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YES WE CAN The Obama Presidential Library

ARCH418 ARCHITECTURE STUDIO VIII SPRING 2017

IIT College of Architecture Professor Donna V Robertson

John and Jeanne Rowe Professor of Architecture

The Barack Obama Foundation has chosen Chicago as the site for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC), an archive and celebration of his presidency of the United States. The chosen site is Jackson Park, adjacent to the University of Chicago, a partner on the project. We will use the

general location shown in this map. The overall project consists of a Library, Museum, and Foundation or Institute, for programs of world outreach. This studio will focus on the Library (OPL); its program is approximately 80,000 square feet, with archive storage, reading room,

classrooms, exhibits and administrative offices, volunteer lounge, etc.

The OPC defines the Center’s mission as “expanding opportunity in a global age, improving the health of our communities, protecting our children from the dangers of climate change, and

looking beyond military force alone to promote peace, justice, and dignity throughout the world.”

Presidential Libraries in the U.S.A. began with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, in 1939. He established the NARA agency to maintain these entities. Each retiring president chooses the site and

mission. This studio will focus on the public, civic aspect of the Library: its expression of legacy and goals, its accessibility to scholars and fostering of community, and what it can bring to

Chicago’s great park and its surrounding neighborhood, in need of reinforcement. As well, we will cover all the components of Comprehensive Building Design in our production.