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 and Billie Tsien, with assistance from Chicago-based Interactive Design Architects.
According to a study done by the University of Chicago, the library could generate some $31 million in food and other retail development for the surrounding neighborhood. The city has also promised to update nearby Metra stations, improve street lighting, and widen bike lanes. Neighborhood activists, led by the Arthur M. Brazier Foundation, are also working on "an extensive revitalization plan", according to the Tribune.
For more on the Obama Presidential Center, check out these links:
7 Comments
too bad they did not choose the site further west in Washington Park near two green line EL stations, it would have dome much more to improve the economy and by extension the community on the south side. The area they are choosing will only speed up gentrification and the displacement of lower in come minorities, in Washington Park there is so much vacant land and buildings that displacement would be almost impossible. It is sad that this won't be positioned to do the most good.
Over and OUT
Peter N
Peter, but wouldn't it be the case, that by situating the Museum in Washington Park, it would gentrify a depressed neighborhood, and force out the people in that neighborhood?
The counter to that would be that this would be another opportunity to implement a Jeanne Gang research process that embeds the needs of the community into the library (and visa versa). And I can't imagine a presidential library being a catalyst for gentrification. ABD historians are known as a significant market segment.
First off I think for the south side despite the less than optimum placement it will be a huge lift to a region of the city that has suffered far too much neglect and divestment.
But the Jackson park location is near Woodlawn a neighborhood that is bounded by the university of Chicago to the north, the park and lake to the east, the Du Sable museum campus and Washington park to the West, it has amenities on 3 sides and the community has recently shaken off the criminal elements plaguing it's parks thanks to the hard work of newly formed park councils in the area. Woodlawn has a bounty of cultural amenities within walking distance. The presidential library will be a huge draw for tourist and for people wanting the prestige and all of the community benefits and services a tourist area will get in the city. Clean streets, trees and flowers bike lanes and all the urban lawn furniture you can shake an artisanal coffee infused stick at. This neighborhood was already getting these services and the library will only accelerate this and accelerate gentrification and displacement of the existing people.
Washington Park by contrast is only truly bounded on the east by the park and the West by the interstate, along the west and in the center is the EL primed for transit oriented development. there is a larger area for people to expand into and much more vacant land that will keep home prices low for quite some time, Woodlawn is much further along in redevelopment and would probably continue with or without the library, Washington Park will probably continue to languish until something else comes along.
Over and OUT
Peter N
How dare you question this perfect placement personally picked by our prestigious POTUS. This will be spectacular!
Under and IN
FRa C
@Marc, "ABD historians"?
Also, this site is adjacent o Hyde Park, right? That is where the Obama's lived before they went to Washington, correct? Seems appropriate/reflexive.
Nam,
EThat should have read "are not" and abs = all but dissertation. I was merely trying to saw the library will not be a long cal economic driver.
That said, Charles Birnbaum of the Cultural Landscape Foundation commented on the proposal, suggesting that the selection of park space in either location is a disservice to the community because it decreases the amount of accessible public recreational space using a New Orleans park as a reference site.
1973
2010
While I hope that this is not the eventual outcome for Jackson park, it does suggest that there is an opportunity for landscapes to be "corrected" as part of presidential library campaigns- reflecting the larger attitudes about landscape of that time while reconciling the needs of the place.
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