Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture

The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, formerly known as the Afro-American Cultural Center, is located in Charlotte, North Carolina and named for Harvey Gantt, the city's first African-American mayor and the first African-American student at Clemson University. The current 46,500-square-foot building, four stories tall and built for $18.6 million, opened and was named for Gantt in October 2009 as part of what is now called Levine Center for the Arts on South Tryon Street.

Located at South Tryon and Stonewall Streets, the four-story 46,490-square foot building is described as a "modernist structure wrapped in glass and metal", is 360' by 40' and located above tunnels connecting College Street and Stonewall Street to a parking garage for Duke Energy Center. To allow access by car and truck ramps on the narrow site (400' x 60'), the lobby is on the second floor and is reached by stairs and escalators which frame a central glass atrium and are based on Jacob's Ladder in the Book of Genesis. This design was inspired by Myers Street School in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Charlotte, an African-American section of the city which was demolished as a result of urban renewal in the 1960s. The school was Charlotte's only public school for African-Americans from 1886 to 1907. The Jacob's Ladder concept also appears outside the building. Another feature of the building is a rain screen, with perforated metal panels in some areas and windows in others, resembling a quilt with fluorescent lights that resemble stitches. Freelon Group won the 2009 Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture from the American Institute of Architects for projects that included the Gantt Center.

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