Book talk: The Belgian Friendship Building: From the New York World’s Fair to a Virginia HBCU
How did the Belgian Friendship Building, originally constructed for the 1939 New York World’s Fair—and one of only a few surviving buildings from that celebrated exhibition—end up on the campus of an African American university in Richmond, Virginia?
In this richly illustrated book, Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Katherine Kuenzli, and Bryan Clark Green relate the fascinating story, spanning three continents, of a distinctly modern structure that has towered over Virginia Union University, in a city characterized by its traditional architecture, for more than eighty years.
It is a structure whose original purposes—to present modern Belgian design and to extol its racist, colonial regime—stand in stark contrast to its dedication in 1941 to Robert L. Vann, longtime editor of one of America’s most illustrious historic Black newspapers.
The Belgian Friendship Building is an enduring example of prewar modernism designed by a team of Belgian architects under the direction of Henry van de Velde that has until now been all but forgotten in histories of modern architecture. This indispensable, multifaceted account ties together the history of modern European architecture, colonial exploitation, and African American achievement in a compelling case study.
Programme
- 18:00: Doors
- 18:30 – 18:40: Introduction - Steven Jacobs, Professor, Department of Art History, Musicology, and Theater Studies, Ghent University.
- 18:40 – 19:00: “The Belgian Friendship Building: Myth versus Fact” - Katherine Kuenzli, Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Wesleyan University
- Was the Belgian Friendship Building the gesture of international and interracial goodwill that it is often made out to be? In this book presentation, Prof. Kuenzli will unravel many of the myths surrounding the building and lend insight into its complex history.
- 19:00 – 19:10: Comment, by Luc Verpoest, Professor Emeritus, Department of Architecture, Urbanism, and Planning, KU Leuven.
- Em. prof. Verpoest, a specialist in modern architecture and its conservation will comment on possible approaches to restoring the Belgian Friendship Building, as compared with Tweebronnen (formerly Technical School) in Leuven (1936-42), a similar building designed by Henry van de Velde which underwent a successful restoration in the 1990s.
- 19:10 – 19:20: Comment, by Johan Lagae, Professor, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ghent University.
- Prof. Lagae, a scholar of Belgian colonial and postcolonial architecture in Central Africa will comment on The Belgian Friendship Building, from the point of view of architectural history and historiography.
- 19.20 - 19.30: Discussion of speakers with Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Professor of Art History, University College Dublin.
- 19.30: Questions from the audience
- Reception and book sale
Practical
- Date - Wednesday 25th February 2026
- Location - Boekentoren, Belvedere Rozier 3, 9000 Gent
- Admission is free, but registration is required.
About the authors
Kathleen James-Chakraborty is Professor of Art History at University College Dublin and the author of several books, including Modernism as Memory: Building Identity in the Federal Republic of Germany (University of Minnesota Press, 2018).
Katherine Kuenzli is Professor of Art History at Wesleyan University. Her books and articles, including Henry van de Velde: Designing Modernism (Yale University Press, 2018), address the relationship between modern art and design.
Bryan Clark Green is Architectural Historian and Director of Historic Preservation for Commonwealth Architects in Virginia and the author of In Jefferson’s Shadow: The Architecture of Thomas R. Blackburn (2006).