Three South Side groups bid for Obama library

University will submit a “menu” of locations for the library and museum.

Posted Jun 3, 2014 by Ankit Jain

Three different groups on the South Side—the University of Chicago, the neighborhood of Bronzeville, and the Lakeside development—are finalizing submissions for the Obama Presidential Library as the deadline for the first stage in the bidding process approaches. The University has decided to submit several sites as options, with the possibility that the library and museum could be located in different areas.

The Barack Obama Foundation, a non-profit established in January for the sole purpose of developing the Obama Presidential Library, will make the final decision on the library’s location.

The Foundation has created a two-step process to decide where to place the library. On March 20 it released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), in which it asked interested groups to submit documents detailing descriptions of sites, proof of community engagement, community impact, and site accessibility, among other features. Completed RFQs are due by June 16. The Foundation will then choose finalists whom they will ask for Requests for Proposals (RFP), to be completed by the end of September.