Emancipation Community Center
Project Description
Working as a team, my partner, Dennis Lopez, and I were tasked to design a community center located on Emancipation Ave, in the Third Ward of Houston, Tx. The goal of this project was to build a place where people can gather to celebrate and learn about the history of Juneteenth in Texas. The program of the building was divided into three main sections, the largest being a 2,500 sqft museum, located on the third floor, dedicated to the history of Juneteenth. The rest of the building was dedicated to offices for the museum staff and gathering spaces for the community.
Across the Street from our site is Emancipation Park, which has a recent renovation and addition of a sports facility. When desiging the building we wanted to have it flow naturally into the park across the street. In order to do this, the entryway of the building is an underpass that leads to a courtyard with a clear view of the park across the street. For the architecture to blend in with the buidlings in the park, the terrain of the courtyard and sidewalk surrounding the building mimic the jagged, textile like nature of the cement sidewalks in the park, and the exterior siding mimics the other buildings.