Dive Brief:
- The Obamas have chosen a site in Chicago's Jackson Park for President Barack Obama's presidential library, according to The Chicago Tribune. Sources leaked the selection before next week's official announcement.
- Estimated to cost $500 million and be complete by 2021, the library will accommodate eight years of presidential archives. It will also be home to Obama Foundation, which is tasked with raising money, designing and building what has been referred to as the "Obama Presidential Center."
- The library, which will border a low-income African-American neighborhood, is expected to help spur additional economic development there, but critics said the library will only hasten the gentrification already underway, according to The Tribune.
Dive Insight:
Chicago neighborhood activists said the other contender for the library, a site in nearby Washington Park surrounded by blight and a great number of vacant lots, would have benefited more from the development. Representatives of the nonprofit Friends of the Park, the same organization that caused George Lucas to nix his plans for the $400 million Museum of Narrative Art along the shores of Lake Michigan, said the library should not be located in a park but added that the advocacy group has no plans to pursue legal action to prevent its construction.
Developers are already anticipating that choosing to locate the library near the adjacent Woodlawn Park neighborhood will bolster a $12.8 million mixed-use, market-rate rental project currently being planned for the area. Area housing advocates said the addition of the library should draw in residents with a variety of incomes, more commercial development and essentially transform the neighborhood.
Earlier this month, the Obamas announced the selection of the New York-based husband-and-wife architect team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien to design the library. The couple beat out six other teams to win the project. The Chicago architect firm of Interactive Design Architects was also chosen to work with Williams and Tsien in order to give the planning process a Chicago perspective, as well as participation by a minority-owned business. Although there is no design for the library as of yet, Foundation officials said it will "connect" with the neighborhood and provide an "interactive experience" for visitors.