The area around Hyde Park, the bastion of the University of Chicago on the city's South Side, has been in the news a bit lately, as it's the setting for Barack Obama's proposed Presidential Center. The process of choosing a city (NYC, Chicago, or Honolulu), selecting an architect (Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in the end), and then deciding on a site (in Washington or Jackson Park), was a semi-transparent process that unrolled toward the end of Obama's tenure as POTUS. Now he is trying to gain the necessary city and federal approvals and is working with the South Side community to be a good neighbor. Even with a design in place and the rest merely a formality, many are questioning one of the three decisions: the site in Jackson Park.

One such voice is Michael Sorkin, who recently provided "eleven theses on the Obama Presidential Center" (https://dirt.asla.org/2018/03/07/michael-sorkin-ten-theses-on-the-obama-presidential-center/), the first taking aim at the site selection; he disagrees with the selection but begrudgingly accepts it at this late date. The critic, like many, may appear to be offering up his opinions on an important and contentious project, but Sorkin's roots in Hyde Park run deep. He attended the University of Chicago in the late 1960s and then, a few decades later, was hired to produce an alternative to the school's official master plan. As documented in the 22nd Pamphlet Architecture, Sorkin's studio was let go soon after being hired, but they soldiered on. They produced a plan that is undeniably "Sorkin," with wonky buildings curving among the old buildings on campus. But they expanded the canvas well beyond the U of C footprint, envisioning how commercial and residential development could aid more than just the client. It's the same thinking that permeates Sorkin's leadership in the Urban Design program at CCNY (which I attended) and his occasional comments on the Obama Presidential Center. ( )