Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History - Study

The Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History is a small historic building located in the historic Laney Walker District of Augusta, GA.  The structure was the home of Miss Lucy Craft Laney, a nineteenth century black educator who was born during slavery, became well educated , and subsequently made many contributions to the state of Georgia and primarily the city of Augusta.

In 1987, Delta House, Inc. purchased the home and later converted it to a museum with a mission to promote the legacy of Miss Laney through art, history, and the preservation of her home.  Since that time tremendous strides have been made in developing it into a wonderful historic site.  Consequently, the museum experienced unexpected growth and has begun planning an expansion to accommodate this and further anticipated increase.

Freelon has prepared a concept study that validated the proposed program, studied the impact of the expansion on the site area, and assessed preliminary construction costs and phasing opportunities. The programming effort was based on the Museum’s internal needs assessment of an overall 40,000 Sq. Ft. targeted expansion.  Spaces included exhibition and support areas, visitor amenity and orientation areas, meeting spaces, classrooms, and offices. The Concept Study developed a space program of approximately 27,000 net “usable” Sq. Ft. and was used to inform the proposed final scheme regarding building massing, master plan phasing, and building concept.

The design concept for the new Museum expansion draws on the legacy of Miss Laney and her dedication to building a sense of community by enriching and empowering the lives of African Americans in Augusta through education.  The new Museum is seen as a community partner and learning center, helping to reinvigorate the surrounding urban fabric through a series of infill “houses” and “pavilions” within the site area.  The expansion proposes to restore the existing house of Miss Laney and use the existing garden spaces as interior courtyard spaces in the new Museum.  The overall massing of the new building is limited to two stories to respect the surrounding residential neighborhood of single-family dwellings.