This proposal for Barack Obama Presidential Library is largely inspired by the First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move Campaign where kids and the public are encouraged to grow and cultivate their own healthy edible greens. As such, the proposal is focused on having large green area for farming purposes.

The chosen site is an empty lot near Chicago’s Jackson Park that is two blocks shy from the University of Chicago – a university where President Barack Obama spent twelve years as a law school lecturer. The site also presents various opportunities for design to be integrated into the project.

First, the site sits directly at the East end of 63rd street where a train station for the South Shore line is situated. Three quarters of a mile away West of the site, Cottage Grove station, the last station of the metro green line, continuously bring people into the neighborhood. The project takes advantage of the situation by creating a three-quarter mile long connection above ground that includes a tram route that would be able to transfer people from Cottage Grove station to Jackson Park, large communal garden and several resting places that are also vertical circulation along the three-quarter mile long connection.

At the end of the connection would be where the presidential library sits and also a farmers market that would be available for vendors to sell fresh food for the community.