Obama Presidential Library

The American dream can become an architectural dream, a dream that can be realized by an individual or by a building. 

This mythical achievement is accomplished everyday by ordinary people in America. Once the American dream is realized by individuals and through buildings alike, we have reached our frontier. This ever-changing model of the frontier continuously reshapes who we are as a country, and Barack Obama is the forty-fourth president to carry on this tradition of democracy. The Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum with its cantilevered vaults symbolizes the democracy of an architectural dream in the City of Chicago, and for the United States of America.

The cantilevered vaults of the Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum support two interconnected entities. The vaults metaphorically support both the president and the people of the country simultaneously. Without one or the other the ideals of the country and the architecture it represents are fundamentally unstable. The vaulted structure of the facades also links the interior and exterior spaces into one unified and stable whole. The multiple shifting volumes demonstrate the delicate balance required in structuring a successful country that an architecture can also embody. The vaulted exterior structure transfer their loads to multiple interior walls in order to anchor a visually gravity defying structure. This architectural mirage is the American dream made physical in the Barack Obama Presidential Library and Museum as a demonstration to the public of what can be achieved in this country.

Location: Chicago, IL. US
T. Joseph Surjan - design scientist & writer
S. Hjelte Fumanelli - project architect & digital modeling