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International African American Museum — International African American Museum

The International African American Museum, a 40,000-square-foot museum at Charleston, South Carolina's historic Gadsden's Wharf, opened June 27, 2023, with architecture by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and Moody Nolan, exhibition design and interpretive planning by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, and Solomon Group serving as project consultant, exhibit fabricator, and AV integrator during late-stage design development and installation.

VenueInternational African American Museum
Project typeNew Building
StatusCompleted
Year completed2023
Technologiesartifact display, AV systems

Credits

FirmRoleNote
Solomon Group Technical Consulting / Owner's Representation Project consultation and value engineering during design development
Solomon Group Fabrication
Solomon Group AV Integration
Ralph Appelbaum Associates Exhibit Design
Ralph Appelbaum Associates Interpretive Planning Planned narrative flow of the nine interior galleries; led community forums shaping the interpretive approach
pei-cobb-freed-and-partners Architecture Design architect; Henry N. Cobb lead designer
moody-nolan Architecture Co-architect / architect of record
Cortina Productions Media Design & Software Multimedia exhibit design
Technical Artistry Lighting Design Exhibit lighting design
zone-display-cases Fabrication Museum display case fabrication

Description

The museum received a 2025 Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Themed Entertainment Association, and was a 2024 Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards finalist in the Spaces and Places category (credited to Ralph Appelbaum Associates). Landscape design by Hood Design Studio is not captured as a project credit — the vocabulary has no landscape-architecture role (logged gap).

Sources