A glimpse at a transparency-driven Obama Presidential Library competition entry

The 2014 Chicago Prize competition invited the architecture community to submit speculative design ideas on what they think the Obama Presidential Library should look like, as actual plans for the Barack Obama Presidential Library seem to gradually take shape.

Competition participants Manuel Caicoya, Matteo Vergano, Marcos Corbal, and Joseph Thorne focused on the concept of transparency -- in all senses of the word -- in their entry, the "Barack Obama Cultural Center."

Project description:

"President Obama has been the voice for those who are neve r heard in the United States of America. President Obama has built bridges, repaired old relations, and brought a new American dream. With our project we want to transm it this new dream. The library building was designed as a prism of glass whi ch creates visual connections for the city to library and for the patrons inside t he library looking at the Chicago skyline."

"From every side the internal activities are visible to observers, during the day the flow of people inside the building will resemble the flow of cresting waves of the Chicago River, then at dusk it will shine onto the Chicago skyline as the house of cult ure and inclusion."

"Barack Obama started his career working with low income com munities of Chicago. To represent Obama’s dedication to assist people in need we elevated the plaza; this gave us the opportunity to create a raised platform where peo ple can come together and enjoy looking up the Chicago River. Below this Plaza we created a don ation center to assist low income families."

"The Barack Obama Community Center was designed to be transparent to the public, and to represent Chicago’s architecture. Connect the pub lic with the Chicago River which Flows into Downtown Chicago. To give insight of Preside nts Barack Obama political career, while providing aid assistance to those in need to the Chicago area and abroad."

Project credits:

Team leader: Manuel Caicoya
Team members: Matteo Vergano, Marcos Corbal, Joseph Thorne

All images courtesy of Manuel Caicoya.