Foster + Partners, IM Pei and Moshe Safdie also on shortlist for $500m Washington DC museum

David Adjaye and Foster + Partners have been shortlisted with four other architecture practices to design a $500m (£350m) National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC.

The two British architects are up against IM Pei, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Moshe Safdie & Associates, and Moody Nolan.

Adjaye is involved with the competition in partnership with US architects the Freelon Group and Davis Brody Bond. Foster has teamed up with URS.


David Adjaye
Adjaye is involved in partnership with US architects the Freelon Group and Davis Brody Bond

The museum will be built in the heart of the American capital, alongside the National Museum of American History and just 240m from the Washington monument.

The building will cost approximately $500m and will cover around 33,000m2. It will contain artefacts of the African American experience in the US, with exhibits including a slave cabin and a Jim Crow railroad car.

Construction is set to begin in 2012 and conclude in 2015.