Greenwood Rising's story of resilience

{"version":"0.3.0","atoms":[],"cards":[["images-card",{"images":[{"url":"http:\/\/res.cloudinary.com\/dpcbzfiye\/image\/upload\/v1686939471\/l5yzj35cdb5z9ywzsgob.jpg","id":"6638991"}],"caption":"The exterior of Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center illuminated at night. "}]],"markups":[["a",["href","https:\/\/www.greenwoodrising.org\/","target","_blank"]],["a",["href","https:\/\/www.selserschaefer.com\/","target","_blank"]],["b"],["a",["href","https:\/\/localprojects.com\/","target","_blank"]],["a",["href","https:\/\/www.tulsahistory.org\/halloffame\/hannibal-b-johnson\/","target","_blank"]]],"sections":[[1,"h2",[[0,[],0,"This Tulsa museum honors and commemorates a tragic part of the city\u0027s Black history while celebrating community strength. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"James Baldwin once said, \u201cNot everything that is faced can\nbe changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.\u201d "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"This quote is featured prominently on the exterior facade of\nthe "],[0,[0],1,"Greenwood Rising Black Wall Street History Center"],[0,[],0," in Tulsa, Okla., the museum\nthat opened in 2021 to commemorate the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre. This\nchallenging piece of history is something that Tulsa native and desiger Justin\nSack, of "],[0,[1],1,"Selser Schaefer Architects"],[0,[],0,", says he never learned about while attending\nschool in the city. However, he felt honored to help tell the\nstory of the Greenwood neighborhood and Black Wall Street through his work on\nthe museum, which will educate people all over the world for decades to come on\nthe rich Black history of Greenwood and the violent events of the Tulsa Race\nMassacre. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"We talked with Sack about the rewards and challenges of\ncreating a world-class museum to commemorate a pivotal piece of local history. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"What were the initial conversations with the client like\nfor this project? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"It evolved over time, as many projects do. We initially approached\nthis as an expansion of the Greenwood Cultural Center, where they have quite a\nfew photographs and news articles from the event displayed in their lobby. That\u2019s\nwhere things originated \u2013 [the desire for] a better place to showcase that\ninformation and some of the things that they\u2019ve collected over the years. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"It evolved over time across several different sites and\ndifferent ownership. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"Can you tell me about the community involvement process? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The owner and the [Centennial Commission] were ingrained\nwith the community and local businesses in the area, who helped craft the\nvision for the project. We were involved in several of those meetings,\npresenting and showing concept progress. We worked hand-in-hand with the\nexhibit designer, which was a group out of New York, and they met with\ndifferent community members to get perspective and historical information. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],0,"I wanted to ask you about working with "],[0,[3],1,"Local Projects"],[0,[],1,",\nthe exhibition and media design firm out of New York, on the multimedia aspects\nof the museum. What was that collaboration like? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"It was awesome. They were a great group to work\nwith. We hit it off at the first meeting. They worked closely with [attorney\nand historian] "],[0,[4],1,"Hannibal Johnson "],[0,[],0,"on the research side. They were pulling all the\nbackground information to weave into the story. We worked with their design\nside crafting the building to become the backdrop to the story they were\ntelling. There was quite a bit of coordination effort there, from just creating\nthe right-sized space, to the right lighting, the right finishes, to help [the space]\nbecome the right backdrop to the different gallery experiences. We had\ncollaborative sessions with them, almost like design charettes, where we threw\nout different ideas, trying to find innovative ways to create a space that could speak to multi-generational users. There\u2019s a\ntechnology component to some of the exhibits that relate to youth, and more\ntraditional, tactile, narrative-type exhibits that adults can relate to. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"How did you think about the history of Greenwood and\nBlack Wall Street as it related to the building design? "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Of course, we wanted to respect that history, but [represent]\nit in a different, new way through materiality and form. You\u2019ll see that with\nthe use of brick. A lot of the original [Greenwood] buildings were brick; they\nhad nice ornamentation around different fenestrations and things like that\naround the facade. So that really became the base of our building. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"We selected a brick that had a pretty distinctive profile on\nit that printed a banding effect that paid tribute to some of that articulation\nof the brick structures in the past without getting too ornamental [and]\nkeeping things a little more simplistic on our side. But what it did is raise\nthe building up from the roots or the history of the site, using the brick and\nthen transitioning to glass fiber-reinforced concrete panels. The white panels\nthat you see on the facade, in this outreaching kind of expression \u2013 it utilizes\na clean, hopeful backdrop within the fabric and the context of the existing\nbuildings that are still there today. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"We used the fiber cement panels to create articulation across those elements. They\u2019re wedges that do\nsome fun, kind of playful things throughout the day as the sun moves across the\nbuilding, through shadows and light, and then take on a whole different\ncharacter and appearance at night, when we\u2019re able to illuminate it. For us, it\ntied into the history of Black Wall Street and how it transitioned from its\nbusiness use during the day to an entertainment district in the evening. "]]],[10,0],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"Those penetrations, they appear random, right? They\u2019re different\nsizes and shapes at different locations on the building. So it creates this\nkind of individuality to those pieces, and yet it creates an interesting fabric\nthat is symbolic of the community to us. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"What were some challenges inherent to this design\nprocess?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"The nature of the background and the history was challenging,\nas well as the timeline. We wanted to have this facility open by the centennial\nof the event, and so it was quick and there were a lot of stakeholders\ninvolved. So, making sure that we kept the project moving forward to have [it]\nopened by that centennial was critical. It\u2019s a tight site \u2013 there were some\nrestrictive elements there, and there was another building under construction\nright next door. We had to coordinate with that effort. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"We stretched the front entry of the building out almost to\nthe edge of the road. We had to go through a process of vacating some air\nrights to achieve that and really create this building that reached out and\nwelcomed people in. "]]],[1,"p",[[0,[2],1,"What was the most rewarding part of this project for you?"]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"It\u2019s a story that I never learned about growing up in Tulsa.\nBeing a part of creating a facility to help tell that story is a pretty cool\nhonor, and I\u2019m very proud to be a part of the team associated with the project.\nI learned more about the history and the resiliency and the courage of the community\nto stay in Tulsa [after the events of the massacre]."]]],[1,"p",[[0,[],0,"At my son\u2019s school, an art class had recently gone to the\nGreenwood district with their sketchbooks. Walking through the school last week,\nI saw that a lot of the art students had drawn the Greenwood Rising building. It\nwas cool to see it integrated into the community. "]]]]}