James Polshek: Design Reflects Substance

James Polshek Design Reflects Substance
Architect James Polshek compares his design for Bill Clinton's presidential library to his plans for a new arts center in Omaha, Neb., not for their style, but for their substance.

He said both of the public projects reflect values and a desire to give back to their communities.

That ideal helped Polshek and Partners go against the grain in choosing a site and developing a multi-faceted, modernist Clinton Library, which officially opens Thursday.

The Clinton Presidential Center has transformed downtown Little Rock, first by setting an architectural precedent, and then by spurring nearly $1 billion in development.

Similarly, Polshek's National Inventors Hall of Fame is the nucleus of a rebirth in Akron, Ohio. The Omaha Performing Arts Center is under construction with the same thing in mind.

The Clinton Library includes a 20,000 square-foot museum in a glass and steel structure suspended over the edge of the Arkansas River, a nod to Clinton's well-known speech about building a bridge to the 21st Century. The same building includes another 60,000 square feet of meeting rooms, service areas, offices, a cafe and a rooftop apartment for Clinton.

A hallway connects to a 70,000-square-foot archives building, which holds 630 tons of material, including 80 million pages of public and secret documents. It represents the