Moody Nolan has been engaged by the DC Department of General Services to provide planning, design and construction administration services for this $18 million recreation center project.
Moody Nolan, as Associate Architect to Perkins Eastman, teamed to modernized the former Shaw Junior High School to now house Benjamin Banneker Academic High School. The high school houses grade 9 through grade 12 and is one of DCPS’ International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program sites. With the modernization of the former junior high school, the school can now accommodate an enrollment of 800 students by 2025.
Moody Nolan teamed with EEK Architects to win the design competition to replace the Paul Laurence Dunbar Senior High School. This new 260,000 sq. ft. facility replaces a fortress-like, 1977-vintage school that did not adequately serve its academic mission. Located just a few blocks from the US Capitol, the new Dunbar Senior High Schools provides a high performance learning environment designed to catalyze the renewal of one of our most historic schools.
Moody Nolan, as design architect, in association with Wisnewski Blair & Associates, provided the design for this 84,000 sq. ft. recreation center in Northern Virginia. Located in a 375-acre historical park, adjacent to a high school with a youth sportsplex and the Heritage Farm Museum, the project is nestled into the edge of old growth woods. The facility includes a 50 meter by 25 yard pool, with one bulkhead. The pool can accommodate 50 meter, 25 meter and 25 yard competition and training. Other features include a 5,200 sq. ft. leisure pool, rock climbing wall, gymnasium, fitness area, elevated track, multipurpose room with catering kitchen, teen lounge, and licensed childcare with drop-in baby-sitting.
Moody Nolan, with Antoine Predock Architect, were one of only six firms selected to compete for the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). The design concept for this museum was that of the “Rock,” a polyrhythmic mass of stone ordered as if by tectonic shift to reveal itself rising from the earth amidst the urban landscape. The spirit of convergence and gathering, historically rooted in the African American Praise House or Church, defines the strength, perseverance and unity in the cultural symbol of the Rock. Within the Rock is placed a symbolic tree, evoking the power of the historic 1,500-year-old Angel Oak on John’s Island, South Carolina, a witness to the masses of Africans arriving there.
The space beneath the great oak within the Rock, the NMAAHC, would be a place in which people gather to reconnect themselves to the energy that has brought African Americans through struggles and triumphs while re-instilling a connection with the earth. The atmosphere engendered in the Rock highlights the culture’s circuitous, yet persistent movement toward brighter futures, and manifests the trajectory of pitfalls and accomplishments that define African American culture.