Contract - July/August 2016 - 26

Tod Williams and Billie Tsien to Design Obama Presidential Center

TWBTA partners with Interactive Design Architects,
with building location and concept forthcoming

The key leaders from Tod
Williams Billie Tsien Architects
| Partners (TWBTA) and
Interactive Design Architects
(IDEA), the firms that will
design the Obama Presidential
Center, are (from left) Charles
Young, IDEA; Dina Griffin,
IDEA; Billie Tsien, TWBTA;
Tod Williams, TWBTA; Robert
Larsen, IDEA; and Paul
Schulhof, TWBTA.

The Obama Foundation announced on June 30 that the husbandand-wife team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien has been selected
by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama to design
the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which will include the
presidential library and archives as well as a museum. Williams and
Tsien lead the New York-based practice Tod Williams Billie Tsien
Architects | Partners (TWBTA). Chicago-based firm Interactive Design
Architects (IDEA) is partnering with TWBTA on the project.
This selection is a milestone with women leading the design
team: Billie Tsien will be the first female design principal of a U.S.
presidential library. Also, the president of the firm IDEA is Dina Griffin,
an African-American woman who is a native of Chicago and a member
of Contract magazine's editorial advisory board.
While the design team has been announced, an exact location
for the Obama Presidential Center, which will be the first presidential
library in Chicago, was yet to be determined at press time. Two
locations are being considered in Washington Park and Jackson Park.
The announcement of the location will likely be made soon, with
a conceptual design to follow. Construction will begin months after
President Obama leaves office.
In 2015, 140 architects from 25 countries submitted qualifications
for the Obama Presidential Center. Seven firms were shortlisted
in late 2015. The other shortlisted firms were Adjaye Associates, Diller
Scofidio + Renfro, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, John Ronan
Architects, SHoP Architects, and Snøhetta. John Ronan was the only
Chicago-based architect on the shortlist.
In 2014, President Obama awarded both Williams and Tsien
the National Medal of Arts, the U.S. government's highest award given
to artists and art patrons. Major cultural works by Williams and Tsien
include the Barnes Foundation art museum in Philadelphia, the
University of Chicago Logan Center for the Arts, and the American
Folk Art Museum in New York. Just 13 years after it opened in 2001,
the American Folk Art Museum was razed to make room for an
addition to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the demolition
was the subject of intense scrutiny in the city's architecture and
design community. TWBTA, recipient of the 2013 AIA Architecture
Firm Award, won a 2003 AIA National Honor Award for the American
Folk Art Museum.
The architects of the most recent U.S. presidential libraries
were Robert A.M. Stern (George W. Bush); Polshek Partnership Architects,
now known as Ennead (Bill Clinton); HOK (George H.W. Bush);
KlingStubbins (Ronald Reagan); and Jova/Daniels/Busby
(Jimmy Carter). -JOHN CZARNECKI

contractdesign.com

JULY | AUGUST 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OBAMA FOUNDATION

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Contract - July/August 2016

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