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

The competition for the premier high-profile commission is expected to draw the interest of the leading “starchitects” across the globe.

The foundation has stated in earlier documents associated with the site selection competition that the “unified design vision” calls for the building to be a “responsible steward of the environment” and one that “embodies principles of biomimicry to create a living building.” — chicago.suntimes.com

President Obama will choose the University of Chicago as the site for his presidential library, according to several reports and sources close to the Obama family.

The proposal from the University of Chicago in Chicago’s South Side Hyde Park neighborhood, which is near where the Obamas have a home, their daughters attended grammar school and Michelle Obama worked as a vice president of the university’s medical center, is the apparent winner, reports and these sources say. — forbes.com

The Chicago Architectural Club launched its 2014 edition of the Chicago Prize ideas competition this past weekend: design the Barack Obama Presidential Library! From the lively discussion (if not frenzy) surrounding a Barack Obama Presidential Library possibly being built, the Chicago Prize invites architects and designers to send ideas of how the U.S. Presidential Library building typology should be reinvented. — bustler.net

Barack Obama still has two long years left to cement his legacy as something between “yes we can” and “at least I tried”. Regardless of how history remembers him, Obama will always represent a shift from the old guard, an idealistic starting point for what (and who) future presidents could be. For now, though, his official museum, his keeper of secrets: couldn’t that still be a tangible change we can believe in? At least an architectural one? — theguardian.com

HOK has just unveiled its design for the Obama Presidential Library. Although several institutions in Chicago have submitted their own bids for the new museum and library, the global architecture and engineering office states that it submitted this design in coordination with the Museum Campus Foundation, which is an organization comprised of a number of community groups located in Bronzeville. — chicago.curbed.com

The foundation established to lead the development of President Obama’s library and museum opened the door Thursday for institutions and groups to begin making a pitch to host the site.

The Barack Obama Foundation issued its long-awaited Request for Qualifications on its newly named website, inviting applicants to provide information about how their proposal would impact the community and how it would reflect the president’s vision. — chicagotribune.com

Stern's architecture is always steeped in strategic references to past landmarks; there is no doubt he knows how to send, and shape, an architectural message. And the message the front entrance to the Bush Library delivers is clear: This is a building meant to honor a particularly blunt and plain-spoken kind of political power. — latimes.com