Locator: 51021OBAMA.
The President Barack Obama Center (is that the correct name?) came up in passing this morning in a one- or two-line conversation with my wife when she mentioned a friend of a friend of a friend attended the opening of said library, Chicago, IL.
I mentioned that as far I knew, I have only visited one presidential library, the George W. Bush library here in Texas, and I think I only went there because of its proximity to where we live. I thought it was a great museum / library.
Then my wife reminded me that we had been to John F Kennedy library in Boston. Now, I remember. Without question that was my favorite. Very small, mostly a library in the true sense of the word, except not a "lending" library. The site, the location, the view, second to none. What I liked most about it: small, intimate, quite, restful.
The Bush libary here in Texas is beautiful, but it was a museum, not a library. It's "way over the top." Wonderful to visit, but I liked the JFK library so much more.
So, now I'm starting to get it. Library. Museum. Shrine. Center. Campus.
Factoid:
- the Obama Center in Chicago, the one we're talking about, is 8 stories high;
- the proposed Trump Center, to be built in Florida, is expected to be 50 stories high.
The centerpiece and major visual "wow factor" inside the museum at the Obama Presidential Center is a soaring, three-story atrium containing a monumental artwork called "City of the Big Shoulders" by artist Mark Bradford, alongside an expansive 88-foot digital wall celebrating the "Power of Words." See photograph of the painting here.
President George W. Bush library: a replica of his Oval Office.
President Donald J. Trump center: a decommissioned Air Force One on the bottom floor.
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Going Forward
