Sweet: Obama Center Design is Splashy With Welcoming Streetscape by Lynn Sweet

This conceptual drawing released Wednesday, May 3, 2017, by the Obama Foundation shows plans for the proposed Obama Presidential Center that will be located in Jackson Park on Chicago's South Side. This view looks from the south with a public plaza that extends into the landscape. The Museum is the tall structure on the site. | Obama Foundation via AP

Over time, the South Side neighborhood and park now named for the seventh president of the U.S., Andrew Jackson, will become better known as Obamaland, anchored by the Obama Presidential Center campus, conceived by the 44th president as a busy hub with space for people to gather, whether from across the globe or around the corner.

Former President Barack Obama unveiled the conceptual plans of his Obama Center at a Wednesday afternoon event engineered to address local concerns that have been long brewing, from planting his center in a historic Frederick Law Olmsted park, to guarantees that jobs and contracts from the project will flow to minorities, to what he will do about crime.
“We are going to be continually in conversations with the community about how we are going to be able to make this work for you,” Obama said at the start of his almost one-hour briefing about the project at the South Shore Cultural Center.
Obama lugged around a five-by-five model of his Obama Center campus on his day trip back to his adopted hometown, first to South Shore for the public event and then downtown to a private dinner hosted by the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, where he showed off the design to an audience of potential donors.

OPINION

We finally know what Obama and former first lady Michelle have in mind for the design of their Center, the first urban presidential compound.
Think of it as an architecturally significant clubhouse complex, where people can hang out, inside or outside, maybe sample a program — or maybe not.
The siting of the campus along Stony Island Avenue is crucial, creating a non-imposing accessible streetscape with many points of entry for people, whether to wander by or come with a purpose.
There will be three main structures in the Obama Center: a brawny high-rise to be the iconic landmark “lantern,” housing a museum and offices, and likely an apartment for the Obamas; a multi-use forum for performances and meetings, and a library.

Above ground, the structures will be woven together with plazas and paths leading people to and from the nearby Museum of Science and Industry, one of Chicago’s leading tourist attractions.
The skins of the structures are to be of stone and glass, but the specific stone or its hew has not yet been revealed.
The boxy museum building looks somewhat like an Apple power adapter, with the glass running down the south face the prongs.
The buildings reflect the Obamas.
Splashy. Tasteful. Sleek. Modern. And certainly not a display of the architect’s vanity.

It is architecture that relates to the adventurous buildings spawned in the last decade on the University of Chicago campus to the west.

The chief architects are the New York husband and wife team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, whose chemistry with the Obamas was a significant factor in their selection last year.
But on Wednesday, at the first event where Obama discussed his legacy project with the community, he was on stage with Obama Foundation Vice President for Civic Engagement Michael Strautmanis and the local architect on the design team, Dina Griffin, a Hyde Park resident.

Architect Dina Griffin listens to former President Barack Obama speak about the progress of the Obama Presidential Center during a community event at the South Shore Cultural Center on Wednesday, May 3, 2017, in Chicago. | Joshua Lott/AFP/Getty Images

Also on Wednesday, the Obama Foundation and the National Archives and Records Administration announced a deal — the first of its kind — in which the Foundation will fund the digitization of Obama’s unclassified records. NARA will retain custody of the original paper records, to be stored at another location. Classified records will remain in the Washington, D.C. area.

Obama announced at the South Shore event that the former first couple will donate $2 million to Chicago summer jobs programs. The timing is interesting. That news comes as Obama has been criticized — including by consumer champion Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. — for raking in $400,000 speaking fees on top of a reported $60 million book deal for memoirs the Obamas’ will each write.
The Obama donation will go to two organizations: $1 million to the Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance, a program of the Chicago Community Trust, and $1 million to One Summer Chicago 2017, a program run in part out of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Hall.
Obama confirmed something that everyone long suspected: Despite a bidding competition, the presidential thumb was on the scale from the start for the University of Chicago’s push for a South Side location.
“Although we had a formal bidding process to determine where the presidential library was going to be, the fact of the matter was it had to be right here on the South Side of Chicago,” Obama said.

In a part of the city that one day will be called Obamaland.

