Durham architect Freelon named to national arts commission

DURHAM -- Durham architect Phil Freelon has been appointed, by President Obama, to a four-year term on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.

The commission advises the president, Congress and federal administrators on aesthetic matters in the District of Columbia and advises the U.S. Mint on commemorative coins and medals. It also reviews and approves designs for national memorials in the United State and overseas.

Freelon runs his own Freelon Group in Durham, a firm specializing in museums, cultural centers and projects for higher education and science institutions.

The Smithsonian Institution picked Freelon's firm to lead planning for the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the Washington Mall.

Freelon is also a Professor of the Practice in Architectural Design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned a master's degree in architecture after graduating from N.C. State University.

A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2003, Freelon received the Institute's 2009 Thomas Jefferson Award for his record of architecturally distinguished public facilities.