“Justice is Beauty,” at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., explores the African origins of the architecture firm behind ‘The Embrace’ — and offers a powerful lesson in context
By Murray Whyte Globe Staff, Updated February 12, 2023, 4:57 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The National Building Museum is an understated institution in a city that tends toward the grandiose. A red-brick facade four blocks back from the National Mall conceals thoughtful exhibitions on subjects like affordable housing, architectural photography, and the US/Mexico border wall. And, through March 7, the museum is celebrating the 15-year career of MASS Design Group, the Boston architectural firm that realized its first major project in its hometown last month: “The Embrace,” the memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
Hank Willis Thomas, the artist who conceived the centerpiece of the Kings’ entwined arms, has drawn most of the attention, both vitriol and accolades. But the project began with an invitation from MASS Design Group to join its entry for the memorial, and the piece’s presence on the Common is a result of their partnership.
Though MASS’s office, on Chandler Street, is a half-mile from “The Embrace,” the vast majority of the firm’s work over the past decade-plus has been half a world away.