open up a presidential subroutine library is now a religious rite of passageway for those who held our body politic ’s highest position . On Wednesday May 3 , the Obama Administration released the firstconcept designsdepicting the Obama Presidential Center , which is project for Chicago ’s South Side .

AsCondé Nast Travelerreports , the library will bear more than just Word . The plan , envisioned by husband - and - married woman architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien , include classrooms , an auditorium , a restaurant , a museum , and a public garden . Like the presidential program library that amount before it , it will also be used to archive records from Barack Obama ’s presidentship .

Obama will becomeone of 14former presidents with libraries managed by the National Archives and Records Administration ( NARA ) . In 1955 , Congress pass the Presidential Libraries Act that put down the basis for former presidents to donate any “ papers , documents , or other historical materials ” of theirs to be held in a “ presidential archival monument . ”

Obama Foundation

The number gain ground added meaning after Nixon ’s Watergate scandal highlighted the importance of transparency between the president and the people . That incident led to the Presidential Records Act of 1978 , which states that most presidential documents must be made public within five years of the President of the United States leaving part . Today those documents are largely held in presidential library , where anyone can get at them .

Before Herbert Hoover established the first official presidential program library in 1962 , there were others with the same idea . The presidential program library technically rise with Rutherford B. Hayes , when his Word opened one to oblige his records in 1912 . Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson also have presidential libraries that are n’t recognized by the 1955 law .

Former president Barack Obama ’s subroutine library will be serve the world in more fashion than one : Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel believes the labor will stimulate the saving of the vicinity surrounding its locating in Jackson Park . The campus will also be a space for residential area extremity to gather and see . The Obama Center is scheduled to open in 2021 .

Article image

[ h / tCondéNast Traveler ]