Welcome to Brick by Brick. Each month, we will speak to someone involved with building The Hip Hop Museum, which will open in 2025.

This month, we spoke with Bevin Savage-Yamazaki, Culture & Museums Leader and Senior Associate at Gensler. Read on as Bevin talks about Hip Hop’s influence on her as a young girl growing up in Ireland, what Hip-Hop fans can expect from the experiences at The Hip Hop Museum, and how The Hip Hop Museum will be an ever-evolving space to celebrate the culture.

Adam Aziz: Please introduce yourself and tell us about your role at Gensler.

Bevin Savage-Yamazaki: My name is Bevin Savage-Yamazaki, and I am originally from Ireland. I’m a designer who’s been involved in cultural and civic space since I graduated college. I am very focused on the role of architecture in our civic space and the fact that it can be impactful and make change. I often allude to this idea of doctors taking a hippocratic oath to do no harm to their patients, and I think architects sign an unwritten contract with the communities that they build in. We have a significant opportunity to make change through space.

Museums definitely fall into this category. When I was growing up in Ireland, we had one tiny Museum in my hometown of Limerick. That’s where my parents used to take me most weekends. It was an opportunity for me to see a much larger world than the small town I grew up in. I’ve been driven to create spaces for young people to connect with other things and see outside their communities.

AA: Tell us about your involvement in The Hip Hop Museum.

BSY: I’ve been at Gensler for about fourteen years and lead our cultural practice focusing on culture and museums globally. It has been an honor to be involved with this project. I’ve been thrilled to work with Mike Ford. It has been a great collaboration. Our two teams are very engaged and very collaborative.

We’re developing The Hip Hop Museum’s spaces together and making sure that Mike’s concepts, designed several years ago, are woven tightly into each space. We are both designing different spaces, so it has been a really collaborative project for us. Everything we’ve been doing is tied into the original vision of The Museum.

AA: Would your team focus more on the exterior of the building or the interior of The Museum?

BSY: Given that the building has already been built and designed, this is a really interesting project because so many teams are involved. We have this amazing building that S9 Architects designed, which has all the housing above, and we’ve got this platform, which is where The Museum lives.

We arrived at this space that had already been built, which has its advantages and challenges. We’re working within a specific footprint. Our role is to help develop the story of the visitor experience along with Mike Ford and his team. It’s the idea of a rose that grew from the concrete foundation that Mike spoke about in a previous interview in the newsletter. Everyone is coming together under a joint vision. One of our big focuses has been the staff spaces, which we’re calling the community hub. We want to make sure The Museum can hire great talent and that they have a great place to work in. We’ve also been working with Charcoal Blue on the theater space.

AA: What do you think will make The Hip Hop Museum unique from other museum projects you’ve worked on?

BSY: The story it tells is unique and very special, as nothing has captured the key shifts in culture like Hip-Hop has. It’s one of the key cultures ever, having influenced everything from music to art to fashion and so on. I think it’s such a wonderful opportunity to trace back to its beginnings in the Bronx, which is why it’s so special with The Museum being in the Bronx.

AA: What kind of challenge does The Hip Hop Museum represent, given that other museums often capture cultures and events that are in the past, where Hip Hop culture is still very much relevant and continues to grow?

BSY: We address this by building flexibility into the architecture, the exhibitions, and the way we tell the story. We want it to feel that it can grow and be organic, just like the way culture evolves in general. Rocky Bucano was very clear from the beginning that The Museum’s concept needs to be flexible.

There’s been a massive shift in the overall museum space in the past five years for them to be less stagnant and more dialogue-focused so that you’re creating spaces that aren’t just about looking at objects, but you’re creating spaces for programming, more conversations, and more community gathering. The Hip Hop Museum has taken that seriously where it’s a space not just about telling a story but about engaging in a culture, being part of conversations and performances that will move the culture forward.

AA: What do you hope people leave with after visiting The Hip Hop Museum?

BSY: There are going to be so many stories told that people don’t know about. They will leave with a deepened understanding of the culture. One key thing is that visitors will have a lot of opportunities to engage. There will be an opportunity to learn how to DJ, create music, try breakdancing, and even get in a booth and spray paint graffiti.

AA: Are you a fan of Hip Hop?

BSY: My knowledge of Hip Hop is still in the 80s. Growing up on my tiny island, I was influenced by Run-DMC. I went to an all-girls school run by a bunch of nuns, and we would try breakdancing moves on cardboard in our school uniforms. This project has brought me more towards contemporary Hip Hop, listening to a lot of music and watching documentaries.