“making home” smithsonian design triennial

Installation,

Visual Media

Ongoing

So That You All Won’t Forget: Speculations on a Black Home in Rural Virginia is a love letter to my family’s farmland in Prospect, Virginia. The installation is one of 25 contributions to the “Making Home” Smithsonian Design Triennial, currently on view at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

The gallery features a collection of AI-generated visual and archival media, framed by 250 pounds of cigar-grade tobacco leaves.

UGly Beauties

Installation,

Visual Media

Budget: $30,000

2024

Ugly Beauties celebrates the belonging of both Black people and spontaneous plant growth in urban environments. Made of construction netting and steel scaffolding, Ugly Beauties features a collage AI-generated images of Black people juxtaposed with native and invasive plant species — so-called “weeds” — that flourish in New York City, prompting viewers to consider society’s perception of beauty and belonging.

Ugly Beauties is part of Van Alen Institute’s Common Build program, intended to surface the work of emerging designers and test new strategies to bring people together in public space.

Photos by Cameron Blaylock.

My AI images of Black life were featured in Bloomberg's Citylab, in an interview with Kriston Capps.

pRESS

oCT 2023

This website was featured as the Site of the Day on Typewolf.

AWARD

NOV 2022

This website was a finalist for the Webflow Awards, for the “Cloneable—Visual Aesthetic” category.

AWARD

NOV 2022

Our DC High Water Mark project was featured in Metropolis (again) in an article about sea rise-related art.

Press

SePt 2022

Our DC High Water Mark project was featured in Metropolis.

Press

SePt 2022

The DC High Water Mark at the Wharf was featured on WUSA9.

Press

JuNE 2022

The DC High Water Mark at the Wharf was featured in DCist.

Press

June 2022

500-year elevation marker of the sculptural high water mark at The Wharf in Washington, DC.

Sculptural high water mark at The Wharf in Washington, DC.

Historical and 100-year elevation marker of the sculptural high water mark at The Wharf in Washington, DC.

Water level gauge installed on dock piling, as part of the high water mark project at The Wharf in Washington, DC.

Didactic signage on the sculptural high water mark at The Wharf in Washington, DC.

Top ring detail image of Kingman Island location of High Water Mark showing chrome paint and bridge in background.

Middle ring detail image of Kingman Island location of High Water Mark showing chrome paint and bridge in background.

Detail of Marvin Gaye Park location of High Water Mark showing footing assembly, chrome paint, and color-coded flags.

Detail of Kingman Island location of High Water Mark lying on ground during installation showing chrome paint, and color-coded flags.

Kingman Island location of High Water Mark in grassy riverbank.

DC High Water Marks

Public Art,

Wayfinding

Budget: $98,000

2022

The DC High Water Mark project is an ongoing effort spearheaded by DC’s Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) to reimagine the city’s approach to flood awareness and readiness. The studio collaborated with Patrick McDonough to envision a system of markers to be installed on sites within the 100-year flood plain.

In January 2020, we installed the first two of these markers—12-foot tall totems that show color-coded elevations of historic flooding events and future flooding scenarios.

In April 2021, we installed a third marker, in partnership with DOEE and The Wharf DC.

I was a named 2022 finalist for the internationally-recognized Wheelwright Prize, presented and funded by the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Press

June 2022

I was named an inaugural member of the Journal for Architecture Education fellowship class.

Press

May 2022

Check out this talk with the Black Land Consortium, with my friends Jerome Haferd, Emanuel Admassu, and Jennifer Newsom.

TALK

FEB 2022

Perspective view of Swept Yard in situ, looking from the east.

Swept Yard

Public Art

Budget: $120,000

In-Progress

Swept Yard is a permanent installation in a triangular park in the historical Black neighborhood of Kingman Park in DC. Inspired by tropes of Black gathering and maintenance, this project offers an array of seating along a sweeping path within the park. An archive of narratives and imagery from Kingman Park residents will also be translated into engraved steel thresholds dispersed along the path.

Friends of Kingman Park selected Wayside and Patrick McDonough to envision this project, supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ Public Art Building Communities grant program. Swept Yard will be delivered in late 2022.

Virtual artist talk on Drylongso: An Ode to the Southern Black Landscape, at theTwelve. Moderated by Obi Okolo.

TALK

SEP 2021

View of the exhibition, showing the table of listening stations, with a projection of footage from the farm in the background.

A guest takes a seat to listen to a story at the table.

A short film showing footage of the land where many of the stories from Drylongso took place.

Multiple listening stations feature a tape cassette player, with each cassette featuring stories from folks in my family who grew near our farmland in VA.

Collage of objects inspired by the stories featured in the Drylongso exhibit.

Photo of the exhibit brochure which explains the Drylongso's premise.

DryLoNgso: An Ode to the Southern BLack landscape

Research,

Installation,

Self‑initiated

2021

Drylongso: An Ode to the Southern Black Landscape was a solo gallery installation centering oral history as way of documenting ordinary Black life in the rural American South. Recorded phone conversations from my family in Prospect, VA were transferred to cassette tape, and invited guests to listen to the customary ways Black folks care for land, space, and people.

