Aug. 26--The foundation tasked with building the Barack Obama Presidential Center will cast a global net in its search for an architect, asking designers from the United States and overseas to compete for the prized Chicago commission, officials said Wednesday.
The officials on Wednesday issued a request for qualifications to architects who may vie for the project. It asked them to submit credentials, references and examples of work by Sept. 16. The number of firms receiving the request was not immediately known.
If a foreign architect wins the job of shaping the 44th president's library and museum, it would mark the first time a non-American has designed an American presidential library, historians said. While such a move could draw criticism from those who think such a prestigious project should go to Americans, it also would open the door to wider range of design ideas.
"It's a great publicity move," said Benjamin Hufbauer, a presidential library scholar and associate professor at the University of Louisville. "What normally happens is the president hand-selects the architect. There has never been this kind of broad invitation for an architect, and it gets people's imagination going about what might be possible."
The foundation said President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama would select finalists later this year, and that it would issue a request for proposals to those firms. A winner is expected to be announced early next year.
On the foundation's web site, officials released new details about the scope of the presidential center, saying it would include "community gardens and quiet spots for reflection," "convenings of activists, thinkers, and leaders," "healthy dining for visitors" and "labs" for "talents of all types to innovate and share their work." The core features of the center will be a presidential archives, a museum and office space for the foundation.
Details about the architect selection process come as the foundation moves forward with plans to build the presidential center on Chicago's South Side, either in Jackson Park or Washington Park. Foundation officials have said they expect to announce the site by early next year.
Those familiar with presidential libraries said the architect likely will play a crucial role in helping the foundation select which park would be best suited for the project.
Foreign-born architects have previously been considered for presidential libraries, but they already were American citizens. In the 1960s, Chinese native I.M. Pei, who had become a naturalized U.S. citizen in the 1950s, was selected to design the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. Chicago architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was born in Germany and became an American citizen in the 1940s, also was interviewed for the Kennedy project.
Though President George W. Bush invited about a dozen nationally known architectural firms to apply for the job on his library, the decision to solicit such a wide array of applicants as Obama is doing is uncommon if not unprecedented, according to Hufbauer, author of "Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory."
"Opening it up wide could be more democratic," Hufbauer said. "What if some little-known architect who has a brilliant idea comes out of nowhere, a little like Obama came out of nowhere 10 years ago? It gives the underdogs a chance rather than just picking the creme de la creme who already has designed a prestigious building.
"They won't go with an unproven person, but they might allow some junior in the profession to get a shot at it," he said.
While the president and first lady will make the final decision about the architect, it is unclear how involved they will be in the ongoing process. That tends to vary from president to president.
For the Bush library, a five-member committee that included first lady Laura Bush evaluated the submissions and narrowed down the selection to three finalists. After interviewing the finalists, the committee recommended Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, to the president. Bush ultimately signed off on Stern's New York architectural firm.
President Bill Clinton had a hands-on role in every aspect of his president library, including the selection of the architect. President Lyndon B. Johnson, however, turned the entire architect selection process over to his wife.
The Obama Center will be the first presidential library built in the heart of a low-income, predominantly African-American community. It also will be built in a public park, a choice that has sparked controversy in Chicago.
Open space advocates have opposed the library being built in Jackson Park or Washington Park, which were designed by the great 19th-century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. But Mayor Rahm Emanuel and many South Side residents countered that the library would bring much-needed jobs and businesses to the surrounding areas.
Construction of the library, which is expected to cost at least $500 million, is not scheduled to begin until after Obama leaves office in January 2017. The project is expected to be completed in 2020 or 2021.
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