\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/vF260heB7rY\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
While at The Freelon Group and Perkins+Will, his visioning for projects like Emancipation Park garnered him recognition as an emerging designer for the global firm. Emancipation Park embodies much of what would be the founding principles for EVOKE.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former slave Reverend Jack Yates led community members of Antioch Baptist and Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas to purchase land for Juneteenth celebrations in 1872. Under racial segregation, the park was the only one in the city for Black people to use. The park underwent $33 million in renovations in 2017, led by Perkins and Will with Phil Freelon heading the design team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe believe that great design has the capacity to improve the lives of people. So, we\u2019re really ambitious about design and its capabilities \u2013 every project that we take on, from the smallest to the largest \u2013 how can we create spaces and designs that are going to improve the lives of anyone who experiences them,\u201d says Edwin.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He feels that his own personal ambition is driven by the desire to build upon the sacrifices of the previous generation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a black person in America, our ancestors fought so hard for freedoms and made sacrifices for freedoms that they never achieved and they did it for us,\u201d he adds. \u201cI\u2019m trying to strive for greatness, not just for myself but for the people who come before me. I want to be able to tell them, \u2018look, [your sacrifice] wasn\u2019t all for nothing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Co-founder of EVOKE Studio Architecture, Edwin Harris believes that remarkable architecture enhances the lives of its occupants.
\nFor over a decade, he has consistently generated exciting designs that are decisive, focused, and rooted in clear objectives and novel concepts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":25720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":false,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":true,\"caption\":\"\",\"featuredVideoURL\":\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/vF260heB7rY\",\"displayCategoryID\":56}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[56,49,387],"tags":[51,439],"class_list":["post-28128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-experience","category-newswire","category-student-experience","tag-architecture","tag-designlife-magazine-2021"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":56,"name":"Alumni Experience","slug":"alumni-experience","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":56,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":208,"filter":"raw"},"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28128"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28137,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28128\/revisions\/28137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}