The updated design of the Obama Presidential Center, released this week, show several design changes since the concept, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects|Partners with landscape architecture by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, was first introduced last May. The updated design was released to coincide with the Obama Foundation’s Planned Development and Lakefront Protection Ordinance applications.
Slated for Jackson Park in Chicago’s South Side, the complex is formed by six main parts: a museum, a library, the Forum community and event building, a public plaza, an athletic center, and a parking facility. As Lynn Sweet reports in The Chicago Sun-Times, the parking was moved underground following backlash to an earlier proposal for an above-ground garage on the Midway Plaisance, a nearby public park.
The new museum tower design is “more slender,” according to a foundation fact-sheet, and a bit taller: it grew from 178 feet tall to 235 feet tall. It also features a newly introduced window in the north façade revealing the circulation within. The new design also increases the below-grade space, according to the fact-sheet.
“We’ve taken your thoughts and concerns, and reconsidered and reconceived various aspects of the campus design and the details of the architecture,” President Barack Obama wrote in a statement emailed on Wednesday. “We’ve reimagined the landscape plans and the recreational spaces. And we’re far from finished. We’re going to continue to iterate on these plans, and we’re going to continue to turn to you for your feedback.”
View more renderings of the Obama Presidential Center in ARCHITECT’s Project Gallery.
