Vision Honor Award – Freedmen’s Town Urban Plan

National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) | Honor Award for Design Vision
Fall 2017

At the 2017 NOMA Conference in Chicago, Hines Architecture + Design was honored with a Vision Award in recognition of its conceptual master plan for Freedmen’s Town, located in Houston’s historic Fourth Ward.

The proposal reimagines the post-Emancipation community—one of the earliest documented urban settlements of freed Africans in the South—as a cultural district rooted in memory, legacy, and spatial justice. Once a thriving epicenter of Black urban life, craftsmanship, and entrepreneurship during the Reconstruction Era, Freedmen’s Town has since been impacted by aggressive urban development, infrastructure displacement, and cultural erasure.

HINESAD’s vision repositions the district as a global site of cultural resilience and creativity, integrating historical preservation with forward-looking urban design. The plan aligns with ongoing efforts by civic leaders to achieve UNESCO World Heritage recognition for the community—acknowledging its role in shaping African American cultural identity, economic power, and art.

The project amplifies a broader call: to honor places built by formerly enslaved people, not only through preservation but through architecture that restores dignity, tells the truth, and inspires future generations.