Beer-Drinking Gunman Opens Fire Poolside in San Diego - Media Reports

(Reporting by Mike Blake in San Diego; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

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© Carlballou/iStockphoto/Getty Images Gunman opens fire poolside in San Diego 

  A man drinking a beer from one hand and brandishing a gun in the other opened fire beside a pool at a San Diego apartment complex on Sunday, wounding several people before being shot dead by police, according to local media accounts.
An apartment complex resident who witnessed part of the incident told television station KFMB-TV, the CBS affiliate in San Diego, that five to seven victims were shot, before the gunman was slain on the scene by police. The condition of the wounded was unknown.
San Diego police were not immediately available to confirm details of the shooting, which was reported to have begun shortly after 6 p.m. local time at the Ja Jolla Crossroads Apartments in the University City section of San Diego.
A Fox News affiliate station reported multiple victims were shot before the gunman was himself shot.
The KFMB eyewitness, who identified himself only as a Crossroads resident named John, said he saw the suspect "sitting, drinking a beer in one hand with a gun out in the other" in the pool area of the apartment complex.
He said he and his wife, a nurse, saw "three people laying on the ground shot" and that he also saw one wounded victim trying to crawl to another to give assistance.
He said two police officers who arrived on the scene confronted the gunman, who exchanged gunfire with police before he was shot. The eyewitness also said some of the victims were taken away in cars to the hospital before fire department personnel or paramedics made it to the scene.

Why people are marching for science: ‘There is no Planet B’

The Washington Post    

Joel Achenbach, Ben Guarino, Sarah Kaplan9 hrs ago

Thousands of people gathered in the rain Saturday on the soggy grounds of the Washington Monument to turn Earth Day into an homage to science. After four hours of speeches and musical performances, they marched down Constitution Avenue to the foot of Capitol Hill, chanting “Build labs, not walls!” and “Hey, Trump, have you heard, you can’t silence every nerd!”

The March for Science began as a notion batted around online on Reddit after the Women’s March on Washington, which was held Jan. 21, the day after President Trump’s inauguration. The idea snowballed after it was endorsed by numerous mainstream science organizations, which vowed that it would not be a partisan event. It eventually became a global phenomenon, held in more than 600 cities on six continents — and cheered on by scientists on a seventh, Antarctica.
“We are at a critical juncture. Science is under attack,” said Cara Santa Maria, a science communicator who is one of several emcees of the four-hour rally that kicked off at 10 a.m. “The very idea of evidence and logic and reason is being threatened by individuals and interests with the power to do real harm.”
She went on: “We’re gathered here today to fight for science. [The crowd cheered.] We’re gathered to fight for education. [Cheer.] To fight for knowledge. [Cheer.] And to fight for planet Earth.” [Cheer.]
She was followed by the musician Questlove, who said “many people” are refusing to follow scientific facts, and he pointed toward the White House. “That guy over there,” he said in a whisper. He waved, said “Hi,” and made a fast gesture with his middle finger that someone not paying close attention might well have missed.
YouTube star Tyler DeWitt took the stage with another pointed message: Experts need to learn how to explain things in a way regular folks can understand.
“Ditch the jargon!” he said. “Make it understandable. Make people care. Talk to them, not at them. We cannot complain about slashed funding if we can’t tell taxpayers why science matters.”

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Slide 1 of 24: Demonstrators march to the U.S. Capitol during the March for Science in Washington, U.S., April 22, 2017.

1/24 SLIDES © Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

Washington

Demonstrators march to the U.S. Capitol during the March for Science in Washington, U.S., April 22, 2017.

2/24 SLIDES © Reed Saxon/AP

Los Angeles

Two giant electric Humvees lead thousands of people in a march and rally in downtown Los Angeles, part of the nationwide March for Science, taking place Saturday, April 22, 2017. They chanted "Money for science and education, not for wars and climate alteration."

3/24 SLIDES © Brian Snyder/Reuters

Boston

Demonstrators gather for the March for Science rally on the Common in Boston, April 22, 2017.

4/24 SLIDES © David Kawai/Bloomberg

Ottawa

A child holds a globe balloon during the March for Science rally on Earth Day at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, on Saturday, April 22, 2017. 

5/24 SLIDES © Lisa Rathke/AP

Monpelier, Vt.

Demonstrators hold signs at a rally for science on the Statehouse lawn in Montpelier, Vt. on Saturday, April 22, 2017.

6/24 SLIDES © Reed Saxon/AP

Los Angeles

A person in a dinosaur costume joins demonstrators at a rally at Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles, part of the March for Science, Saturday, April 22, 2017. 

7/24 SLIDES © David Ryder/Reuters

Seattle

A protestor holds a sign in support of science during the March For Science in Seattle on April 22, 2017.

