Title: African American Cultural Center
Location of Proejct: High Point, North Carolina
Project Completion Date: N/A
Firm Name: Andre Johnson Architect, PLLC

Short Description: The project is the new home for the African American Cultural Center that focuses on the visual and performing arts. This project seeks to use an existing building in High Point, NC to transform the facility to the new museum. Due to the requirement to keep the existing one-story facility while also doubling the square footage, the design team cantilevered a new building over the existing building, creating unique and interesting indoor and outdoor spaces. The use of light and open materials speaks to the enlightenment of the city to the visual and performing arts contributions of African Americans.

Architect's Statement: Community
The design of the project was based on the idea of the baobab tree. In some African cultures, the tree is seen as a symbolic connection to the ancestors and their knowledge and wisdom. The tree grows from the ground and expands upwards towards the heavens, reaching the knowledge of the past while uplifting the current people. The design team used this concept to relate to the development of the building. Our concept and design respond to the upward movement of knowledge represented by the “glowing” building form that is cantilevered over the existing building. Since the owner required an outdoor amenity space that would connect to the lobby and be open to the public, the design team’s cantilevered design created this opportunity in a unique way. The cantilever allows for an outdoor performance space, vehicle drop off for elderly visitors, outdoor space for displays of community art and other services. The client was very interested in having a space that could be used for the community without requiring access into the museum. This creates a flexible space that can be used when the museum is closed.

The design team included the baobab tree metaphor to create the “knowledge” oculus that pierces the building and focuses on the physical tree planted in the open courtyard that represents the ancestral knowledge gained from the information in the building. The oculus has the names of the artists, musicians, poets, and others that are featured in the museum and is meant to have future names added to the glass oculus. The light well created at the oculus lands at the tree on the ground level and includes native species plantings and a water feature.

Technical
Since the existing one-story building needed to be retained, the design team faced and interesting challenge of creating the program space required with a very limited site. The challenges of the site included limited parking, limited land area for increasing the building square footage, occupied construction, and technical challenges with increasing the building size. The design team created a “T” shaped cantilever building over the existing building so that the existing building could be partially occupied during construction and used as the initial museum space. The design uses steel construction with a high-performance curtainwall and building systems. The design also has an elevated outdoor performance space and green roof for the museum patrons. The current design is targeting LEED Certification.