Last week Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects was selected, with local architecture firm IDEA, to design the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) on Chicago's South Side. The project will be located in either Jackson Park or Washington Park on either side of the University of Chicago, near where Barack and Michelle Obama lived before departing for the White House. Once built, the OPC will house Obama's Presidential Library as well as other programmatic elements that will entail taking fairly large chunks of existing parkland. While the choice of Tod and Billie has been positively embraced by many people in regards to their quiet and thoughtful designs, the biggest question is still site selection and how the architects will handle it. From what I've seen of their work, I'm confident they can pull off something many people will appreciate for years to come.
[Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago | All photos by John Hill, unless noted otherwise]

The most geographically immediate precedent for the OPC is the Logan Center for the Arts, which overlooks the Midway Plaisance (the green space that connects Washington and Jackson Parks) on the University of Chicago campus. I visited the building a couple years ago and found it to be full of surprises. Made up of a tower alongside a base, I spent most of the time going up and down the tower, which has the nicest exit stairs I've ever experienced: they have glass and benches that invite sitting and looking at the surroundings. While the ...