8/24 SLIDES © Markus Schreiber/AP

Berlin

A woman with a poster attends with thousands of demonstrators the March for Science in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Saturday, April 22, 2017. Thousands of people are expected to attend March for Science events around the world to promote the understanding of science and defend it from various attacks, including U.S. government budget cuts.

9/24 SLIDES © Andrew Kelly/Reuters

New York

People walk past Trump International Hotel and Tower during the Earth Day 'March For Science NYC' demonstration to coincide with similar marches globally in Manhattan, New York April 22, 2017.

10/24 SLIDES © David Zalubowski/AP

Denver

Analeigh Belisle of Fort Collins, Colo., holds a sign before a march for science Saturday, April 22, 2017, in Denver. The Mile High City is joining communities around the globe where people are marching to defend scientific work from attacks including U.S. government budget cuts.

11/24 SLIDES © Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP

Washington

A man stands by a sign that reads "Science and Revolution" at the March for Science event near the Washington Monument in Washington, Saturday, April 22, 2017. 

12/24 SLIDES © Emeric Fohlen/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Paris

Protesters hold banners during the March for Science in Paris, France, on 22 April 2017. 

13/24 SLIDES © David Gray/Reuters

Sydney

Protesters hold placards and banners as they participate in the March for Science rally on Earth Day, in central Sydney, Australia April 22, 2017.

14/24 SLIDES © Andrew Welsh-Huggins/AP

Columbus, Ohio

People gather at the Ohio Statehouse to defend science research on Saturday, April 22, 2017, in Columbus, Ohio. People held signs that said "Save Science," ''Science is like magic but real" and "A woman's place is in the lab" as speakers urged attendees to fight back against what they say are mounting attacks on science.

15/24 SLIDES © Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

London

A protestor holds a placard as scientists and science enthusiasts participate in the 'March for Science' which celebrates the scientific method, in Westminster, central London on April 22, 2017, Earth Day. 

16/24 SLIDES © Andrew Kelly/Reuters

New York

Mary Devine of Levittown, Long Island looks on during the Earth Day 'March For Science NYC' demonstration to coincide with similar marches globally in Manhattan, New York, April 22, 2017.

17/24 SLIDES © Markus Schreiber/AP

Berlin

Thousands of demonstrators attend the March for Science in Berlin, Saturday, April 22, 2017. 

18/24 SLIDES © Simona Granati/Corbis/Getty Images

Rome

Environmentalist activists during the march for science in front of the statue of Giordano Bruno in Campo de Fiori, who was burned in this square because he was considered heretical, on April 22, 2017 in Rome, Italy. 

19/24 SLIDES © Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Philadelphia

Brian Patrick Mulligan, of Philadelphia, in his role of Ben Franklin, is seen at the front of the National March for Science, on Earth Day, April 22, 2017, in Philadelphia. 

20/24 SLIDES © Alan Diaz/AP

Miami

Marchers carry signs and chant slogans calling for politicians to implement science based policies and celebrate science during a rally on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22, 2017, in Miami.

21/24 SLIDES © Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP

Madrid

People protest holding banners at the March for Science event in Madrid, Saturday, April 22, 2017. 

22/24 SLIDES © Andrew Kelly/Reuters

New York

Protesters line Central Park West during the Earth Day 'March For Science NYC' demonstration to coincide with similar marches globally in Manhattan, New York April 22, 2017.

23/24 SLIDES © David Gray/Reuters

Sydney

Protesters hold placards and banners as they participate in the March for Science rally on Earth Day, in central Sydney, Australia April 22, 2017.

24/24 SLIDES © Marc Femenia/TT News Agency/Reuters

Stockholm

Demonstrators hold placards during the "March for Science Stockholm" manifestation at Medborgarplatsen square in Stockholm, Sweden April 22, 2107.

