Long before the American Revolution, the African Burial Ground was established beyond the northern boundary wall of New York City near today’s Chambers Street. Originally covering five acres of land and containing perhaps 20,000 burials, it is the oldest known African cemetery in the United States. In 1991, when graves containing human remains were unearthed during the excavation for a new 34-story federal office tower, construction was halted. Public outcry focusing on the site and on the contributions of Africans in America prompted the creation of an international competition to safeguard the Burial Ground and recognize its importance as a National Historic Landmark.

This competition entry proposes to excavate down to the original 17th century grade level of the Burial Ground, some 20 feet below today’s street level, and to erect a subterranean museum devoted to the history of Africans in America. The street level roof of this lower gallery serves as an active urban square bounded on one side by a new seven-story cultural center housing galleries, seminar rooms and offices. A monumental translucent flower, visible from well beyond the site, reaches upward from this piazza. Rooted in the soil of the original Burial Ground, the monument symbolizes the new life which is nourished by the lives and deeds of those individuals buried beneath. Visitors ascend a spiral stair from the lower gallery where sunshine and rain once again are conducted down to earth through the flower's petals and stem. Once within the body of the flower, the visitor discovers a contemplative space infused with natural light from above. 

This work was a collaboration between Michael Costantin and Brian Swier.