Runway is clear, but Chicago still has to land
Obama's library
March 20, 2014 Chicago easily fits the criteria sketched out by organizers of President Barack Obama's presidential library and museum, but New York and many other cities could qualify, too.
Illinois, New York and Hawaii all are expected to compete for Mr. Obama's library, which is anticipated to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, attract a flurry of visitors and drive economic development in its surrounding community. Chicago and Honolulu have been working on their own proposals for years.
An emphasis on transportation and access, including airline connections, is one of the few specifics in an “intentionally open-ended” request for qualifications issued yesterday by the Barack Obama Foundation, the first step in deciding where the presidential library will be built.
The Washington-based nonprofit was created in January to select a site and sponsor for the library, although the final decision rests with the president and first lady Michelle Obama.
“With President Obama's deep roots here in the city — his hometown and where he launched his public life — Chicago is undeniably a natural fit for the Obama Presidential Library and Museum,” a spokeswoman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in an email. “Though we're excited to welcome the president home, we are not resting on our laurels and will put forward a competitive proposal so that his choice is an easy one.”
As the mayor often touts, no city has better connections than Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, which ranks well ahead of New York's airports in its range of flights to cities in the U.S. and around the world, a studylast year showed.
The foundation also emphasized that it wants “a strategic plan for engaging community stakeholders,” including letters of support from community partners. The foundation said responses should include detailed site information at this stage, including aerial photographs, a legal and topographical survey and the zoning status of the land.
However, the various interests pursuing the library for Chicago are talking to each other but have not coalesced behind a specific site yet.
'WATERSHED MOMENT'
The University of Chicago, where the president taught for 12 years, is making a concerted effort to land the project in the area where he lived and which he represented as a state senator. The University of Illinois and other interests in the city also are looking at making proposals.
“These are fantastic institutions. The question is where should they put the library when they win the bid?” said Dan McCaffery, a real estate developer in Chicago who wants to see the library on the former South Works site, a 589-acre lakefront property where he is partnering with U.S. Steel Corp. to build thousands of homes, 17.5 million square feet of retail space and a marina.
The site is within two blocks of four Metra stops, less than a mile from the Chicago Skyway and Lake Shore Drive and features bike lanes running through the middle of it, he noted. “Our iconic public structures are on the lakefront.”
Although he's “not working with anybody” at the moment, Mr. McCaffery said, “I've approached those I think are really serious players, and said, 'This could go on our land and I will support you.' ”
The project is open to any “institution of higher learning, not-for-profit organization, private developer or municipality that wishes to sponsor, develop and maintain a multi-unit facility to be known as the Barack Obama Presidential Library,” according to the request for qualifications, which offers the most detailed look to date at what the president and Ms. Obama are seeking for what will be the permanent monument to their White House legacy.
“Together with a number of civic and institutional leaders who are passionate about the future of Chicago's South Side, I look forward to making the case that the Obama Presidential Library would be ideal for one of our neighboring communities,” University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer said in a statement. “As I've said before, a presidential library would mark a watershed moment for the South Side, catalyzing significant and sustained economic opportunity in an area poised to make the most of such promise. It would bring cultural and programmatic opportunities for all of Chicago's residents and visitors.”
Interested parties have until June 16 to submit details about their proposed sites, including tourism statistics and information about accessibility to transportation. Over the summer, the Barack Obama Foundation will score those proposals, then cull the list and invite selected groups to submit more formal, detailed applications.
Once the final applications are scored, the foundation will make primary and secondary location recommendations to the project's leadership before making a presentation to the president and Ms. Obama in the fall. After the Obamas make the final decision, the foundation plans to announce the winner in the first months of 2015.
"We're completely open-minded about what we might get back," Marty Nesbitt, the Chicago businessman and a longtime Obama friend who chairs the foundation, said in an interview with the Associated Press. "We haven't ruled in anything or ruled out anything."
Specifics about what the future library should include were detailed in a 70-page "request for qualifications" released by the foundation yesterday and sent by Mr. Nesbitt to groups that already have indicated their interest.
'INTERNATIONAL DESTINATION'
The foundation said the National Archives and Records Administration projects that the space required to accommodate Obama's records will include:
—More than 20,000 cubic feet of unclassified documents, or about one-quarter of an Olympic-size swimming pool.
—Another 5,676 cubic feet of classified documents, and 804 cubic feet of audio-visual records.
—15,000 cubic feet for artifacts, or about the same amount of space as the Oval Office.
That represents a decline from previous presidential libraries, which the National Archives attributes to the move toward using emails and electronic records in lieu of hard copies of the past.
Mr. Obama's future library should be a versatile, community-enhancing institution as well as a "new international destination," the foundation said. The facility and its programming should embody the principles Mr. Obama has promoted during his presidency and his campaign, it says.
Among those principles: empowerment, inclusiveness and expanded economic opportunity. Inspiring the "ethic of citizenship" and promoting peace and justice throughout the world are also high priorities, the group said.
Much more than a repository for documents, most presidential libraries include educational programming, retail and dining space, a museum facility with permanent and rotating exhibits, and versatile space that the community can use, the foundation noted.
In a nod to aesthetics and design, the foundation said a core principle would be for the library to embody "principles of biomimicry to create a living building." Biomimicry draws on inspiration from nature — plants and animals — to make man-made structures more efficient and natural.
Presidential libraries often have an accompanying presidential center as a vehicle for ex-presidents to promote policies and coordinate humanitarian efforts after leaving office. Some groups already vying for Mr. Obama's library have proposed that he build a center or institute in one location and the library in another.
Planning to submit a proposal? You'll need to send four hard copies in bound, 8.5-inch by 11-inch books to Robert Bauer, Obama's former White House counsel and top lawyer for his presidential campaign. Mr. Bauer is general counsel for the foundation.
Initially formed as the Barack H. Obama Foundation, the nonprofit recently changed its name to remove Obama's middle initial, which stands for Hussein. Mr. Nesbitt said the foundation wanted to eliminate the potential for confusion with other similarly named foundations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
