The network of presidential libraries and museums that are distributed throughout the United States have a dual mission.
On the one hand, they function as rigorous research centers custodians of important documentation of the former presidents: from transcripts of a Lyndon B. Johnson notoriously concerned about the escalation of the Vietnam War to allegedly strong evidence that would show that Richard Nixon was not directly involved in the Watergate scandal.
On the other hand, they try to narrate the personal and political trajectory of these leaders in an entertaining and didactic way through exhibitions that, on occasions, seem like fair shows.
Many presidential museums incorporate a more or less faithful reproduction of the Oval Office, but only the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, houses a complete reproduction of the entrance to the White House.
In fact, the entire museum is a kind of Disneyland of life-size dioramas, animated robots, lights, and special effects that is more reminiscent of a parody of the Simpsons than a respectful tribute to the president who abolished slavery in America.
On September 18, it was announced that the Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta had won the competition for the construction of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota.
Located in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the successful project unfolds under a large canopy that gently adapts to the terrain and blends into the arid landscape of the Great Plains.
It will be built with locally sourced materials and sustainable energy systems, a decision that reinforces the discourse of a design that, according to its authors, “is based on the president's personal reflections on the landscape, on his commitment to the administration. environmental and civic responsibility that marked his life ".
The size and quality of the presidential libraries are not directly related to the greatness of the president to whom they are named.
The size and quality of the presidential libraries are not directly related to the greatness of the president to whom they are named.
The legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who dealt heroically and for four constitutional terms with the most traumatic events of the 20th century in a wheelchair with polio, rests outside New York in a modest stone and wood construction similar to a barn of Dutch colonial architecture.
However, Gerald Ford, who became president after the resignation of Nixon in 1974 and could not revalidate the position in the 1976 election against Jimmy Carter, marked a mediocre political career with not one, but two colossal buildings in the state of Michigan.
More concerned that his remains would rest in the place where he was born than in accessing his documentary legacy, Dwight Eisenhower had a library built in the small town of Abilene, Kansas, that serves as a mausoleum for the eternal glory of a brilliant military man and a President who paid more attention to the Soviet Union than to his own country.
For its part, the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas was designed by Robert AM Stern, dean of the Yale University School of Architecture, and exhibits a point of sophistication and erudition unimaginable in the president who turned the world upside down. .
"Imhotep and Augustus, Louis XIV and Napoleon III, not to mention François Mitterand: they all tried to use architecture to defy the inevitability of death," writes Deyan Sudjic in
The edifice complex
, a brilliant essay on how powerful classes shape the world through architecture.
Sudjic dedicates an entire chapter to the presidential libraries, buildings that "say a lot about the architectural tastes of the American political class, as well as the uses that are given to architecture."
Next, we get closer to some of them.
1. International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello (Charlottesville, Virginia)
Thomas Jefferson was the main author of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776 and the third president of the young republic, between 1801 and 1809. In addition to being a politician, he was also a man of talent whose abilities spanned almost every branch of the world. know human.
Philosopher, horticulturist, archaeologist, paleontologist, inventor, and musician, his work as an architect has influenced government buildings in the United States for more than two centuries.
Jefferson demonstrated an extraordinary command of the language and classical proportions of the architecture of ancient Rome
Jefferson designed his own hilltop residence on the outskirts of Charlottesville and gave it an Italian name, Monticello, which means "little mountain."
This position allowed visual dominance over the tobacco plantation of more than 2,000 hectares and the hundreds of black slaves owned by the Founding Father who had inspired an entire nation to believe that all men had been created equal and endowed with inalienable rights such as the life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.
If we make the effort to put aside its painful past of racism, we discover an absolutely sublime edifice.
Jefferson demonstrated an extraordinary command of the language and classical proportions of ancient Roman architecture, which he reformulated into a sincere and delicate tribute to Palladio's Villa Capra transplanted to the green fields of Virginia.
Declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1987, Monticello currently functions as a research and documentation preservation center dedicated to the president.
2. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (Boston, Massachusetts)
Shortly after the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the family launched a round of contacts in order to find the architect who was going to design the library dedicated to one of America's most beloved presidents.
They met with some of the great masters of architecture on the international scene of the time, such as Alvar Aalto, Kenzo Tange, Pietro Belluschi or Lucio Costa.
Louis Kahn's rhetoric did not convince Bobby Kennedy, and Mies van der Rohe was so dry and distant that Jackie Kennedy interpreted the commission as not in the interest of the German architect.
Possibly that was an elementary communication failure: although Mies had emigrated to the United States almost three decades ago, he never learned to speak English fluently.
Finally, the chosen one was the Sino-American architect Leoh Ming Pei, known on this side of the Atlantic for the pyramids of the Louvre that he would build years later in the Paris of Mitterrand.
Pei responded to the Kennedys' commission with a sober project, although daring in its geometric conception, which seeks the visitor's emotion by resorting to the quality of the architectural space and the quality of the materials used, rather than what is exhibited there.
The protagonist is taken by a large glazed interior void that opens onto Massachusetts Bay and from which a huge United States flag hangs.
It is a secluded space, intimate despite its dimensions, that commands respect for the president who could have written a different twentieth century had it not been for Lee Harvey Oswald's “magic bullet”.
3. Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum (Austin, Texas)
Lyndon B. Johnson was clear from the start that Gordon Bunshaft should be in charge of designing his library on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin.
Bunshaft was at the helm of SOM, one of the world's leading architecture firms, whose fame was due to the arrogant corporate steel and glass skyscrapers that were transforming the financial hearts of the great American cities.
That architecture was a picture of the power and lack of humility of the United States in the middle of the 20th century.
And Johnson loved it.
A series of gigantic concrete buildings that are beautifully balanced to form a brutalist acropolis that oozes pure Texan testosterone
Bunshaft defined the former president as "an aggressive man, of great size, who had contributed to enact important social reforms", so he concluded that "it required an architecture with a certain virility".
The result was a series of gigantic concrete buildings that fit together in beautiful balance to form a brutalist acropolis oozing pure Texan testosterone.
The library is the most beautiful building in the complex and the one that causes the most surprise to the visitor.
From the outside it looks like a dull concrete box.
However, the interior reveals a ten-story void clad in elegant cream Italian travertine.
A monumental marble staircase traverses the space and directs the eye toward a wall studded with boxes containing Johnson's documents.
Exquisitely arranged and lined in burgundy buckram, the gold seals affixed to its spine gleam in the light of strategically placed spotlights.
4. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum (Simi Valley, California)
Following the example of Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan chose a privileged location on the top of a hill outside Los Angeles for his presidential library.
A series of short pavilions of pink stucco and Arabic tile are arranged around exquisite gardens and open to spectacular views of the valley.
Respectful of the architectural and landscape context of the area, the complex presents a friendly update of the old haciendas of Spanish heritage.
Despite its contained appearance, Reagan's library wants to be anything but discreet.
At the entrance, a bronze statue of the former president wearing jeans and cowboy boots recalls his
made in Hollywood
past
while preparing the visitor for a memorable experience.
Everything is on display there: from the X-ray showing the bullet that lodged in the president's chest after his assassination attempt in 1981, to the heartbreaking letter he wrote when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994. A huge fragment of the The Berlin Wall, a victory Reagan does not hesitate to claim, and which overlooks the fact that when he fell in 1991 the president was his successor in office, George HW Bush.
The real highlight is in an annex building, built years later.
In 2005, Nancy Reagan opened an 8,400-square-meter hangar
However, the real highlight is in an annex building, built years later.
In 2005, Nancy Reagan inaugurated an 8,400-square-meter hangar displaying the Boeing 707 aircraft that served as Air Force One, a VH-3 Sikorsky Sea King helicopter of the Marine Corps, the presidential limousine from Ronald Reagan's 1984 parade. , a 1982 Los Angeles Police Department car and a Secret Service vehicle.
All a display that honors the president who stated that "politics is like show business."
5. William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park (Little Rock, Arkansas)
Bill Clinton wanted a splendid building to serve as his base of operations in his post-presidency career marred by the Lewinsky scandal.
"Will one of those sketches draw on a napkin like architects always do?" The president asked with candid impatience to architect James Polshek after a first meeting at the White House.
Polshek and his studio responded to the commission with an ambitious project whose starting point was the Clinton campaign promise to "build a bridge to the 21st century together."
Polshek interpreted this metaphor almost literally, and proposed a cantilevered construction that appears to cross the Arkansas River.
Driven by a desire to convey transparency that he did not practice at some points in his career, this bridge building is built entirely of glass, offering visitors beautiful views of the surroundings.
In fact, the project brought about the renovation of an abandoned industrial area on the outskirts of Little Rock, and served as a catalyst for its transformation into a beautiful park with a botanical garden, an amphitheater and a children's play area.
With more than 11,000 square meters of library, museum, classrooms and offices for the Clinton Foundation workers, it is the largest presidential building built to date.
6. Barack Obama Presidential Center (Chicago, Illinois).
In May 2017 Barack Obama presented the project of his own presidential complex, which he defined as "a little trip to the ego."
Located in Chicago's Jackson Park, the plan proposes an ambitious redesign of this public park and calls for the creation of a welcome plaza, new paths and street furniture, children's games and even a sledding hill.
The complex will also consist of four buildings: a 70-meter-high museum tower, a multifunctional building called the Forum (it will have “a studio where you can invite Spike Lee to give workshops on how to make films, or Bruce Springsteen to talk about how to record music that has a social meaning ”, said the president on the day of the presentation), a sports center and a library that will be integrated into the Chicago public network.
The Obama Foundation will digitize the documents of the former president and offer them online to democratize their access and thus create what is announced as "the first digital library"
Although after three years some legal complications derived from the chosen location have prevented even setting a scheduled date for the start of the works, this center will differ from the previously built complexes in that, in reality, it will not be a presidential library.
Instead, the Obama Foundation will digitize the former president's documents and offer them online to democratize their access and create what is billed as "the first digital library."
At this point, one can't help but wonder what Donald Trump has in mind for his presidential library.
Will it be a sober neoclassical construction as he would like all federal buildings to be, or will he prefer the luxurious palatial Mediterranean revival of Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach mansion?
A tower like the one in Manhattan, perhaps?
Or a golden condo like the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas?
We will have to wait for him to leave office.
And looking at the voting intention polls for the upcoming November elections, Trump may have already called an architect friend of his.
