Architect Unveils Plan
for Clinton Library
Architect James Polshek unveiled his plan for the Clinton library and exhibit center at a White House gathering December 9. His rendering showed an thin, elevated structure that will look out onto the Arkansas River from the historic section of downtown Little Rock.
President Clinton said he had studied other presidential libraries and joked that he had “tried to lift some of their best ideas.” He said he wanted a building “that was beautiful and architecturally significant, that people would want to walk in 100 years from now, but one that would also work for average citizens,” the New York Times reported.
The estimated cost of the project is $125 million to $150 million, almost all of which will come from private donations. The library had received a $500,000 boost two days earlier from Bank of America. A Little Rock real estate developer who sued unsuccessfully to block the city from taking 2.9 acres of his land for the project has said he plans to appeal.
Meanwhile, two Texas universities, Southern Methodist in Dallas and Baylor in Waco, have already expressed an interest in being home to an eventual George W. Bush presidential library, the Associated Press reported December 14.
Posted December 18, 2000.
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