Phil Freelon is an architect from Durham, North Carolina. Freelon graduated from NC State University in 1975 with a Bachelor’s in Environmental Design and then pursued his Architecture Masters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1989, Freelon was the recipient of the Loeb Fellowship and spent a year of independent study at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. A year later he founded the Freelon Group, a small architecture firm based out of Durham. Freelon “used diversity to build the firm with folks from all over the world, a rich vibrant blend that fuels the creative process” (SMPS Marketer, 2005). As an African American, Freelon has passionately spent the majority of his career on public projects that highlight African American culture and achievement. His most notable project was leading the design team for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened last year. Other projects include the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta; the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco; and Emancipation Park in Houston. He has also contributed locally, working on projects like the Durham Bulls Stadium and the Durham County Human Services Complex. Although Freelon was diagnosed with ALS last year, he has continued to work on projects such as the North Carolina Freedom Park, scheduled to be completed in 2020.
CONNECTING COMMUNITY AND TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
Freelon has a very active role in the African American community, which has been a personal highlight in his architectural career. With architecture, he hopes to enhance the lives of everyday people, particularly through education. Not only has Freelon been a lecturer at universities such as Harvard and MIT, he also established the Phil Freelon Fellowship Fund at the Harvard Graduate School of Design last year. With this scholarship, Freelon will provide academic and financial opportunities for African American and other underrepresented students. Furthermore, Freelon hopes to encourage the African American community to become more involved in architecture and design fields by providing access to innovative learning. Many of Freelon’s public projects, such as the new Smithsonian, use technological and architectural innovation to encourage people of all backgrounds to learn about African American culture and history. The Green Book exhibit takes visitors behind the wheel of automobile travel as an African American during the Jim Crow era. Technological innovations in museums and public spaces such as interactive exhibits fully immerse the participants in the experience and, in a sense, invite guests to walk in someone else’s shoes. In his book What Technology Wants, author Kevin Kelly explains that “technologies are idea based, and culture is their memory. They can be resurrected if forgotten, and can be recorded… so that they won’t be overlooked” (Kelly, 56). In this way, Freelon has used technology to keep this culture alive, and relevant. He described the Smithsonian as “the Noah’s Ark for African American culture-a place of remembrance and celebration… It is also a repository housing the difficult stories in our nation’s history lest we forget” (Czarnecki, 71). Furthermore, Freelon hopes to use the museum and technological innovation through exhibitions to perpetuate the ideas of “perseverance, resiliency, triumph, and making a way out of no way” for the African American community.
Czarnecki, John. “An Interview with Philip Freelon.” Contract, vol. 57, no. 8, 2016, pp. 70-71, ProQuest Central, http://proxying.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1825888184? accountid=12725.
Dagenais, Travis. “Phil Freelon Fellowship Fund established at the GSD.” Harvard University Graduate School of Design MenuA-ZSearch, President and Fellows of Harvard College, 4 Nov. 2016, www.gsd. harvard.edu/2016/11/phil-freelon-fellowship-fund-established-at-the-gsd/. Accessed 26 Sept. 2017.
Driskell, Jay. “An atlas of self-Reliance: The Negro Motorist’s Green Book (1937-1964).” O Say Can You See?, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, 30 July 2015, americanhistory.si.edu/blog/ negro-motorists-green-book. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.
Kelly, K. (2011). What Technology Wants. New York: Penguin Books.
Lea, Bruce. “On Point: Philip G. Freelon, FAIA, President, The Freelon Group.” Marketer, June 2005, pp. 6–10.
“Phil Freelon.” Perkins + Will. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2017.
Whitfield, Chandra Thomas. “Meet Phil Freelon, the Architect Behind The Newest Smithsonian.” NBC News , NBC Universal News Group, 2 Oct. 2015, www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/phil-freelon-architect-leading-smithsonians-african-american-museum-n435291. Accessed 26 Sept. 2017.