Hawaii unveils designs for Obama Presidential Centre bid

Obama will select the winning site in March 2015, and the project is expected to cost $500 million with the president   expected to begin fundraising in earnest next year. Lockridge/Bellevue Library   in Washington D.C. Chicago mayor Rahm   Emanuel was Obama’s first chief of staff at the White House. «The genealogy of the proposed site itself, reclaimed land sitting above what was once exposed reef shoreline, provides a historic precedent which reinforces this connection,» they said. News: three international design teams, including architects Snøhetta and Allied Works, have developed designs for Hawaii’s bid to host Obama’s presidential library. Obama Presidential Centre proposal by Snøhetta and WCIT ArchitectureNew York firm Allied Works proposed a series of pavilion-like glazed structures, connected by a twisting roof with elongated teardrop-shaped openings. Obama Presidential Centre proposal by MOS and Workshop-HiAll three locations   have a personal connection with Obama, who grew up in Honolulu, studied at Columbia and worked in Chicago. «These architectural renderings are not meant to be prescriptive,» said the official website for Hawaii’s bid. Related story: Barack Obama appoints Michael Graves to advise on accessible designAlthough the University of Chicago and Columbia University in New York are the current favourites to win the bid, Hawaii is hoping to tempt Obama by turning the library into a multi-purpose centre for education, including a Global Youth Leadership Academy and a museum. It will be managed by the   The Barack Obama Foundation, which was founded in January 2014 for the purpose. Adjaye has already designed a number of library buildings in North America, including   The Francis Gregory Library and   The William O. «Rather these concepts are distinct impressions of what is possible on a site with magnificent views from mauka to makai (mountainside to oceanside).»
Obama Presidential Centre proposal by MOS and Workshop-HiThe University of Hawaii’s bid is being backed by the state and municipal governments as well as a number of non-profit organisations and business sponsors. Obama Presidential Centre proposal by Snøhetta and WCIT ArchitectureThe design team said the building was based on the idea of a coral polyp growing to create a «new environment». Obama Presidential Centre proposal by Allies Works»The proposed centre celebrates the diversity of Hawaii’s natural environment by expanding the adjacent Kaka’ako Waterfront Park into a campus of interconnected pavilion structures, public accessible courtyards, a ramped landscape podium, and a large park-like roof structure composed of community and public gardens,» said the team. Obama Presidential Centre proposal by Snøhetta and WCIT ArchitectureThe University of Hawaii commissioned three designs for its presentation in the battle to build the US President’s official library this month, having identified a beach site adjacent to the Kaka’ako Waterfront Park. George W Bush’s library completed last year at the Southern Methodist University near Dallas. The roof structure rises up from the ground and is then staggered over   multiple rectangular levels, with large circular openings punched through each one to let light shine through. One end of the structure meets the ground,   providing public access to a roof planted with grasses.