HOK has teamed with the President Obama Library and Museum Campus Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, on a planning and site selection proposal for hosting the Barack Obama Presidential Library in Chicago.
In a design bid submitted with Hawthorne Strategy Group to The Barack Obama Foundation on June 16, the team proposed locating the library on a site in Bronzeville, a historic neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Developed by an integrated planning and design team in collaboration with more than 20 firms, organizations and community groups, the proposal for the library embodies the grassroots spirit of the Obama campaign to reflect the President’s agenda.
“Our proposal challenges the historic trend of designing presidential libraries as static repositories of a presidency,” said Peter Ruggiero, AIA, design principal for HOK’s Chicago practice. “By fully realizing the potential of the site, the Barack Obama Presidential Library would go beyond cataloguing President Obama’s eight years in office. As a living part of this historic South Side neighborhood, it would drive economic development and reinforce a sense of place at a crossroads of Chicago.”
Echoing architect Daniel Burnham’s admonition to “make no small plans,” the vision for the Bronzeville site is comprehensive and bold. HOK’s design acknowledges the area’s history as the city’s original African-American neighborhood while positioning the Obama Presidential Library as a catalyst to promote sustainable growth and attract investments that will deliver significant economic benefits to the community and region.
“The Barack Obama Presidential Library represents a seed of transformation that, once planted, would have the power to revitalize this important site,” said Ruggiero. “It creates new urban spaces that will reinvigorate the local community and initiate enduring change.”
Based on the 1909 Burnham Plan, Chicago’s strong urban grid and appropriately scaled streets provide seamless connections among neighborhoods, parks and Lake Michigan. The former Michael Reese Hospital campus in Bronzeville, however, currently creates a barrier between Bronzeville and the lakefront. The design proposal gives the south lakefront back to the people of Chicago, extending the Chicago Museum Campus to the south and filling a gap in a necklace of public city assets that stretches from Evanston to Northwest Indiana.
HOK’s biomimetic plan for the Obama Presidential Library aims to achieve Living Building Challenge certification. Principles of biomimicry will create a site that is functionally indistinguishable from the region’s natural coastal environment and that fills a gap in Illinois’ Millennium Reserve habitat restoration program.
“The Obama Presidential Library itself will be a model of 21st-century healthy urban living, carbon neutrality and regenerative design,” said Colin Rohlfing, HOK’s sustainable design leader in Chicago.
An elevated park would offer park views along 31st, 29th and 26th Streets, welcoming the community to the site. Connecting the site to Lake Michigan creates an important new green space in the city that has the potential to house vertical farms and land dedicated to research in environmental and related sciences. See the design bid on Issuu.
-------------
HOK is a global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm. Through a network of 23 offices worldwide, HOK provides design excellence and innovation to create places that enrich people's lives and help clients succeed. For four consecutive years, DesignIntelligence has ranked HOK as a leader in sustainable and high-performance design.
The proposal envisions the library as a catalyst for a new lakefront connection in Bronzeville.
A new urban neighborhood would extend southward from the city's existing Museum Campus.
The existing site is fairly barren and was once the home of Michael Reese Hospital.
Related Stories
| Mar 20, 2012
Stanford’s Knight Management Center Awarded LEED Platinum
The 360,000-sf facility underscores what is taught in many of the school’s electives such as Environmental Entrepreneurship and Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers, as well as in core classes covering sustainability across the functions of business.
| Mar 20, 2012
New office designs at San Diego’s Sunroad Corporate Center
Traditional office space being transformed into a modern work environment, complete with private offices, high-tech conference rooms, a break room, and an art gallery, as well as standard facilities and amenities.
| Mar 19, 2012
Obama’s positioned to out-regulate Bush in second term
Proposed ozone rule would cost $19 billion to $90 billion in 2020, according to the White House.
| Mar 19, 2012
Skanska promotes Saunders to VP/GM of Bayshore Concrete Products
During his more than 13 years with Bayshore, Saunders has provided products for Victory Bridge in New Jersey, Route 52 Causeway in Ocean City, N.J., and for numerous piers at Naval Station Norfolk and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
| Mar 19, 2012
Smith Carter joins forces with Genivar
Smith Carter has a workforce of some 190 employees and designs complex buildings in challenging environments.
| Mar 19, 2012
HKS Selected for Baylor Medical Center at Waxahachie
Baylor Medical Center at Waxahachiewill incorporate advanced technology including telemedicine, digital imaging, remote patient monitoring, electronic medical records and computer patient records.
| Mar 19, 2012
Mixed-use project redefines Midtown District in Plantation, Fla.
Stiles Construction is building the residential complex, which is one of Broward County’s first multifamily rental communities designed to achieve LEED certification from the USGBC.
| Mar 16, 2012
Temporary fix to CityCenter's Harmon would cost $2 million, contractor says
By contrast, CityCenter half-owner and developer MGM Resorts International determined last year that the Harmon would collapse in a strong quake and can't be fixed in an economical way. It favors implosion at a cost of $30 million.
| Mar 16, 2012
Work on Oxnard, Calif. shopping center resumes after a three-year hiatus
Stalled since 2009, developers of the Collection at RiverPark decided to restart construction on the outdoor mall.