Dive Brief:

• Barack Obama Foundation officials announced that the New York husband-and-wife team of architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien has been chosen over six other architecture firms to design President Obama's presidential library in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune reported.
• Selected to work with Tsien and Williams was Chicago architecture firm Interactive Design Architects, a minority-owned business, which onlookers said can bring a unique perspective to the project as a Chicago-based company.
• The foundation must still raise hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for the library, which is expected to cost at least $500 million. No site has been chosen yet, but officials said the library will be built on one of two urban, predominately African-American sites and should be complete by 2021.

Dive Insight

Organizers are hoping to begin construction on the Obama Presidential Center within two years after the president's term expires, and the facility will be home to presidential archives and the foundation, as well as to a museum detailing the president's two terms in office. No design from any of the competing teams, Williams and Tsien included, have been released because the initial selection process was more about finding a team that works well with Barack and Michelle Obama rather than developing a preliminary design, according to foundation officials.

Foundation officials said the Obamas felt that Williams and Tsien would be best able to design a presidential center that would "connect" with the surrounding neighborhood and provide an interactive experience for visitors. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the project "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" for the city and praised both architecture teams as having "track records of creating innovative civic projects." 

Earlier this year, Chicago activists managed to run a high-profile project out of town after city park advocates filed a lawsuit to prevent construction of George Lucas' $400 million Museum of Narrative Art on a site along Lake Michigan. Opponents of the project said that any development along Lake Michigan violated city laws around the management of public trust land.