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Japan's preeminent art and architecture prize, the Praemium Imperiale, today announced the newest round of laureates with the award in the Architecture category going to Tod Williams and Billie Tsien this year. Established in 1986, the New York-based practice Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects... View full entry
In a surprising move, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the city of Chicago was within its authority when it approved the Obama Foundation’s plan to build the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.
After listening to nearly an hour of arguments on both sides, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey said construction of the sprawling Obama center campus can begin and dismissed the lawsuit filed by environmentalists that aimed to halt it.
— Chicago Tribune
Designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, the planned Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park has faced strong opposition from the start and was barred from commencing construction due to the pending lawsuit brought forward by the group, Protect Our Parks. "Even though this... View full entry
What I’ll miss during the Museum of Modern Art’s four-month public shutdown is something I’ve already been missing for five years and will probably continue to miss when the expanded museum reopens in October. I’m talking about the presence on West 53rd Street of the American Folk Art Museum, which was physically demolished in 2014, and whose site the expanded MoMA absorbs, but whose spirit lives on as a restless ghost in the corporate machine that MoMA is. — The New York Times
Holland Cotter, NYT co-chief art critic, on the state of art apart from the usual household names at MoMA since the TWBTA-designed American Folk Art Museum building next door was demolished in 2014, as well as looking ahead to the reopening of the expanded MoMA this fall. "I would suggest that we... View full entry
As the Museum of Modern Art begins the final stage of its $400 million overhaul, it will close for four months to reconfigure its galleries, rehang the entire collection and rethink the way that the story of modern and contemporary art is presented to the public.
The Picassos and van Goghs will still be there, but the 40,000 square feet of additional space will allow MoMA to focus new attention on works by women, Latinos, Asians, African-Americans and other overlooked artists...
— NY Times
Over the span of its 89 year history, The Museum of Modern Art has been the subject of both praise and disappointment among cultural elites. In particular, its Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed plan to expand into the adjacent American Folk Art Museum, by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects... View full entry
Students—as both learners and curators—are leading the way at Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum of Art, which is due to reopen on 26 January 2019 after a closure of nearly three years for an expansion and revamp by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. The $50m project expands the museum’s space by 50% to over 62,000 sq ft, adds six new galleries and renovates the museum’s original 1985 Charles Moore building (which was “not healthy” [...] revealing rust and mould in the renovation process). — The Art Newspaper
Previously on Archinect: "It’s almost as if they were getting revenge for what MoMA did to their Folk Art Museum" — TWBTA take on Charles Moore's Hood Museum View full entry
The Obama Center design team has been reworking plans for a proposed controversial garage on a portion of the historic Midway Plaisance, across the street from where the presidential complex is to be built in Jackson Park. [...]
When I left off on this story in November, Tod Williams, one of the architects, said relocating the garage was under consideration, given the concerns of community groups for the historic publicly owned Midway property.
— Chicago Sun-Times
Curbed Chicago picks up the story where the Chicago Sun-Times left off and reports about some of the praise and criticism that was presented at a meeting the Obama Foundation had called on December 20 at its Hyde Park Headquarters. The hearing was led by the project's architects Tod Williams... View full entry
Plans for the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park are being firmed up largely out of public view, and one watchdog group is sounding the alarm about the lack of transparency.
Decisions on the design of the center, the park’s golf course and even whether to eliminate some roads in the park are being worked out by the Obama Foundation, City Hall and the Chicago Park District.
— Chicago Sun Times
Designed by the New York-based firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, the Obama Presidential Center will consist of three buildings—a museum, a forum, and a library located near a lagoon that runs into Lake Michigan in Chicago's Jackson Park neighborhood. However, recently Jackson Park... View full entry
The most important question related to the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side doesn’t have that much to do with its architecture.
It is instead: What kind of landscape stewardship can a presidential museum and library offer? To be located in Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted’s Jackson Park, the project already has a heap of canonical landscape history to contend with. So can the Obama library make a great park greater?
— landscapearchitecturemagazine.org
"So this new landscape has the potential to improve upon the already very good. But for whom?," Zach Mortice asks in his piece for Landscape Architecture Magazine. "Will these grounds remain public and accessible for all South Siders and Chicagoans, free of charge?" View full entry
During Obama's unveiling of plans for his upcoming Presidential Library and Center, the former POTUS revealed his young ambitions of being an architect. During yesterdays events, he proclaimed "I wanted to be an architect when I was a kid. Somehow, I took a wrong turn." Back in June, Obama chose... View full entry
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... View full entry
The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the Obamas will finally reveal a conceptual model of the former president’s library and museum tomorrow. The Obamas are to release the three-dimensional model at a community meeting event at the South Shore Cultural Center, which also happens to be where the... View full entry
Interviewed by Paul Goldberger, the New York architecture critic who advised the Obama Foundation on the architect selection process for the library, Williams and Tsien revealed conceptual ideas for the project, said Obama critiqued an early plan of theirs as too quiet [...]
"He said it was too unflashy," ArchDaily quoted Tsien as saying. "He looked at what we did and he said, 'I said you could be sort of quiet, but I think you're a little too quiet.'"
— Chicago Tribune
At an estimated $1.5 billion, the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago may end up costing more than three times what the George W. Bush Museum cost, according to new reports. This is primarily due to the fact that the center will house not one institution but two—both a presidential... View full entry
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... View full entry
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. — Barack Obama Foundation
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... View full entry