24/24 SLIDES

Slideshow by photo services
Cell biologist Lydia Villa-Komaroff, one of the march’s honorary co-chairs, told how she and her colleagues in the 1970s discovered how to make insulin in bacteria, and how that breakthrough was made possible only through basic research funded in the 1950s and 1960s when no one knew if it would lead to anything. “Support for science has been declining for decades. Mr. President, members of the House and Senate, support our future. Invest in science!” she said.
Denis Hayes, co-founder of the first Earth Day in 1970, chose not to dial back his rhetoric, saying the White House “reeks of greed and sleaze and mendacity” and declaring, “America has had 45 presidents, but we have never before had a president who is completely indifferent to the truth. Donald Trump makes Richard Nixon look like Diogenes.”
President Trump issued an Earth Day statement that did not mention the March for Science directly, though seemed to be aware of what was happening within shouting distance of the White House. After pledging to keep the nation’s air and water clean and protect endangered species, the president said:
“Rigorous science is critical to my Administration’s efforts to achieve the twin goals of economic growth and environmental protection. My Administration is committed to advancing scientific research that leads to a better understanding of our environment and of environmental risks. As we do so, we should remember that rigorous science depends not on ideology, but on a spirit of honest inquiry and robust debate.”
At times, the lines to get through the event’s security checkpoints stretched for several blocks. The advanced technologies known as the umbrella and the rain poncho proved useful. The program ran so precisely on schedule, you would think it had been timed with an atomic clock. People danced when Thomas Dolby took the stage to perform his 1982 blockbuster hit “She Blinded Me With Science.”
Some people wore lab coats. Some wore pink, knitted “brain” hats. Sam McCoy, 27, who traveled from North Carolina, carried a homemade sign certain to baffle anyone lacking an understanding of P Values and the null hypothesis. But most of the signs were more straightforward:
— “In peer review we trust.”
— “The oceans are rising, and so are we.”
— “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate.”
As it happens, the National Math Festival is also in Washington — so there’s an unusual number of people in town who can recite pi to more than five digits.
Some signs jabbed the current occupant of the White House:
— “Hey Trump — Think You Can Stifle Science? Ask Galileo How That Worked Out!”
— “Empirical Data Trumps Imperial Alt-Facts.”
As marchers waited in a glacially moving line for the bag check, and huddled under umbrellas, 60-year-old Cathy Butler implored everyone to join her in a chant.
“Science, not silence! Science, not silence!” she shouted.
A few of the protesters joined in halfheartedly.
Butler sighed.
“I get it! We’re scientists, and we’re all introverted!” she said. “But this is the time that we’re supposed to be loud!”
Butler, a retired engineer and educator from Kennett Square, Pa., said she has been dismayed to see the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back environmental regulations and cut funding for research. Still, she said, she has been trying not to get too political.
“Even people who voted Republican can still get behind clean air for their grandchildren,” she said.
Next to her, 44-year-old Jeffrey C. Jacobs of Herndon, Va., agreed.
“We’re not here for partisanship,” said Jacobs, who runs a science book club. “There are many Republican scientists. Science helps everyone.”
Three federal scientists, approached by a reporter, refused to give their names for fear of repercussions at work.
Another person was dressed as the Muppet “Beaker” and, when interviewed, would say only “Meep.”
Next to Beaker, however, was Erik Molvar, director of the Western Watersheds Project, who had traveled from Wyoming. Molvar is a sage grouse expert who studies the impact of livestock on grouse habitat. Politicians supporting the livestock industry ignore his research into cheatgrass, which is highly flammable and leads to damaging wildfires, he said. “Livestock spread cheatgrass like mosquitoes spread the Zika virus,” he said.
Emily Fink, 28, and Kayla Denson, 29, are biomedical researchers who drove seven hours from Buffalo to attend the march, and they said they fear the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts will imperil their careers.
“It feels like we’re getting our foot in the door right as the door is closing on us,” Fink said.
Fink brought several copies of her résumé to the march and held up a neon sign that read, “Are you looking for a highly motivated post doc? Ask for CV.” She thought the march might be a good networking opportunity, though so far no one had asked for a résumé.
“I’m a meteoriticist,” said Conel Alexander, 56, as he wrote down his occupation to make sure he spelled it correctly. He studies meteorites and was with a group from the Carnegie Institution for Science. “Most people just think I’m a meteorologist,” he said.
Speaking of meteorology: Favorable weather forecasts took a turn by week’s end, and this turned out to be a soggy Saturday in which periodic showers gave way to heavy late-morning downpours.
But many people present are veterans of protests. Grace Francis, 33, and Ron Frerker, 36, of Washington, said they’ve been to a series of protests since Trump took office. Francis, a former public school teacher who conducts special-education research at George Mason University, said when she heard about the science march she asked her daughters Sage and Eleanor, who are 5 and 3 years old, respectively, if they wanted to go.
“It’s important for them to see that not just our family feels this way,” she said.
The two girls were dressed in koala costumes, and holding signs that read “ DeVos is un-koala-fied” and “everyone deserves a Koala-ity education.”
“What do we feel about schools,” Francis asked Sage.
“Bad,” Sage answered.
“Because everybody deserves to have a . . . ”
“Education.”
“What kind of education?”
“A good one.”

