Having recently chosen Chicago, Illinois, as the host location for Barack Obama’s presidential library, The Barack Obama Foundation is now launching a competition to find an architect for the US President’s legacy project.
The presidential library – a repository for preserving and making available the papers, records, collections and other historical materials of every President of the US since Herbert Hoover in 1929 – will be developed in partnership with the University of Chicago and is scheduled to open by 2021.
Acting as a monument to America's first black President,
it was announced in May that the presidential library will be located on Chicago’s South Side, with two parks near the University of Chicago’s campus under consideration: Washington Park and Hyde Park; and Jackson Park.
The library will take up around 80,000sq m (871,000sq ft) of the 300-plus acre (1.2km) spaces. The improvements around the library at these parks will include enhanced access for pedestrians and cyclists, renovation or replacement of ageing facilities, and other attractions such as urban farms.
According to the
Chicago Sun-Times, the process will be “kicking off very soon”, with the foundation preparing a “very general” request for architecture firms to respond.
Top architects from across the world will likely be interested in the development, with firms such as Snøhetta having
already suggested proposals for since-rejected locations.
In the project brief, the Obama Foundation calls for a “unified design vision” with the library’s architecture to be a “responsible steward of the environment.”
A 2014 study by the University of Chicago found the library would draw 800,000 visitors a year, creating 1,900 permanent jobs and generating US$220m (€196m, £140m) in annual revenue.
