[i_am_kyry]

Obama library will be prime architectural commission
Blair Kamin
Chicago Tribune
May 5th, 2015

It's destined to be Chicago's architectural commission of the decade, a building that gives physical form to the soaring ideals of the nation's first African-American president.

Which begs the question: Who will design it?

In the run-up to next Tuesday's announcement that the Barack Obama library and museum will be built in Chicago, speculation already centers on London-based, Tanzanian-born architect David Adjaye, who was seated with Obama during a 2012 state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Adjaye would be the first non-American architect to design a presidential library. Boosting his already substantial profile, the Art Institute of Chicago in September will mount a solo exhibition of his work, which includes the under-construction National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall and Denver's cool, cubelike Museum of Contemporary Art.

Yet some are asking: Why the focus on Adjaye? Why not an African-American architect like North Carolina's Philip Freelon, who designed a Washington, D.C., library that Obama visited last week? Or why not one of Chicago's leading architects, like Jeanne Gang, Helmut Jahn, Ralph Johnson or John Ronan?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...mn.html#page=1

Guess our David Adjaye guess isn't such a wild speculation after all...