Maryam Zaringhalam and Kelly Fleming, both 28, came with poster board signs they’d made at an event Friday night with the group 500 Women Scientists. Zaringhalam, a molecular biologist, and Fleming, a chemical engineer, had been concerned about the way diversity issues were dealt with by the march organizing committee.
“But I thought, people are going to be taking pictures at the march and this is what I want them to see,” Zaringhalam said. “I want them to see someone who looks like me.”
Zaringhalam is an Iranian American who was in Iran when Trump issued his executive order on immigration. Although she is a U.S. citizen, Zaringhalam worried she would not be allowed back into the country.
At their sign-making event Friday night, a passerby had asked what the women were doing. When they told him, he responded, “You don’t look like scientists.”
“I think he thought he was flirting,” Fleming said, making a face. Zaringhalam came up with the motto for her sign: “This is what a scientist looks like.”
Craig Fryer, 47, marched down Constitution Avenue alongside several of his colleagues from the University of Maryland School of Public Health, all wearing T-shirts that read “Black Scientists Matter.” Fryer, a behavioral scientist who studies substance abuse, carried a sign that proclaimed “Black Scientists Speaking Truth to Power.” He said he and his colleagues are concerned about racial disparities in funding for research.
“We need increased funding, not budget cuts, and we need an equal opportunity to be funded,” Fryer said.
Carol Trosset, 57, an anthropologist at Carleton College, traveled to Washington from Northfield, Minn., having never been to a political rally before. She wore the lab coat — now quite the vintage item — that had belonged to her late mother, who had been a PhD chemist in the 1940s and 1950s.
“I thought, what should I wear? I’ll wear mom’s lab coat,” Trosset said. Her mother was also a naturalist, collecting data at their home in Cincinnati, recording when birds would arrive and flowers would bloom. Trosset has begun analyzing her mother’s data and sees clear signs of a warming climate.
Brooke Hardesty, 16, waited nervously in front of the science tent. She was looking for the other “Science Teens,” fellow high school students who are slated to speak at the rally. From far-flung cities around the country — Hardesty is from Buckeye, Ariz. — they’d previously communicated only through social media and Skype. On Saturday, Hardesty met her fellow nerds for the first time in person.
“I’ve never been around so many other people who are excited about science,” she said.
The teens, chatting awkwardly, discussed who they’re most excited to see — “Bill Nye!” they said in unison — and talked about how surreal this experience has been.
“I’m kind of surprised they let a bunch of teenagers do this,” said Sam Rosenberg, 16, of Poolesville, Md.
“We’re even verified on Twitter!” Hardesty agreed.
The lineup for the rally includes some prominent names in science and environmentalism, including Nye, chief executive of the Planetary Society and an honorary co-chair of the march. But the organizers wanted to erase the stereotype of science as a stodgy enterprise dominated by older white men, and the lineup includes speakers from a broad range of ages, backgrounds and expertise.
They included Taylor Richardson, a 13-year-old aspiring astronaut who raised $17,000 this year to send other girls to see the film “Hidden Figures”; chemist Mary Jo Ondrechen, a member of the Mohawk Nation and chair of the board of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society; and Gallaudet University biologist Caroline Solomon, who is deaf.

“We need more girls in computer science. We need more diversity in computer science,” said speaker Kavya Kopparapu, 16, a student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and founder of the Girls Computing League.
“In my future career, I don’t want to be known as a girl that happens to be a computer scientist. I want to be known as a computer scientist that happens to be a girl,” she told the crowd.
No politicians were given speaking roles, though some reportedly planned to show up for the march.
Some scientists in recent weeks have said they worried the march would politicize the broader scientific enterprise and signal an alignment with left-leaning ideologies. The march’s website offered an answer to that concern: “In the face of an alarming trend toward discrediting scientific consensus and restricting scientific discovery, we might ask instead: can we afford not to speak out in its defense? There is no Planet B.”
Molly Jung, 29, a doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins, echoed that view: “It’s time for scientists to get out of the ivory towers and get the message out.”
The Washington march may have been the biggest gathering — organizers received a permit for up to 75,000 people — but there were similar events in more than 600 cities on six continents. Seven researchers in Antarctica went on Twitter to express their support for the march. Thousands of people gathered in Sydney, Australia, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Science advocates went on social media to post bulletins from marches in Austria, England and Malawi, among other places.

Jia Naqvi, Kayla Epstein, Perry Stein, Martine Powers and Taylor Hartz contributed to this report.