International African American Museum, Charleston Visitors Centre, SC Building, Architecture Images
International African American Museum in Charleston
Large Building Development in South Carolina, USA – design by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Architects
Jan 21, 2020
International African American Museum
Architects: Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Location: Charleston, South Carolina, USA
Twenty years in the planning, the International African American Museum is now under construction

On the waterfront site that was the port of arrival for nearly half of all enslaved Africans brought to North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a long-anticipated museum dedicated to telling their stories and celebrating the contributions of their descendants has at last broken ground. Proposed in 2000 by Charleston?s longtime mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., the International African American Museum (IAAM), designed by New York?based architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, is now under way. Moody Nolan, the largest African-American-owned design firm in the United States, is executive architect.
The museum is rising on what was once Gadsden?s Wharf, built by slave labor in 1767 and the most important disembarkation point for enslaved Africans brought to the United States. It is estimated that 80 percent of African Americans alive today can trace their ancestry to the wharf, and the significance of the site informs the design throughout.

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