National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Atlanta, GA
Client
Size
Completion Date
Sustainability
Awards
National Center for Civil and Human Rights
42,500 square feet
2014
LEED Gold®
Honor Award, AIA Georgia, 2015 | Merit Award, AIA North Carolina, 2015 | 1st Place, NOMA Atlanta INSPIRE Awards, 2019 | Atlanta Development of Excellence Award, Urban Land Institute, 2014 | Engineering Excellence Award, American Council of Engineering, 2016
Architect
Archietct of Record
Our role
Perkins&Will
HOK
Kenneth Luker served as Lead Designer during previous association with Perkins&Will.
All photographs © Mark Herboth Photography LLC unless otherwise indicated.
The National Center for Civil and Human Rights (Center) is both a museum and a dynamic center for civic activation. Galleries highlight the ongoing history of the American Civil Rights movement and its relationship to contemporary global, human rights issues. Exhibits designed by Rockwell Group with George Wolfe aid visitors in understanding the impact of their everyday choices on all of our civil and human rights, including a gallery dedicated to manuscripts and artifacts from the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection.
The design advances the idea of creating a Space for Action to compel visitors to act within their own communities toward a more just and equitable world. Two signature curving walls rise from the earth, inspired by great urban spaces around the world that have become synonymous with historic civil and human rights events. Embraced within these walls is a transparent, daylit atrium lobby that welcomes visitors in to engage with programming and exhibits focused on contemporary civil and human rights challenges. The walls’ sweeping curves translate into a sense of refuge on the interior with flexible spaces to facilitate gathering and dialogue around difficult topics: race relations, voter suppression, genocide, torture, and mass incarceration.
The Center welcomes nearly 300,000 visitors each year and has become a nationally recognized symbol of social progress and a gathering place for tens of thousands to celebrate and protest current civil and human rights issues. A significant addition to the Center is currently underway and was led by Kenneth Luker while in association with Perkins&Will.
