These 5 endangered sites designed by Black architects just received critical preservation grants

When Central City Plaza, a shopping centre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, first opened in 1973, it was a vibrant hub for Black life. Designed by the state’s first licensed African American architect Alonzo Robinson Jr. in the optimistic New Formalist style, the complex housed Black-owned businesses that included a bowling alley, attorneys' offices and a restaurant that dished up soul food and cordon bleu.

Over the decades, Central City Plaza fell into disrepair and neglect, and, even after a public awareness campaign halted the demolition of one its buildings, the campus’s future was uncertain. Today, however, thanks to a grant from the Getty Foundation and The National Trust for Historic Preservation, Central City Plaza – in addition to four other historically-significant sites designed by Black architects and designers – has the opportunity to rewrite its next chapter.

The program, Conserving Black Modernism, was established in 2022 by the Getty in partnership with The National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund to protect modern sites that are integral to Black history, many of which are overlooked and under threat. Sites are identified through an application process, with winners receiving $150,000 to conduct repairs, hire staff or undertake preservation planning. Since the program was launched, more than $4.85 million in funding has been distributed.

‘Conserving Black Modernism has helped communities in nearly every region of the US protect the work of Black architects and has helped broaden the very definition of modernist architecture,’ Joan Weinstein, the Getty Foundation’s director, said in a statement. ‘Teaming up with the National Trust over the past five years has allowed us to take actionable steps to preserve underrepresented sites that embody Black excellence in design, activism and resilience.’

This cycle's winners include Central City Plaza; the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanities Center at Texas Southern University in Houston.; The Park-Johnson Hall at Fisk University in Nashville; portions of Boston’s Southwest Corridor; and St. Mark AME Zion Church in Indiana.

The National Trust Action Fund, meanwhile, is distributing an additional $2.26 million to 22 more locations around the country, including a seed barn in rural Alabama that will serve as the future home of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, and barracks at Camp Naco in Arizona that housed the Black army regiment known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

Read on to learn more about the grantees.

Central City Plaza – Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Central City Plaza was completed by architect Alonzo Robinson Jr in 1973. Robinson was Wisconsin’s first licensed architect and designed the complex in the New Formalist style, a rarity for Milwaukee. The plaza includes three buildings defined by arcades, concrete panels and sweeping porticos or ‘wings.’ The Salvation Army took over several structures in the early 1980s, and now runs a homeless shelter on the site. According to the Getty and the National Trust, the grant will fund a strategic report that will guide restoration and allow the Salvation Army to expand its services.

Martin Luther King Jr. Humanities Center at Texas Southern University – Houston

This building contains the School of Communications at Texas Southern University, one of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). The modernist building was completed by architect John Saunders Chase Jr. in 1969, just a year after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The building, which features a sweeping roof and a central volume that appears as a series of stacked discs, is said to evoke King’s legacy. Chase Jr. went on to be a founding member of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), a group that has advocated for equity in the architectural profession. The grant will fund a report on the building that will identify key preservation priorities and delve into the building’s history.

The Park-Johnson Hall at Fisk University – Nashville

New York- and Philadelphia- practice McKissack & McKissack is the oldest Black-owned architecture firm in the US. In 1954, founding partner Moses McKissack III designed this campus building for Fisk University, an HBCU in Nashville. The low-slung three-story building is defined by a red brick facade and modernist proportions, and contains classrooms, administrative spaces and a lecture hall. The grant money will help develop a preservation and management plan for the structure, and help document McKissack & McKissack’s work on the greater Fisk campus.

Southwest Corridor – Boston

After activists halted the construction of a 12-lane highway that would cut through Boston, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority built a four-mile park that contained a public train line in addition to a 52-acre park. The work, most notably the postmodern Ruggles Station, was led by Stull & Lee, Inc., a Black-led Boston-based architecture firm. The Getty funds will help document the site through 3D modeling, photography and more.

St. Mark AME Zion Church – East Chicago, Indiana

Designed by Wendell Campbell (who, along with John Saunders Chase Jr, was a founder of NOMA), this striking modernist church in East Chicago, Indiana was designed to evoke praying hands. The structure features a dramatic origami-like roof, triangular ribbon windows and an airy, column-free sanctuary. The grant funding will help the church create a preservation plan supporting ongoing maintenance and rehabilitation needs.