Philip Freelon

Philip Freelon (born March 26, 1952), a native of Philadelphia, USA is an African American architect. He is best known as the co-designer (with Max Bond and David Adjaye) of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Some of his other projects include the Center for Civil & Human Rights, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History and Culture and the Museum of the African Diaspora. Freelon is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (and the recipient of their Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture), and a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional. He is married to six-time Grammy nominated jazz vocalist, Nnenna Freelon.

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Biography

Education

Following graduation from North Carolina State University's College of Design with a Bachelor of Environmental Design (Architecture) and top design honors, he went on to earn his Master of Architecture degree from MIT. Freelon has served as an adjunct professor at the College of Design, North Carolina State University and has been a visiting critic/lecturer at Harvard University, MIT, the University of Maryland, College Park, the University of Utah, the California College of the Arts, Kent State University (Florence Italy, program), Syracuse University, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, among others. In 1989, Freelon was the recipient of the Loeb Fellowship and spent a year of independent study at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Freelon is currently a visiting Lecturer at MIT in the School of Architecture and Planning.[1]

The Freelon Group

Philip Freelon founded The Freelon Group in 1990. Since then, The Freelon Group has expanded to a sixty member architectural firm located in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. The Freelon Group offers specialized design expertise in the areas of Museum/Cultural Center, Higher Education and Science/Technology facilities. The firm has received over twenty-five regional, state and local AIA design awards including AIA North Carolina’s Outstanding Firm Award in 2001. Between 2006 and 2007, Freelon's designs were honored with seven AIA North Carolina design awards, an accomplishment never before achieved by one firm in a two year period. In 2008, The Freelon Group was recognized by Contract Magazine as The Designer of the Year. In 2009, along with partners Max Bond (of Davis Brody Bond Aedas) and David Adjaye (of Adjaye Associates), Freelon was selected by unanimous decision to design the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.[2]

Family

Philip is the grandson of pioneer African American impressionist [Allan Randall Freelon, Sr.] (1895–1960). He is married to 6-time Grammy nominee, Nnenna Freelon.[3] He is the father of three children, Deen, Maya and Pierce.

Their son Pierce Freelon, is a Hip-Hop artist (in the group The Beast), a professor at North Carolina Central University and the founder of a website called Blackademics where has interviewed many notable figures such as Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, and Jesse Jackson.[4] Deen Freelon is a doctoral candidate in Communications at the University of Washington, Seattle and the designer of the site. Daughter Maya Freelon Asante, is an award-winning visual artist and wife of filmmaker, author and activist, M.K. Asante, Jr.

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