en.Wedoany.com Reported - Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA) designed and built the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on Chicago's South Side. The $850 million campus is expected to attract one million visitors annually from around the world. The complex aims to create a physical monument to the presidency of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, and the "hope" he championed.
After winning the design competition in 2016, the campus took a decade to design and build and is now complete. It includes a branch of the Chicago Public Library, a sports complex designed by Moody Nolan Architects, a playground and green space designed by Michael Van Valkenburg Architects, a coffee lounge called "The Forum," and a towering museum. The entrance plaza, named John Lewis Plaza, is paved with central gray-white granite.
The museum building's exterior features a special quartz granite, giving it a rugged form. According to the designers, dozens of iterations were made before finalizing the design. The exhibition spaces, designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates in collaboration with Chicago's Civic Projects Architecture, include interactive displays, artifacts, and videos. Among them, an exhibition titled "Power of Words" is an 88-foot-tall video and audio "canvas" presenting key speeches from the Obama era. Additionally, the "Democracy 101" exhibition teaches basic civics through interactive activities.
Public access is a key feature of the campus. The plaza, forum, and library are free and open to the public, as are the museum's first and second-floor mezzanines. Visitors must pay $30 to enter the museum's exhibition floors. Inside the public library branch is a mural titled "Reading Circles/Weaving Dreams/Seeding Futures" by artist Aliza Nisenbaum. To the east of the library is the Presidential Reading Room, where visitors can browse books curated by the Obamas. The campus's "Forum" offers indoor seating, a café, and a flexible performance space. The eighth-floor Sky Deck provides visitors with views of the Chicago skyline.
The design team for the center includes TWBTA, along with Moody Nolan Architects for the sports complex and Michael Van Valkenburg Architects for the landscape design. The complex was commissioned by the Obama Foundation.
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