Embrace Boston, the group behind the landmark monument to Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King on Boston Common, says it has acquired two buildings in Downtown Crossing that it plans to transform into a vibrant social and cultural hub for racial justice.
The buildings, next door to one another at 33 and 41 West St., will be redeveloped as a 35,000-square-foot complex for civic and cultural endeavors, the group said. The new location is a half block from Boston Common and a stone's throw from “The Embrace,†the towering bronze sculpture of the Kings' arms locked together in a triumphant hug after Martin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
“Embrace was always built on the theory that the built environment — monuments, buildings — can either harm or help,†said Imari Paris Jeffries, Embrace Boston's president and chief executive. “Being in the center of the city, having a permanent, physical presence, will allow us to help that in a way we maybe haven't been able to before.†It hopes to be able to open its doors in 2030, in time for Boston's 400th anniversary.
Embrace Boston was founded in 2017 as the nonprofit King Boston, with the express purpose of conceiving and funding the King memorial for the last available spot on the Common. When “The Embrace,†by the artist Hank Willis Thomas, was unveiled in January 2023, the group changed names and expanded its mission to become a broad-based organization that hosts festivals, organizes events, and conducts research on the city's civic life from a social justice perspective.
Its new home, conceived in the spirit of a New England meeting house — and to honor Frederick Douglass — will include exhibition space, a podcast studio, and theater space for films, performances, and lectures, the group said. Plans also include gathering space for community groups and a cafe and restaurant. In the coming weeks, a public call will go out to artists for a commission to transform the two buildings' facades into a single work of public art that represents the organization's priorities.
For the West Street project, Embrace has enlisted the Boston-based firm Model of Architecture Serving Society Design Group, with which it worked to commission the King memorial and to build the 1965 Freedom Plaza on which it stands, honoring dozens of local civil rights leaders from 1950 to 1970.
“I think the idea of the actual memorial was kind of an opening act,†said Jonathan Evans, a principal at MASS. “The idea now is, ‘How can we help them extend this idea of art, architecture, and design into something that has an active role in making the city better?' We want it to be part of a constellation of ideas about belonging and place-making.â€
The acquisition is a welcome turnaround from the organization's years-long quest to take up residence in a proposed multipurpose development slated for Parcel 3, a nearly 8-acre lot of city-owned land in Roxbury. But the city canceled the project in January and announced that it would instead use the site to build a new campus for Madison Park Technical Vocational High School.
Jeffries said Embrace Boston is still planning for a presence in Roxbury, calling it “an imperative†for the organization. “We will still need that commitment, and we're actively working on that,†he said. In the meantime, the West Street properties came within reach, and Embrace seized the opportunity.
While much remains to be seen as Embrace fund-raises to execute its vision, its potential is tantalizing. In a statement, Governor Maura Healey said the move is “about more than a building. It's about creating a space where people from every neighborhood and background can come together to connect, reflect, create, and leave a meaningful impact on our communities.â€
Jeffries hopes to capitalize on that potential with an open-door approach. “The excitement, I think, is that it's stone soup,†he said. “We want to use this moment to get people talking about and engaged with the possibilities here, and to contribute,†Jeffries said.
The project emerges in a radically different political environment than the one that greeted the unveiling of “The Embrace†in January 2023. A large-scale emblem of a nationwide racial reckoning that exploded from the murder of George Floyd amid the early days of the COVID pandemic, the sculpture helped reconfigure public space in a city largely reserved for historical icons of the country's founding, like George Washington or Paul Revere.
“The Embrace†anchored more recent, fractious elements of American history in its oldest public park, the Common, in a moment receptive to the public blossoming of those stories. Now, with a federal administration openly hostile to Embrace's mission of equity and inclusion, the group's growth is remarkable.
“Back then, I felt kind of like we were in ‘Star Wars: A New Hope,'†Jeffries said. “Now it feels more like ‘The Empire Strikes Back.' But that's the fight we're built for.â€
Along with the facade commission, Embrace is also in discussions with the city to create an open call to artists for the empty plinth in nearby Park Square, vacant since the removal of Thomas Ball's “The Emancipation Group“ in 2020 after a public outcry over its portrayal of Abraham Lincoln seeming to bestow freedom on an enslaved man crouched at his feet. The organization hopes to be able to put out a public call for proposals by fall.
The buildings are currently largely occupied by commercial tenants, Jeffries said, who are welcome to remain as the organization begins raising capital to renovate both buildings. But an unoccupied portion of the building is slated to host a kickoff as soon as this fall.
Murray Whyte can be reached at murray.whyte@globe.com. Follow him @TheMurrayWhyte.
