Wired New York - Forum

Jasonik · #31 November 3rd, 2009, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lofter1

A rendering shows the main entrance of Robert A.M. Stern’s George W. Bush Presidential Center.

A muddled Bush Presidential Center is revealed in this model view.
Stern’s design calls for red brick and limestone facing.

This small image roughly shows the scale of the library. I can't make out the orientation of Stern's design, though I'd guess the 'portico' faces South.

LARA SOLT/DMN
This 4-year-old model shows the proposed location,
not the design, of the The George W. Bush Presidential
Center on the SMU Campus on each side of the corner
of Central Expressway and SMU Boulevard.

*****
University Park to conduct traffic analysis of George W. Bush library site, Chase Bank near Snider Plaza

09:27 PM CDT on Sunday, October 25, 2009
By LORI STAHL / The Dallas Morning News

A new traffic study commissioned by the Bush Foundation concluded that the "existing transportation system can adequately accommodate" the new presidential library – but University Park officials are withholding judgment for at least a couple of weeks.

The Bush Foundation analysis, which a Dallas consulting firm completed this month, recommended only two relatively minor improvements to help situate the planned presidential center on the eastern edge of Southern Methodist University.

But officials in University Park say they don't know yet whether that study looked at the full range of potential traffic problems associated with building the 225,000-square-foot presidential center at SMU.

To help evaluate that, University Park has just hired a traffic consultant to work with the city's small staff. The consultant will analyze the Bush Foundation's recently submitted zoning application, as well as an unrelated proposal to redevelop the Chase Bank building near Snider Plaza.

"We'll ask him to provide us his comments and what are the good things, what are the bad things, what other things should be added? That stuff," said Bud Smallwood, University Park's Public Works director.

The consultant, Jody Short, will meet with city staff this week. Smallwood said city officials hope to share the consultant's results with the Bush Foundation and the Snider Plaza developer by Nov. 10.

That's the date of the first public hearing on both proposals.

"We want them to know what we feel, if there are any deficiencies in their traffic impact analysis," Smallwood said.

The Bush Foundation's study assumes that the library will draw 250,000 visitors a year. During the week, about 55 percent of the visitors are expected to arrive by car, with 35 percent coming by bus.

The study apparently looked at several intersections near the library site to reach its conclusion.

The engineering firm that conducted the traffic analysis would not discuss the study, referring calls to the Bush Foundation. An immediate response was not available.

Meanwhile, some homeowners near the library site said they were somewhat skeptical of the Bush-funded study.

"This basically says there isn't going to be any impact," said Tom Bowen, whose home is just north of the site.

Bowen and some other residents – who are primarily worried about two planned library parking lots – say they hope University Park will conduct its own traffic study.

The Bush Foundation's study, which was conducted by DeShazo, Tang & Associates, made two "discretionary recommendations" to improve "traffic flow in the vicinity of the site – especially that of local residential traffic – and to improve overall safety."

One called for better access, primarily through signage, for the visitor parking lots so that drivers don't travel through the residential neighborhood. The other called for restriping the southern leg of the intersection of SMU Boulevard and Dublin Street to create two northbound approach lanes.

"This recommendation will reduce the average vehicle delay of northbound traffic," the report states.

*****

Judge rejects deal to settle dispute over land near Bush library

1:05 PM CT on Tuesday, November 3, 2009
By LORI STAHL / The Dallas Morning News

The deal to end a lawsuit over land at the Bush presidential library was tossed aside today by a judge who said Southern Methodist University and its legal foe never had a clear agreement on the terms.

After listening to arguments for more than an hour from SMU and Gary Vodicka, a former owner of condominiums near the library site, State District Judge John L. McCraw Jr. ruled that a July settlement agreement between the parties was unenforceable.

McCraw's ruling seemed to dim the prospect of an immediate resolution of the case.

Lawyers for SMU insist that they need full title to the disputed land in order for the George W. Bush presidential library to proceed.

The Bush Foundation recently asked the University Park City Council to rezone the library site, and details of the library’s design are expected to be released later this month.

“They need to know what land they’ve got title to and what land they don’t so they can make the best possible decisions,’’ Mark Lanier, a Houston lawyer representing SMU, said in oral arguments before the ruling.

SMU and Vodicka have been at odds over when and how title was to be transferred. SMU wants Vodicka to agree to a judgment saying that his four units were included in the SMU’s purchase of the University Gardens Condominiums several years ago.

For his part, Vodicka insisted that the agreement struck in July didn’t call for the title to be conveyed that way. After he filed the lawsuit in 2005, Vodicka gave fractional ownerships to three different people, some of whom later declared bankruptcy.

It has been unclear whether those people can assert their own claim on tiny portions of the disputed land, even if Vodicka resolves his dispute now.

By agreeing to accept the judgment SMU seeks, Vodicka would essentially be saying that he didn’t own the property at the time when he gave away those fractional ownerships.

That, in turn, would enable SMU to get the clear title its lawyers say it needs to develop the property as landscaped grounds for the Bush library.

Another condo owner who was a party to the case, Dr. Robert Tafel, settled with SMU last month for an undisclosed sum.

**spyguy999** · #32 November 18th, 2009, 10:00 PM

http://www.star-telegram.com/photos/...y/1772379.html

Robert A.M. Stern Architects

This architect's rendering of the design of the Bush presidential library at SMU shows Freedom Plaza, the entrance to the museum and archives. It was formally unveiled Wednesday.

This architect's rendering of the design of the Bush presidential library at SMU shows the institute entrance. The 225,000-foot building will house George W. Bush's presidential papers in a library, and will also include a museum and a policy institute.

The Texas Rose Garden, as depicted in the architect's rendering of the design of the Bush presidential library. It was formally unveiled Wednesday.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/cult...-unveiled.html