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Dignified Obama Presidential Center design receives subtle updates

2019-10-28T14:56:00-04:00

A new set of renderings have been unveiled for the controversial Obama Presidential Center (OPC) designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA) on Chicago's South Side.

The latest views present a more transparent and animated complex that has been tweaked to address ongoing aesthetic and siting concerns raised by the local community, landscape preservationists, and the design media.

Aerial and ground level views of the proposed presidential center. Images courtesy of Obama Foundation.

Compared with previous iterations of the project, the latest designs feature taller, more slender proportions as well as a greater number of openings and more glass. A central, multi-story entry portal rising 88-feet now marks the main face of the center's 235-foot tower, for example, while a retooled corner entry garden is marked along the building's mass by a faceted carve. The white stone-wrapped tower is set to be surrounded by landscapes designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, In...

University of Chicago faculty sign letter opposing current plans for Obama Presidential Center amidst changes

2018-01-08T19:35:00-05:00

From disapprovals over the design to concerns about parking, the Obama Presidential Center has been met with strong opposition since its unveiling. In particular, residents of Chicago's South Side, where the center will be located, have been quite critical of the Foundation's location choice as well as its refusal to sign a Community Benefits Agreement.

Joining in on the conversation, more than 100 University of Chicago faculty members have now penned a letter concerning the Obama Center, opposing its plans on economic and preservation grounds. Though faculty members support locating the Center in Chicago's South Side—near the university where the former President once taught—they share concerns expressed by neighborhood groups about its currently planned placement at Jackson Park.

Woodlawn residents and Hyde Parkers protest current Obama Center plans back in November. Courtesy of Southside Together Organizing for Power.

According to the criticism, locating the Center in Jackson Pa...

Chicago's South Side community expresses concern about the Obama Presidential Center

2017-10-03T14:12:00-04:00

The Obama Presidential Center will be transformative, just as it will be truly urban, only up to a point. It’s bound to disappoint anybody who forgets that Obama’s political strategy, as distinct from his larger role in the culture, has always been unshakably centrist. Because (among other reasons) his race continues to make him a lightning rod, a magnet for unhinged opinion, he has preferred the middle to the edge.

Residents of the South Side in Chicago raise concerns about the location of the new center and complain that the Obama Foundation refuses to sign a Community Benefits Agreement guaranteeing construction jobs and other patronage to members of the South Side community.

Take a look at the first images of the design for the Obama Presidential Center by TWBTA

2017-05-03T18:55:00-04:00

As promised, initial designs for the Obama Presidential Center by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects were released today. The Center will be composed of three buildings—the Museum, the Forum, and the Library—that surround a rectangular plaza.

The four primary sides of the Museum, the tallest structure on the site, are hexagons, sloping out as they rise before tapering back in about a quarter of the way up the building. In the drawings, the Museum, as well as the other two buildings, appears to be clad in stone. The façades are punctured with a few narrow rectangular windows. On the south-western corner of the Museum, a chunk is cut out of the bottom half and the resulting vertical surfaces of the indentation are glazed. On the opposite corner, the top half is cut out, producing a balcony. A large entrance on the southern side leads out to the plaza via a ramp.

The Forum and the Library line the southern and eastern edges of the plaza. They will be single-story structures with terrac...

Obama chooses Jackson Park as the site for his Presidential Center

2016-07-27T18:59:00-04:00

According to the Chicago Tribune, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have finally settled on a site for the Obama Presidential Center: historic Jackson Park. Adjacent to the University of Chicago, the park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. An official announcement is expected next week.

The 500 acre park is also near the Museum of Science and Industry, the lakefront, Lake Shore Drive and two Metra train stations. It borders the Woodlawn neighborhood, described by the Tribune as "beginning to gentrify", and Hyde Park.

According to the Tribune, the park is "less challenging" than the other contender, Washington Park. While both sites are in poorer neighborhoods outside of the city center – a first for a presidential library –, the Washington Park neighborhood is more economically depressed than Jackson Park. One third of the land in Washington Park is vacant.

Estimated to cost $500 million, the Presidential Center will be designed by Tod Williams a...

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects selected to design the Obama Presidential Center

2016-06-30T13:23:00-04:00

The Obama Foundation has selected Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners (TWBTA) to lead the design team for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, and Interactive Design Architects (IDEA) to be their partner as they begin this exciting project. TWBTA stood out in their commitment to explore the best ways of creating an innovative center for action that inspires communities and individuals to take on our biggest challenges.

The husband and wife team of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA) first started their practice back in 1986, with Paul Schulhof becoming the firm's third partner in 2013. The thirty person team is headquartered in New York.

"We believe that architecture is the coming together of art and use, and can bring a sense of grace to life," the architects state in the announcement. "The greatest buildings are places, which contribute to more than their particular task by elevating and improving the world.

"We are deeply moved by the mission of the Obama Foundation and the role the Center can play in empowering that mission. It is a joy, an honor, and a responsibility to create a place that reflects the optimism and integrity of the President and the First Lady."

TWBTA have designed a number of notable and highly-praised institutional projects in the past, including the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, the Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, and the Center for the A...