The Northwest African American Museum’s amazing team:

Project Consulting and Design Team

The Museum has assembled a great consulting, design and construction team. Barrientos Inc. brought extensive preconstruction experience to the project. Avatar Associates currently manages project construction, having had years of prior experience including King County renovations and SAM’s Olympic Sculpture Park. Housing Resource Group (HRG), managers for the building’s 36 units of housing, brings a long and successful history of property management to the project. The RAFN Construction Company is known for high profile projects that include the historic renovation of the Cadillac Hotel in Pioneer Square as well as the Queen Anne High School Condominiums.

Architects

DKA, (Donald King Architects) the largest African American-owned architectural firm in the Pacific Northwest, is well known for its excellence in design of mixed used facilities as well as project management on historic building renovations like Emerson and Greenwood schools – two Seattle School District schools in the same footprint as Colman. Their awards include the 2006 Gold Award in Building/Technology Systems from the American Council of Engineering Companies, and the 2005 Excellence in Design award from the Environmental Design and & Construction Magazine. DKA’s Urban League Village design received the 2006 Black Creativity Architecture: Pyramids to Skyscrapers award from the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

Exhibits

Formations Inc., exhibit designers, brings 30 years of successful experience in working with startup museums, including culturally specific ones. They most recently completed the Mohammed Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky and the Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California. Formations’ partner, Alice Parman, Ph.D., is a nationally known museum educator and organizational consultant. Her job is to ensure lasting connections are established with the community by incorporating its input for creation of exhibit concepts and ideas.