The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has selected Freelon Bond, an association of architectural and design firms Davis Brody Bond of New York and Washington and The Freelon Group of Research Triangle Park, NC, to conduct a study as Phase One of the planning leading to the design and construction of the museum building.

The 18-month study will examine the various needs of the museum—from facilities, operations and technology, to acoustics, fire protection and security—in collaboration with Lord Cultural Resources, a museum-planning firm with offices around the world, including New York and London, and Amaze Design, an exhibition design firm based in Boston.

The team will hold a series of meetings and focus groups across the country to hear what visitor-oriented features—such as auditorium, library/book store, restaurant and conservation center—should be included in the interior space. The study is scheduled to be completed by Jan. 31, 2009 and will outline the full spectrum of requirements for the new building.

The museum is expected to open its doors to the public in 2015. It will be erected on a 5-acre tract of land on the National Mall known as the “Monument site” (bound by Constitution Avenue, Madison Drive, and 14th and 15th streets N.W.). The site is adjacent to the Washington Monument and across the street from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

Davis Brody Bond and The Freelon Group have extensive experience in the planning, programming and design of African-American-themed museums. Their major museum credits include the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama; the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta; and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture in Baltimore.

Planners from Lord Cultural Resources worked on the Heritage Museum at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco with The Freelon Group and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center with Davis Brody Bond. Amaze Design has worked on numerous heritage projects including the African Burial Ground Interpretive Center in New York, the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh and The National Museum of Australia.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture was established as a Smithsonian Institution museum by an Act of Congress in 2003. The new museum will be the only national museum devoted exclusively to the documentation of African-American life, art, history and culture, with collections and educational programming covering such varied topics as slavery, post-Civil War reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights movement.