RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Architect Phil Freelon, who designed buildings ranging from local libraries to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, died Tuesday in North Carolina.
Freelon, 66, had suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease for several years. He died in Durham about a week after he had quit consuming food or liquids, his neurologist said.
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“I’ll remember him as one of the most gifted architects I’ve ever worked with but also one of the kindest individuals I’ve ever known,” said Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the African American Museum and now secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
One of Freelon’s most important contributions to the museum was recognizing the National Mall as “sacred space,” Bunch said, so visitors “didn’t just go into a building. They could look out and see where history occurred. So that was kind of his genius.”
Source: Phil Freelon, architect known designing for African American museum dies
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