Today, The Barack Obama Foundation issued a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) to seven architectural firms, one of which will ultimately be selected to design the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) on the South Side of Chicago. [...]
Although the RFP process is not a design competition, the RFP will require defined, visual responses from each candidate to present creative ideas in response to the Foundation’s project goals.
— barackobamafoundation.org
After sending out RFQs to a broad range of (undisclosed but widely speculated) architectural firms on August 26, the President and First Lady, together with advisers from the Obama Foundation, have found time to sit down and select seven finalists to receive a formal Request for Proposal. The top-picks aren't surprising and reflect the direction public predictions had already taken:
Martin Nesbitt, chairman of the Obama Foundation, said: "These finalists offer a variety of backgrounds and styles, and any one of them would be an excellent choice. We are excited to see this process moving forward because the Obama Presidential Center will be so much more than a library – this facility will seek to inspire citizens across the globe to better their communities, their countries, and their world."
Responses from the selected firms are expected in the first quarter of 2016.
What's your guess, Archinectors?
6 Comments
As I said on TC, I'm sick to my stomach that DSR is on this list and Jeanne Gang is not.
I have to pull for TWBTA. They are my favorite, and as you can hear in this podcast they are lovely people and true practitioners of all that is best about architecture. Plus, they express how excited they are at meeting Obama when they won the Medal of Arts!
TWBTA all the way! Glad all the firms are adult choices, not from the kiddie table of meme gimmicks and Instagram.
Adjaye and SHoP also good... SHoP is the high tech choice, TWBTA + Adjaye are the solid, monumental choice (perhaps should be a collaboration? Kind of the hopeful centrist dualism as metaphor for Obama). Ronan is the dark horse. Would have like to see a few more local unknowns.
DS+R can design the bathrooms.
Yeah, I'll throw a vote in for TWBTA as well. Love their work, especially the campus-like buildings with varying masses and interstitial courtyards. The sunken courtyards are the best. Actually Folk Art might have been the best, but oh well...
I find presidential libraries unbecoming of a republic. Once they evolved past some small museum that marked the location of a boyhood home, I think presidential libraries became out of line with the ideals of the position. They seem too monumental and overblown for what is supposed to be a temporary job filled by a citizen. An exceptional citizen, but still a citizen. These presidents aren't royalty, yet it seems like people worship presidents as kings, and massive monuments are built to their 'documents'. A lot of people blame whole economic cycles and global events on the actions of one man, the president. It's embarrassing. In my opinion, the 'libraries' are only constructed to stroke one person's ego.
Maybe the humility and quietness in TWBTA's work will help temper the typical bombastic approach to presidential libraries. May be too subtle for this, or any, president though.
I had a vote, and I wrote in Rikki and his pet giraffe. Damn.
Again, different would be to take the $ and buy books for underprivilaged schools...obama can sign them all if that makes him feel better. presidential libraries are dumb
Better yet affordable housing. Or at the very least a cometary for people killed by Obamacare.
And whoever designs it, a Predator-launched Hellfire missile should be the inspiration.
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