Bush Library

[AusTxPony]

Any news on the architectural design or costs?

[smu diamond m]

Any news on the architectural design or costs?

It'll be Georgian Southern Collegiate.

[gostangs]

It wil also be over budget - to be announced well after opening - like every other university building in the country.

[smupony94]

The Laura Bush liberry (props to JT) just opened by my house. Part of the Travis County library system.

[RednBlue11]

why they didnt pick Lake Flato for the design phase is beyond me...point of info, no one will know how much it will cost until its done...it really depends on how meddlesome the Bush'es are in the design once its moved on the construction documents.

[smupony94]

Baylor's Bush library plan offered far more land, amenities than SMU's

09:40 AM CDT on Monday, August 17, 2009

By MARJORIE KORN / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

Baylor University lost to SMU in the race to host George W. Bush's presidential library, despite offering more land, more buildings and more amenities, newly released records show.

Among the attractions the Waco school sketched out for the complex: an outdoor concert venue, a multi-use conference center, an IMAX theater, an on-site fishing lake, a Little League baseball field and a riverside boat dock.

In its pitch to the Bush selection panel in 2005, Baylor placed the library and museum on 150 acres along the Brazos River, buffering it from urban noise and congestion – worries that some Dallas homeowners already have with the library at SMU.

Mark Langdale, head of the Bush Foundation, the nonprofit raising money to run the library, said last week that the SMU plan may be more reserved but it befits the project's goal, which is to create a place for learning.

Architecturally, he said, "the library is going to be more modest than people expect, but it's going to be for a serious purpose. It fits into an academic environment."

Baylor, which gigged SMU during the competition for being too cramped to showcase the library, congratulated its rival last year for winning the "spirited but honorable" matchup.

Southern Methodist Universitywas always considered the front-runner because of the Bushes' academic and personal ties: The couple had many friends and political supporters at SMU, Laura Bush went to school there and was a board trustee, they lived in Dallas before Bush became governor, and they returned to the city after the presidency.

Tommye Lou Davis who chaired Baylor's library committee, said it was worth trying. "We didn't focus as much on our underdog status," but rather "what would be meaningful" for the Waco area and the Bushes, whose ranch in Crawford is 20 miles away, she said.

Now, she said, "We look forward to visiting President Bush's library one of these days."

More than a half-dozen schools sought the project, which backers view as a prestigious landmark, scholarly attraction and tourist site.

Laura Bush said no one had an inside edge. "I ended up deciding on SMU for a lot of reasons, and none of it had to do with Baylor," she told a Waco TV station in January.

"SMU was my school and, of course, I was interested because of that, but also it's a good location in Dallas and on a metro stop," she said, referring to DART's Mockingbird Station across North Central Expressway.

Key differences

Over the years, Baylor released a few general details of its plan but not, until recently, the feature-laden presentation it gave the site slection committee, composed of Bush associates. That's partly because the school indirectly was tangled up in a property lawsuit between SMU and a condo owner – a dispute settled last month.

Here, based on Baylor's 106-page proposal, are key differences between its offer and SMU's:

•Baylor had 150 acres for the complex along the Brazos. SMU is putting the library on a 32-acre tract on the eastern edge of campus along the expressway.

•Baylor's architects, HOK, the firm that designed George H.W. Bush's presidential center at Texas A&M University, proposed five options, all with the library and museum, a conference center, academic classrooms and the baseball diamond – a tribute to the younger Bush's fondness for the game.

Each of the options had separate features, such as an outdoor amphitheater, retail stores, restaurants, the fishing lake, a barbecue pavilion and a dock for boats and water taxis.

In contrast, the latest SMU site plan depicts a single large building, one side for the library and museum, and the other for a policy institute. It is surrounded by a parklike setting with foot paths and, in one corner, athletic fields.

Langdale, who was not involved in the decision to chose SMU, said the land there is spacious enough.

•Baylor's sites each had three and as many as five parking lots. "Waco is a place where people will flock without creating gridlock," Baylor said.

Langdale said a traffic analysis for the SMU site will be completed by the end of the month.

Recently, SMU and foundation officials have tried to appease nearby homeowners concerned about parking overflow, traffic tie-ups and other possible disruptions.

Langdale said the policy center is SMU's stand-out feature. He also touted a 5,000 square-foot temporary exhibit gallery in the museum.

