Quote:
http://chicago.suntimes.com/lynn-swe...library-may-12
Sun-Times exclusive: Obama foundation to name Chicago home of presidential library on May 12
Posted: 05/04/2015,
WASHINGTON — The Sun-Times has learned that the Barack Obama Foundation will announce on May 12 that the Obama library, museum and presidential center will be in Chicago.
Multiple sources confirmed on Monday that the Chicago-based Obama Foundation, led by Obama friend Marty Nesbitt, is planning an announcement event a week from Tuesday.
The announcement will be made on the South Side, the home of the winning bidder, the University of Chicago, and will cap a process that started on Jan. 31, 2014, when the foundation was created........
An influential South Side voice, the Rev. Leon Finney, president of The Woodlawn Development Corporation, told the Sun-Times on Monday that the “better place” for the Obama complex is Jackson Park, along Stony Island Avenue.
Finney said the Jackson Park location “makes more sense” because it is closer to the Museum of Science and Industry, already one of Chicago’s main tourist attractions. Jackson Park is much closer to Lake Michigan and would be more convenient for tourists visiting the museum campus on the near South Side: the Field Museum, the Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium.........
With a strong tourism base, the economic impact would eventually work its way west, to Washington Park, he said. Finney, who also is the pastor of the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church, 4100 S. King Dr., served on the Chicago Plan Commission for 32 years........
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So does anyone here on board with Leon Finney in thinking that Jackson Park makes the better choice? If so I would like hear it. My view......
Not to say that Jackson Park isn't also a good site and doesn't have its own advantages. The views of the park and the lake would be excellent in particular. And it would make a nice museum campus sitting across from the MS&I. However I am really not seeing his thinking that somehow the library will somehow piggyback off visits from the museum campus much further north. The MSI and Roosevelt Rd. Museum Campus are more then 6 miles away from one another. The Washington Park would be approximately the same distance. Plus I kind of doubt that spill over would reach Washington Park if the Library were placed in Jackson Park. Whereas I think the having library in Washington Park could consolidate and spur development like a vice between Wash Park and the South Loop and ideally drive development due west to almost the Dan Ryan. This may the best last chance for the dilapidated areas west of Hyde Park to the Dan Ryan. Jackson Park and South Shore has the Lake which should eventually help the neighborhood get back on its feet eventually anyhow plus the ME embankment serves a a bit of a barrier to any positive development that would want to flow its way west from the library.
To me at least the Washington Park site just makes a good deal more sense logistically, economically, socially, and symbolically. Both would have good to excellent accessibility both for cars and train but from a transit perspective the Washington Park wins rather hands down. It could the catalyst of a true TOD that has direct climate controlled walkways into the library if so chosen. Catching the Green Line down would be easier for more visitors and residents alike then the ME. It would also provide plenty more space for a revenue making parking garage. Washington Park is in arguably more dire straits and has all that more room to rejuvenate. It has more empty lots around the site and fronting the park which could will be prime retail/residential once the library is settled. 55th has the potential to be a beautiful humming commercial corridor with MLK Drive having enough lots to welcome some new residential infill. The library would have a beautiful view itself looking over Washington Park and sitting aside a spruced up boulevard. There would be the great symbolism of sitting on MLK Drive overlooking Washington Park sitting right across the park from the Dusable Museum of African American history. If anything maybe the Dusable Museum could attract some foot traffic from the Library. And the location is still close enough to the MSI that many visitors would choose to do both in a day. Then there is the obvious advantage is that one wouldn't need to necessarily have the 100% of the footprint in the park unlike Jackson Park.
And most important Washington Park provides a good deal more acres to do all the things you would want the library to do from a design and aesthetic POV.