NMAAHC is the culmination of a decades-long struggle to recognise the importance of the black community in the social fabric of American life.

The building establishes a meaningful relationship to its unique site – on the last available plot at the National Mall in Washington – as well as a strong conceptual resonance with America’s longstanding African heritage. It layers multiple narrative reference points, from the Yoruban caryatid that inspired the three-tiered corona, to the front porch as a historic gathering space, to the façade motif honouring the skill of black ironworkers of the south.