Ghana’s Architecture Reveals Its Complex Past

When Mabel O. Wilson surveys the architecture of Ghana, she sees the complex history of the former British colony. From hulking slave forts of the past to today's cell phone kiosks and teeming markets, the story is there, waiting to be told. A chicken strolls in front of a beauty parlor, an example of modern-day architecture in Ghana, and the focus of an exhibition in Manhattan. This fall, Wilson, an associate professor of architecture at Columbia, tells part of that story in an exhibition at Studio X , a research space in lower Manhattan run by the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Wilson traveled to Ghana with former Columbia classmate Peter Tolkin to explore the mid-century architecture, as well as other buildings in the country. Tolkin, who received an M.A. from Columbia in 1991, is the principal of Peter Tolkin Architecture in Pasadena and a lecturer at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Tolkin's revealing color photographs, which he has dubbed "deliberate snapshots," are part of the exhibition titled "Listening There: Scenes from Ghana," which runs through Dec.