ZENA HOWARD KNOWS BEST

by Kathy Cunningham

Zena Howard knows.  She innately understands how a structure or space can heal old wounds. Zena has an empathy that comes from learning early that as an African America woman who is a passionate architect focused on co-designing with the community allows for the discovery of un-shared stories. Zena believes this is the key to fostering an understanding of and appreciation for what the Black Lives Matter movement is proclaiming. Zena tells stories that resonate and takes the responsibility seriously that can literally change the world.

Listening. Connecting. Communicating and engaging with communities that have experienced trauma and then translating their history and memories in to a safe space or structure provides solace for many. These spaces, inside and out, tell stories and provide context for what took place before. Zena’s curiosity can help drive a process of remembrance that can drive change.

Zena is respected for visionary, complex and culturally significant projects including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, Destination Crenshaw where celebrating Black Los Angeles impact on popular culture and social change will be abundantly displayed in a 1.3 mile outdoor museum that includes ten new public parks, and the Greenville Town Common and Sycamore Hill Gateway Plaza where a neighbourhood that once stood proudly on the Tar River in Greenville, North Carolina was destroyed and nearly erased from history. The memories were saved by the people who once lived there. This land is now giving new meaning to remembering what happened and sharing compelling stories that resonate with many by preserving what was, for the future to build upon.

The magnificent Sycamore Hill Missionary Baptist Church once stood grandly to welcome parishioners and guests with open arms.  A beacon for this close knit community where neighbours looked after each other because they truly cared. An African American neighborhood with homes, a school, a doctor, shops, garage and the church. Some of those who remember living there recall how people were economically poor, yet spiritually rich with an abundance of joy and a generous spirit of sharing with others.

In our lifetime, (1965) the city of Greenville removed its citizens from their homes to clear river front land to create the Town Common. Known as ‘urban renewal’ or ‘gentrification’, the once loved empty homes were razed when new homes were found for the residents of this once thriving neighbourhood.  And, in an unsolved case of suspected arson saw the beautiful church burned to the ground.

Disruption is a displaced community.

Disruption can also help play a part of the important stories we share that may allow healing to occur. The Sycamore Hill neighborhood demonstrates that a community is built on and by its people, not the physical structures they live, work, learn, pray and play in. What can the Greenville Town Common teach us today about the atrocity that occurred there 55 years ago? And, who is best to tell these stories? 

At Perkins and Will, the architectural firm charged with designing spaces that shares stories from the past and tells the tragic tale of destruction and displacement in a tone and manner that respects the Sycamore Hill community. Zena Howard’s approach is to believe in creative disruption with designs that challenge the status quo and questions core assumptions to shape experiences that promote understanding of self, appreciation of community, and empathy for others.

Looking back to move forward is an apt strategy when trying to understand how a built environment in a public space where a neighbourhood was razed could help heal old wounds.

What happens in the spaces between buildings? How do we interact with people and structures in public spaces? Are architects designing for disruption or is it the other way around?

Zena Howard, Managing Director of Perkins and Will in North Carolina believes that to truly understand what the community desires, you must listen. Really listen.  And Howard believes that “communities that are grounded in their past are truly resilient.”

“When we engage with the community, we begin to appreciate and understand the questions to ask. We are physically mining for nuggets of information that resonate since we will remember a compelling story.”

For Howard, there is a way to tell stories from a singular building and to bring that interpretation out into a cultural landscape. Zena watches how people use the spaces between and around the building which can be just as powerful as what happens inside.

“Projects that are designed with the community withstand social unrest and are resilient. When we respect the people and these projects that are birthed out of something greater than any one person, we will have co-created a more accessible space that reaches more people to share experiences.”

The design process that Perkins and Will uses is disruptive. It protects and honors the community that helped design it. And, Zena knows that these spaces are like magnets for the community.

“Three key components were considered when designing the Greenville Town Common – community, spirituality and history. These concepts are presented with three gallery spaces encouraging gathering, rejoicing and reflection.”

How do you transform a once thriving neighbourhood that is now a park in to something worthy of our attention? By placing towering stained glass-like walls rising from the ground of the original footprint of the church. And by placing park benches that recall church pews that are placed in the space that was once the church sanctuary. People flow through this space to remember and contemplate, then feel the intense power in the beauty of the structure some once called home.

Howard understands this space sacred, and as an empathetic and experienced architect uses design as urban healing. The process of engaging with the community is essential, Howard believes, in co-creating designs that are meaningful, relevant and enduring. Her career navigates social issues of equity and justice, restoring lost cultural connections by honouring history and memory.  Zena Howard is a proud black woman who demonstrates her passion for design by being brave.

If you would like to visit the Greenville Town Common to learn more about what happened in the Sycamore Hill neighbourhood, please visit www.greenvillenc.gov

If you would like to learn more about Zena Howard and how Perkins & Will use a disruptive design process, please visit www.perkinswill.com