Groundbreaking is scheduled for late next year, and the museum is expected to open in 2013.

[RednBlue11]

a little league baseball field? was rove really looking to reconnect with his childhood THAT badly?

[Bergermeister]

Baylor's Bush library plan offered far more land, amenities than SMU's

Overriding factor: Baylor is in W A C O.

[SoCal_Pony]

My favorite line....

Waco is a place where people will flock without creating gridlock," Baylor said.

[smupony94]

Also where the elite go to eat

[Bergermeister]

Bear Pit

[RednBlue11]

i heard they have a spot called the health club...

[smupony94]

Exclusive: Bush taps former State Department official to run policy institute at SMU

James K. Glassman is a longtime fixture in Washington

06:45 PM CDT on Thursday, September 3, 2009

By LORI STAHL/The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

Over lunch in Dallas this week, former President George W. Bush tapped one-time State Department official James K. Glassman to run the policy institute that will be part of the presidential library at SMU.
Also Online


Glassman, who was an undersecretary of state in 2008, is a longtime fixture in Washington. He was a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for 12 years, and held top executive positions at the Atlantic Monthly, U.S. News & World Report and the New Republic. He has also written a syndicated newspaper column, hosted TV talk shows and written two books.

“I’m a serial entrepreneur in the public policy sense,’’ he told The Dallas Morning News during a breakfast interview in Dallas Thursday.

But as the founding executive director of the George W. Bush Institute, Glassman now becomes the public face for the most controversial arm of the presidential center planned for Southern Methodist University.

When SMU first landed the Bush library, critics warned that the proposed policy institute -- unlike the library -- would tie the campus too closely to the former president’s political views. After learning of Glassman’s appointment, those concerns were not necessarily allayed.

“It’s been clear from the beginning that this is a very ideological and partisan institution,’’ said SMU history professor Ben Johnson.

That said, Glassman’s credentials as a “conservative intellectual’’ are solid, Johnson said. “They could’ve done much worse. This guy’s a serious writer and thinker, not a shill or a hack.’’

Bush officials said Glassman is a seasoned diplomat, scholar and journalist.

“If you’re perceived to be partisan in the academic community, you lose your credibility,’’ said Bush Foundation president Mark Langdale.

The foundation, which is now raising money to build the library complex, will operate the institute. The library will be run by the National Archives. They will be housed together in one building at SMU Boulevard and Central Expressway.

Dr. William McElvaney, a retired professor from SMU's Perkins School of Theology, was one of the faculty members opposed to putting a think tank on campus.

Now he said he hopes Glassman will reach beyond one political camp.

“I have retained my original position that I regret that SMU has hitched its star to the Bush Policy Institute. But one can hope they would broaden out and engage in dialogue with people of contrary views,’’ McElvaney said.

Bush released a statement saying Glassman will develop a “world class institute’’ to promote freedom, opportunity, responsibility and compassion.

The statement also included endorsements of Glassman’s credentials from scholars at a number of major think tanks – notably from some who worked in the Democratic administrations of former Presidents Clinton and Carter.

Bush officials say they hope Glassman’s track record demonstrates that he is more interested in scholarly dialogue than political self-justification.

[FriscoPMG]

According to the DMN Park Cities blog, these designs were leaked but the Bush folks are denying that this is the final look...
http://www.architakes.com/?cat=7

http://parkcitiesblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/09/sneak-peak-at-bush-library.html

Bubble can't tell you just yet if this is what it purports to be - but here, for your viewing pleasure, are two images that supposedly show the preliminary design of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

We've known for some time that Yale architect Robert A.M. Stern is working on the project, which also includes a policy institute and museum. But neither he nor Bush Foundation officials, who are raising money for the project, have shown us what it will look like.

These are on ArchiTakes, an architectural blog....

(3:30 p.m. Update: Bush Foundation officials say that the images on ArchiTakes are "not accurate.'' Former ambassador Mark Langdale, a Bush appointee who is now president of the Bush Foundation, said the were images published without permission from Stern or the foundation.

Langdale said Stern did provide a full briefing to the library design committee in New York recently. The architect is at work now incorporating the feedback from the meeting into the final design.

[jtstang]

I hope that is not the final building. That god-awful thing does not belong on our campus.