When Barack Obama's people announced last week that they are searching worldwide for an architect for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, they won no points for transparency. [...]
Having consulted sources, I can now name 11 of the firms and observe that they are A) Of high caliber; B) Represent a broad geographic and aesthetic spectrum; and C) Include the established firms one would expect to be invited.
— chicagotribune.com
Rumors have been running wild which architects were among the 50+ selected firms to receive RFQs from the White House for the design of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
While Martin Nesbitt, chairman of the Barack Obama Foundation, remains tight-lipped about names of the invited designers, more and more national and international architects surface 'as confirmed.' Blair Kamin claims in his latest Tribune piece that — according to his sources — he can already name 11 of the firms: among them, Pritzker winner Renzo Piano, Chicago locals Helmut Jahn, Perkins+Will, Krueck+Sexton, and Tigerman McCurry Architects, New Yorkers Robert A.M. Stern (who has already designed GWB's presidential library) and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, as well as the San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and others.
Kamin repeatedly points out London-based David Adjaye as the one to watch, potentially the first non-American architect who could land the job for an American presidential library.
Responses to the RFQs are due September 16, after which the President and the First Lady will select the finalists later this year. The ultimate selection of the final design architect is not expected until early 2016.
What's your prediction, Archinectors? Will David Adjaye simply breeze through and take the commission, or is the remaining (rumored) field strong enough to wow the President along with Chicago's residents?
56 Comments
I agree with you, sameold, on all counts.
Sooooooo poignant, Peter. One can only hope the this library, celebrating the father of daughters who they themselves have the blood of slaves, will finally destroy the 'white' city of which so much shame has wrought. And I can't wait for the press to describe David Adjaye as the first 'African-American' presidential library architect. 12 years a slave 'member that?
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FRa C
Wait, FRaC, you just raised the specter in my mind of some news person seriously calling David Adjaye African-American, like NBD. That's sadly probably very likely to happen.
Peter,
Your point is spot on.
Place matters as much as the building. Landscape and place matter as much as the building envelope. I'm betting that Walter Hood would get the nod as the LA or Theater Gates (who is not a LA, but seems to be popular these days) as a front person for a large firm.
That's one of the reasons why I'm curious about the architect. As FRaC mentions, the press will do their best to suggest (if he is selected) that Adjaye is African American- or "close enough." Imagine the African American or biracial with African American descent- architects will be insulted by that allusion. If this is going to be an authentic legacy, the selection of the designer matters for social reasons in addition to aesthetic reasons.
If a Brit, and that is, a Brit of color, e.g. David Adjaye, were given the nod for this commission, and the design result was good, who in the long run would care? He's already building an important Afro-American museum on the Washington Mall--was there a big fuss about this? What really matters is what architect president Obama considers qualified for this project. Ideally, some knowledge and/or awareness of architectural design will enter into the president's decision-making process.
I seriously doubt that the US press would characterize David Adjaye as an African-American, were he awarded the Obama Library commission. The US press is not that insular. Adjaye was born in Tanzania, but grew up, and, was educated primarily in the UK. His biography is easily accessible in his New Yorker profile of a few years ago. The association of Obama's father's origins and Adjaye's might be emphasized by the press as some sort of natural cultural "match," but it would make no sense for the media to describe Adjaye as an Afro-American, or even a US citizen.
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