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 terraced roof gardens connected by pathways to the surrounding landscape and each other. From the models, it appears that both are penetrated by large skylights. The roof of the southern building seems to have some sort of pavilion.
From the images released, it also appears that, at least with two of the buildings, the base is situated below the ground, producing subterranean courtyards planted with trees. Ramps extend over the voids and connect the plaza to the buildings, while stairs lead down to the underground courtyard spaces.
On the eastern edge of the campus lies Lake Michigan. On the western edge, blending into the plaza, sits Jackson Park. “The Center is designed to re-establish the South Side’s connection to the Lagoon and Lake Michigan,” states the Center’s website. “Set in the public space of Jackson Park, the Center’s campus will invite visitors to flow through the architecture and into the park. This approach will soften the transition between city, landscape, lagoon, and lake.”
The Center is intended to be built sustainably and achieve, at a minimum, LEED v4 Platinum certification—but “we are exploring the possibility to surpass those qualifications,” the website states.
Noticed the hand drawings/models too! Amazing how TWBTA balanced the park landscape with making an architecture statement. I hope it doesn't change much. Reminds me of a combo between Breuer massing, Wright organic modernism, and a classical negative space between. I hope people don't associate the cost with architecture--TWBTA spares no expense, but the foundation is raising money for what will be a very active center.
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<insert infinity heart emoji here> The Obamas are so freaking classy and wonderful. And Tod and Billie are too.
Not a LOT of info about the architecture, but it looks great, and based on what we know about TWBTA's work, it *will* be great.
Let people freak out about the price all they want. I for one will happily donate money toward this American community center!
Agree. Very nice.
Noticed the hand drawings/models too! Amazing how TWBTA balanced the park landscape with making an architecture statement. I hope it doesn't change much. Reminds me of a combo between Breuer massing, Wright organic modernism, and a classical negative space between. I hope people don't associate the cost with architecture--TWBTA spares no expense, but the foundation is raising money for what will be a very active center.
Guys. There are no hand drawings.
shh, don't ruin it for them. Good thing the Easter bunny is still real.
Pretty sure, that seconds 32-35 of video feature models though...but agreed that main image isn't (100%) hand drawing...
Oh the model is built by hand.
That cut off my comment. The model is clearly by hand, but the drawings (render and plans if you look for them) are at most 10% hand drawn, and might not be at all. Also, any hand drawing is almost certianly just sketched over an image from a computer.
It's not a constructable rendering.
give it up man totally constructable.
When it comes to greatness, there's nothing to change or edit.
I say keep the open athletic fields that are going to be destroyed and give the Obama stuff to the national archives to do with as they wish. The Obama foundation was supposed to get back to the city on how they were going to remediate other parts of Chicago and replace the athletic fields. Of course, as yet they have not responded at all.
It looks funereal....
Three books, chained to the Front Door of any Chicago School would have saved a lot of money, time and space! You can still do it and stop the wheels turning!
The Obama library should be this:
I was fascinated by the simplicity of the foam. Looks meaningful to me.
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