Events › CONTAINER / CONTAINED: Phil Freelon: Design Strategies for Telling African American Stories

The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History in partnership with the University of North Carolina Charlotte's Center for Community, Heritage, and The Arts, and the Graham Foundation invites the Atlanta architectural community and the general public to brief presentations by Auburn Avenue Research Library staff and architectural historians Arthur J. Clement, Freelon’s biographer, and Dr. Emily Makas, the exhibition curator.

EXHIBITION: March to June 2025

Philip G. Freelon (1953-2019) had a remarkable four-decade architectural career designing
public buildings. This exhibition critically examines Freelon’s libraries, museums, and other
public buildings with a focus on projects that foreground African American culture,
communities, and identities. Freelon argued architecture should be more than a container, that
it should help tell the story of and be integral to the content of these public institutions. Two
Atlanta projects are featured, including the National Center for Civil and Human Rights (2014)
and the renovation and expansion of the Auburn Avenue Research Library (2016).