The installation took place in TheTwelve’s gallery space in Union Market, with support from Washington Project of the Arts’ Wherewithal Research Grant program.

Listen to the conversations here.

Rear elevation perspective of our OnOlive proposal.

Front elevation of our OnOlive housing proposal.

Perspective showing nook between bedrooms on the second floor. The window leads to a terrace on top of the kitchen below.

Section view of OnOlive competition entry, informed by the shotgun house typology.

OnOLive HousiNg Competition

Architecture, Proposal

2021

OnOlive is an exciting new residential development in St. Louis, featuring homes by prominent firms such as MOS, Productora, Tatiana Bilbao, Michael Maltzan, and others. I collaborated with architect and colleague Jerome Haferd to submit an entry to the project’s national Emergent Black Architect competition, which won second place.

Our entry took inspiration from Black vernacular architecture, St. Louis’ industrial history, and the nearby indigenous Cahokia mounds.

Project team: Curry Hackett, Jerome Haferd, and Nicolas Losi

The Howard Theatre Walk of Fame was featured in the Washington Post.

Press

January 2019

Howard Theatre Walk of Fame signage post in sidewalk on T Street NW in DC.

Person walking on granite threshold, which reads "Howard Theatre Walk of Fame" in sidewalk on 7th Street NW in DC.

Howard Theatre Walk of Fame

Public Art,

Wayfinding

Budget: $400,000

2018

The Howard Theatre Walk of Fame is one of the city’s largest public art projects, solicited by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Located in the historic Shaw neighborhood and “Black Broadway”, the Walk consists of fifteen hand-carved bronze medallions, each depicting a cultural icon that performed at the iconic Howard Theatre.

Project team: Curry Hackett, Jay Coleman, Joanna Blake, and Harry G. Robinson, III, FAIA.

Photographs by Donovan Gerald.

Man picking up flowers from DiasFlora installation.

Image of LAB team member installing orange rope on the DiasFlora installation during Parking Day event.

Rear view of DiasFlora installation showing 30-foot long infographic of Black population in DC over time.

Curry Hackett and LAB team members standing on T Street NW sidewalk during DiasFlora event.

Wayside collaborated with Landscape Architecture Bureau (LAB) for a one-day activation for DC’s PARK(ing) Day event.

Noting the intense gentrification trends in the city (the Black population peaked at 75% in the 1970s), DiasFlora used plants to visualize the dispersal of Black residents in the region.

A 30-foot infographic “fence” mapped DC's Black population since 1790, which served as a backdrop to a field of grasses and flowers. The public was then invited to take the plants home to simulate the movement of Black folks in this regional “diaspora”.

Photographs by LAB.

DiasFlora

Research,

Installation,

2020

The studio uses data, oral histories, and critical research to celebrate under-recognized narratives, and make complex issues feel relevant and accessible.

Wayside (est. 2015) is Curry J. Hackett’s transdisciplinary design and research practice.

The studio employs diverse, site-specific methods to realize projects of socio-cultural value. We work at multiple scales to bolster the relationships between people, their communities, and the ecologies that support them.

Why the name? The long story, short:

A wayside is the strip of land near the edge of a road or railroad track—an ill-defined margin where contrasting regimes compete and coexist.

The studio considers the wayside as both metaphor and methodology, encountering each project as an opportunity to celebrate the margin, the marginal, and the marginalized.

About Curry J. Hackett:

Curry J. Hackett is a transdisciplinary designer, visual artist, and educator exploring Black relationships to land, media, and memory.

A Farmville, Virginia native, his work works across scales and mediums to speculate on the aesthetics and ecologies of the American South. Hackett’s work and ideas have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, and Metropolis, among others. Notably, his installation So That You All Won’t Forget: Speculations on a Black Home in Rural Virginia, is currently on view in the “Making Home”—Smithsonian Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Curry holds architecture degrees from Howard University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and most recently taught as Distinguished Lecturer and Professor of Practice at the City College of New York’s Spitzer School of Architecture, contributing to its Place, Memory, and Culture Incubator program.

Colophon:
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Copyright:
Wayside Studio LLC, 2025. All rights reserved. All materials on this website are the intellectual property of Curry J. Hackett and Wayside Studio.

This website does not track, store, or collect any data.

Generally, our work supports efforts in placekeeping, infrastructure, urban planning, public relations, environmental causes.

Our capabilities include:

· Art direction & branding strategy
· Data visualization
· Design education
· Environmental design
· Public art
· Urban design
· Wayfinding & signage

Get iN touch.

Email at people@wayside.studio.

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Wayside is Curry J. Hackett’s transdisciplinary design and research practice.

Currently, we’re exhibiting at a major museum, honoring the descendants of a Virginia plantation, and envisioning a new Pennsylvania Avenue.

“making home” smithsonian design triennial

UGly Beauties

DC High Water Marks

Swept Yard

DryLoNgso: An Ode to the Southern BLack landscape

OnOLive HousiNg Competition

Howard Theatre Walk of Fame

DiasFlora

The studio uses data, oral histories, and critical research to celebrate under-recognized narratives, and make complex issues feel relevant and accessible.