Museum of African American History
Detroit, Michigan
Bridge, Furniture, and Interactive Display and Wall Panel Systems, 1997
Design/Engineer, Engineer, Value Engineer, Consult, Fabrication, Installation
At the heart of this museum, an interactive exhibition takes visitors on a journey through history, tracing the experience of African-Americans, from their roots in Africa through their hard road to freedom in the United States, using wall panels, installations and multimedia. In the middle of the space, a bridge symbolizing the slave passage crosses through a re-created slave ship. We were proud to work with designer Ralph Appelbaum as engineering consultants and custom metal fabricators for the bridge, which forms the room’s centerpiece and the emotional core of the exhibition. We used an open mesh grating for the floor and simple ornamental metal railings on either side that permitted visitors to see the terrible conditions of the slave quarters reproduced below them. In addition, we designed the flexible, interactive, blackened steel panel system that allowed museum staff to alter the didactic materials over time.
