Langston Hughes Library

I really admire projects that take historic buildings and combine them seamlessly with contemporary architecture. It is a difficult feat to pull off, but in the best cases the reinterpretation brings the building alive and creates a space that speaks to both eras.

A marvelous example of this is the Langston Hughes Library in Clinton, Tennessee. Maya Lin designed this for the Children's Defence Fund to house a 5,000 volume reference collection that specializes in the Civil Rights Movement and books written by Black authors. It is an 1860's cantilevered barn which is typical of that area and period.