About Us
The Building Architecture
The Texas brick and limestone-clad building's low slung design follows traditional lines hugging the Texas landscape with a calm reserve.
Limestone at the base of the building is from Midland, Texas, where the Bushes met and married. The building and landscape are integrated, with numerous links between indoor and outdoor spaces. Visitors will pass a limestone retaining wall as they proceed into the building and enter through Freedom Hall, emblazoned with an American flag on its ceiling and capped by a square glass box hat allows natural light to flow in by day and glow outward like a soft lantern by night.
The most appealing element as considered by many is Freedom Plaza, located off the main entrance on SMU (formerly Yale) Boulevard. A pair of simple one-story brick and limestone volumes frame a plaza and a colonnade, and lead to a dramatic ceremonial space, Freedom Hall, that looks out to the garden and the Dallas downtown skyline.
The architecture, both presidential and welcoming, houses public exhibition space; a mock-up of the Oval Office; a conference center with 364-seat auditorium; a presidential suite and seminar room, as well as a Texas Rose Garden modeled after its White House namesake.
Crawford Ranch
Like President and Mrs. Bush's ranch in Crawford, the new Bush Center features an array of green design elements that support their longstanding commitment to energy efficiency and conservation.
The most salient architectural element for many is not the building shape or design but rather its internal and external systems. The center will be built to the highest environmental standards – with anticipation of achieving a Platinum LEED rating — with recycled and regionally sourced building materials, solar panels to supply the building’s domestic hot water requirements, and an efficient system to capture and reuse rainwater.
Robert A.M. Stern Architects
Robert A.M. Stern Architects brings to the design of the George W. Bush Presidential Center significant experience with the planning and design of museums that present a contemporary architectural response to the legacy of an important American cultural figure.
These include the Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, Massachusetts; the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in Jamestown, New York; and the Museum Center at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut.
