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Design unveiled for Edward M. Kennedy institute in Boston
Published: 30-Jul-2010
Final design renderings for a $60 million institute named after the late senator Edward M. Kennedy, to be located next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, US, has been unveiled.
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Designed by architect Rafael Viñoly, the renderings for the 40,000 square feet Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate feature a single-story structure. A fundamental challenge for the architect was to ensure that the new building keeps a lower profile than the library named after President Kennedy. The proposed Kennedy Institute will match the color and tone of the existing library, with its triangular and boxy shape. A second floor will rise from the center of the main building with a small gallery encased in an opaque structure, evoking the sun-dappled pavilion at the President Kennedy library.
The design also includes a seamless cladding, which houses the Chamber and is a two-storied structure. The cladding is visually separated from the one-story volume by a ribbon skylight, which will expand at the lobby, greeting visitors with a naturally illuminated reception area.
The building will house five classrooms featuring distance learning. A digital library and oral history archives will house electronic copies of Kennedy’s official papers and other members of the Senate and audio recordings of interviews by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. The institute will also offer history lessons on each of more than 1,900 people who have served in the chamber.
A life-size model of the horseshoe-shaped floor of the US Senate will be featured at the core of the building with few changes made to facilitate its function as a teaching tool. The ceiling of this chamber will rise a story higher than the rest of the building, evoking the grandeur of the Senate. Visitors will be able to walk the aisles of the floor and watch large screens for records and footage of great debates. Each of the 100 desktops in the chamber will include a touch-screen computer containing information about all the men and women who occupied those seats. An exact replica of Kennedy’s Washington office will also be featured at the back right corner of the building.
The institute, scheduled to open in 2013, will be funded by $38.6 million from the federal government with another $20 million in federal tax money. Private companies, organizations, unions, and others have donated $50 million to finance construction with a fund-raising goal of $125 million. The institute will have a panel of distinguished advisers comprising historians and former senators.
A staff of about 20 will run the facility, gather material, and create evolving exhibits. It also received a grant from a private organization to design a curriculum aimed at high school students. The center will be a part of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and is not considered as an extension of the presidential library. Construction is expected to begin in September 2010.
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