We’re proud to share that our reimagining of the New York Amsterdam News headquarters has been featured in the New York Times. The Times looks at how the Amsterdam News’ longtime home in Harlem is being converted into a public institution for Black history, journalism and culture.
“This building, this facade is not [architecturally] distinct. What is special about this building is what happened here.” – Angel Ayón, Principal at AYON Studio
The Amsterdam News has reported from Harlem since 1909. It was among the first to publish Langston Hughes, the first major publication to give Malcolm X a platform, the first to print the word “hip-hop,” and the only paper to stand with the Central Park Five, now the Exonerated Five.
AYON Studio is thrilled to be leading the architectural preservation work with Jerome Haferd Studio. We are restoring the building’s historic façade, neon sign, murals, marble staircase and mosaic floors, and preserving a 1940s publisher’s office and the former newsroom. We have also designed new spaces for the public, including a two-story digital portal to be known as the Citadel of Black Truth, a café honoring the civil rights lunch counters, and a rooftop event space with views of the Harlem skyline.
The Amsterdam News is one of the few remaining independent, Black-owned newspapers in the country, and the Times’ coverage shows how much papers like it still matter. For nearly two centuries, starting with Freedom’s Journal in 1827, the Black press has documented stories that mainstream outlets ignored, from the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement to the fight to exonerate the Central Park Five. Many of those papers are gone now, and their archives have disappeared.
The reimagining will keep more than a century of Amsterdam News history in its longtime Harlem headquarters, open to the public, and free to anyone in the world through a no-paywall digital archive. As the Black press nears its 200th anniversary, the building will stand as lasting proof of what independent Black journalism has built, and as a promise that it will keep going.
“This is bringing the community back into it. We want to get the Amsterdam News back into people’s homes but also bring them into the home of The Amsterdam News.” said Publisher Tatum.
Funding for the project is being raised by the Amsterdam News Educational Foundation, with seed funding from the Mellon Foundation. Completion is anticipated by 2030.
Read the full article in The New York Times.