architecture of black communities reflected in prominent design for forward-facing, architecturally significant buildings."  Blogger concurs with this thought and can extend it out to include all people of color.  Perhaps what is particularly interesting is David Adjaye's decision to reference the African-American vernacular as a way of physically connecting a rarefied space like a museum to the community.

The concept of the "stoop" or the "porch" is design element found in Mid-Atlantic cities such as: Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.  The stoops were, partly, a product of powerful ( and prolific) developers such as Harry Wardman.  Be that as it may, Harry Wardman was one person; it was the African-American families, who lived in these cities, that turned the stoops and porches into a vital public space.  Blogger is going to go out on a limb here and say that this sounds like James Roja's work on Latino Urbanism, where the front garden becomes a public space.  In an amusing aside, Mr. Capps writes, "And no, the porch isn't a Southern thing; homes in the South were design for rocking chair and drinking iced teas, sure, but detached single-family homes never made for the same public social spaces as rowhouse stoops in the Northeast.

Historic picture of a family on a stoop
Photograph by Berenice Abbot
Museum of the City of New York
dailykos.com

The relationship between black communities (and by extension, all communities of color), urban design, and public architecture continues to be the subject of a great deal of academic research but not public analysis.  As Mr. Capps's colleague, Brentin Mock, observed one of the key problems is that there are no urban design courses that teach about race and social justice.  Mr. Capps notes that Mr. Mock went as far as to create his own syllabus in response to students at Harvard Graduate School of Design's complaints.  That being said, while it is all well and fine to generate academic research on the relationship between communities of color, urban design, and public architecture, there is a real need for more architects and designers of color to bring their world views into the public and civic realms.