Managing Design

CHAPTER 10Art and Architecture: Design Leadership and Conviction

INTERVIEW

Phil Freelon, FAIA

Design Director, Perkins+Will

21st February 2018

Phil Freelon, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C is Design Director of Perkins+Will's North Carolina practice. He leads design studios in Durham and Charlotte, is a member of the board of directors, and a key leader for the firm's cultural and civic practice. Freelon's design achievements include cultural, civic, and academic projects for America's most respected cultural institutions. He led the design team for the $500 Million Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2011, then President Barack Obama appointed him to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, where he served from 2012 to 2016. Freelon is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Architecture. In 2017, Fast Company named him one of the world's 100 most creative people in business, and “America's Humanitarian Architect.”

“On smaller projects you can't compartmentalize management and design and technical details.”

Cultural Understanding, Design Tools and Ideas or “We're ...