Comments on: The next presidential library

By: Dav

Dav — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:53:45 +0000

Yeah, I’m not amused. I have the feeling that if most of these “artists” were to meet the President, they would be shaking in their little weasel-skinned boots.
What kind of cowards sit around and take shots at their superiors?

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By: Anlir

Anlir — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:35:28 +0000

Those were some really ingenious designs. Like Luke, I would go for the Library & Fun Ranch.

Of more interest to me is that a Christian University would be building a library for a man who supported the torture of other human beings, and who’s greatest legacy will be a pre-emptive war. The irony is beyond astounding.

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By: Scroop Moth

Scroop Moth — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:52:56 +0000

Several entries have a subterranean theme, which seems intuitively right for this president who spent half his life trying to climb out of a private hole, negligently allowed Al Qaeda to open up a physical hole in lower Manhattan, thereafter governed from a bunker, and aspires to go to ground for his “ranch” retirement.

Consequently, we can be sure that Karl Rove has eliminated any hint of earthworks form the actual design of the library. I predict the library will be ostentatiously open and accessible (in a superficial way, of course).

The most disturbing drawings used “W” as a swastika-like design element. The real library won’t do that, but Republican contributors love fascistic graphics and powerful gestures.

The water designs were half-witted, unfortunately. The culmination of Bush’s war presidency, The Surge, deserves a far better representation. A “surge” conveys images of the sea, of course, but small amounts of water can’t express this elemental power. Fountains are too spritzy and pools are too feminine (reflective). A surge is the result of a storm or earthquake or broken dam. Although as powerfully destructive as many hydrogen bombs, a surge is temporary. It recedes. The Surge, however, is capable of pausing for six months and then lasting for 100 years. Wow. Noah’s Flood lasted only 80 days.

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By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:34:35 +0000

Love it!

I voted for the Library & Fun Ranch.

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By: Peter L

Peter L — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:16:20 +0000

Several of these look doable.

Michelle- I have only been to the new Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL. There is a lot there about history that cannot be found elsewhere. I do not consider it so much as a useless monument to a great leader, so much as a place to learn about the man and the history of the time in which he lived.

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By: NJLawyer

NJLawyer — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:30:37 +0000

Michelle’s post reminded me of Ozymandius. But a presidential library isn’t just for the person they are named after. Bush 41’s has some interesting programs going on there.

What we have in NJ is a very small house that Grover Cleveland grew up in a few miles away. Sweet, but I’d rather have the library — especially one designed by Stern. (Kinda liked that Promenade one.)

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By: michelle

michelle — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:46:26 +0000

Why doesn’t he just add a wing to his father’s library?

The only presidential library I’ve seen was Ronald Reagan’s last Thanksgiving. I walked through the impressive building and thought, “Pharaoh build monuments to himself, too.”

All is vanity and as a taxpayer, I resent having the parts I end up funding.

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By: Kyle A

Kyle A — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:24:47 +0000

As you say, they are fun to look at. Some of them are drawn very well.

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