UIC Submits Multi-Site Proposal for Obama Library

Deborah Bayliss | As of Wednesday, December 17, 2014

A proposed Bus Rapid Transit line along Roosevelt Rd. would connect the new Obama Campus to the Museum Campus on the lakefront as laid out in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s proposal to host the President Barack Obama Library and Museum.
A proposed Bus Rapid Transit line along Roosevelt Rd. would connect the new Obama Campus to the Museum Campus on the lakefront as laid out in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s proposal to host the President Barack Obama Library and Museum.

Proposals to host and build the Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum have been submitted to the Barack Obama Foundation by the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and the University of Chicago (U of C) who met the Dec. 11 deadline for final proposal submission. Universities in New York and Honolulu are also competing for the right to build the presidential library that promises an economic boon for the area that lands the deal.

Following the initial round earlier this year of about 13 Obama library proposal submissions, The Barack Obama Foundation, which includes President Barack Obama’s longtime friend, Martin Nesbit and his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, narrowed the field to the four remaining bidders and in Sept. requested specifics by Dec. 11, 2014, on site location and development, plans for community engagement, opportunities for academic collaboration, financial and capital commitments and budgeting, among other criteria.

UIC and its North Lawndale community partner, The Steans Family Foundation, submitted a multi-site proposal outlining a vision for creating an east-west cultural and civic corridor extending from the lakefront Museum Campus through UIC to North Lawndale--a

community in great need of economic stimulus--while establishing new, public green spaces throughout the corridor.

“A presidential library and museum brings a wealth of academic resources and opportunities for neighborhood engagement, betterment and economic growth,” said UIC Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares. “The UIC-North Lawndale partnership envisions a library that has the potential to add intellectual value to the city and is enhanced by our collaboration with (former NBA Basketball star) Isiah Thomas, who is known for his work in helping to strengthen communities.”

The Multi-site locations include:

A Library and Museum on a vacant, 23-acre city-owned parcel in North Lawndale. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, in a Nov. 21 letter to the Barack Obama Foundation, supported the conveyance of the land, bounded by Roosevelt Road and Kostner, Kildare and Fifth avenues, and the reopening of the CTA Blue Line Kostner station if this site is chosen. The Steans Family Foundation, which concentrates its philanthropic grants in North Lawndale, announced a $5 million pledge to support the presidential library (North Lawndale) site.

A Visitor’s Center and a proposed, “O-4 Institute” for Academic-Civic Collaboration at the corner of Harrison and Halsted Streets on the UIC campus. The O-4 Institute — named for “optimism, outreach, opportunity and one world, extending to the four corners of the world” in keeping with the Obama policy agenda, would be built over the expressway near the Jane Byrne Interchange where the Kennedy, Dan Ryan and Eisenhower expressways intersect and host fellowships for academics, and junior fellowships for high school students. UIC faculty and students would work with the institute on issues that may include affordable housing; workforce development, literacy, and access to health care. 

The proposal also envisions forming a new town square in North Lawndale, with the library and museum serving as a hub to generate commercial and residential development. The defunct “Sears line” viaduct that enters the middle of the site from the east would set up a campus spine along a new bike trail and pedestrian corridor.

A proposed Bus Rapid Transit line along Roosevelt would connect the new Obama Campus to the Museum Campus on the lakefront.

The Steans Family Foundation “strongly believes the UIC-North Lawndale presidential corridor will serve as a testament of inclusiveness, revitalization and renewal — life changing principles shared by the Steans Family Foundation, UIC, North Lawndale and the President,” wrote Patricia Ford, Executive Director of the Foundation in a letter of support to the Barack Obama Foundation.

The entire proposal, letters of support, video and other materials are online at presidential-library.uic.edu.

The Board of Directors anticipates sharing their final recommendation with the President and First Lady, who will then make the final decision, in the first quarter of 2015.

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