Barack Obama personally pushed for a more angular and imposing design for his $850m presidential library in Chicago, according to the project's architect. The 70-metre-high monolith, which opens soon on the city's south side, has drawn comparisons to a 'Klingon prison' and a 'flak tower' for its sheer, near-windowless granite walls.
Architect Billie Tsien of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects said Obama was 'very, very hands on' with the design, insisting on a more carved, abstract form inspired by the Romanian sculptor Brâncuși. 'He wanted to make things more angular and cut. To make a form, and then try to work out what goes inside it, is really the opposite of how we've worked before,' Tsien said.
The Obama Presidential Center is the largest and most expensive presidential library ever built, towering over a low-income neighbourhood. Tsien said the Obama Foundation wanted something 'iconic', a departure from her firm's usual approach. 'When you have a client who says that, you get kind of uncomfortable. It usually means they've got big opinions, and he definitely had big opinions,' she added.
The building's design was conceived as a 'beacon' and 'four hands coming together' to protect a flame, but critics have described it as ominous and menacing. The mostly windowless structure has been likened to a sci-fi headquarters, with small chamfered openings that suggest portals for drones or lasers.
Previous presidential libraries have reflected their creators' values, from Franklin D Roosevelt's Dutch colonial building to Lyndon B Johnson's brutalist hulk and Bill Clinton's cantilevered metallic box. Obama's monolith continues that tradition, but at a scale and cost that surpasses all predecessors.
