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Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects Partners of New York
will lead the design team for the Obama Presidential Center,
partnering with Interactive Design Architects of Chicago, said
Marty Nesbitt, chairman of the Obama Foundation.
There is not yet a design concept, cost estimate, or even a
final site for the presidential library, Nesbitt, a longtime
friend of the president, said on a conference call with
reporters.
The foundation hopes to open the doors of the center, which will
include a museum and archives, about five years after Obama
leaves the White House.
"The real design process begins anew, right now. It's really a
blank slate," said Paul Goldberger, an architecture critic who
works with the foundation, on the conference call.
The center is expected to be built in either Washington Park or
Jackson Park, near the University of Chicago's main campus. The
design team will help select the final site.
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama chose the two firms after
meeting with a short list of seven firms drawn from a list of
144 initial proposals. They discussed concepts and explored
whether there was good "chemistry" for working together, Nesbitt
said.
Tod Williams and Billie Tsien are currently designing the U.S.
Embassy complex in Mexico, and are known for their work on the
Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and the Logan Center for the
Arts at the University of Chicago. Obama awarded them the
National Medal of Arts in 2013.
"If there's anything that characterizes their work, it's a
combination of dignity, beauty and understatement," Goldberger
said.
Interactive Design Architects is known for its work on The
Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. The firm's
president, Dina Griffin, is a resident of the South Side who has
worked to encourage more minorities and women to become
architects.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by David Gregorio)
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