On a recent afternoon, an empty bottle of tequila lay on the grassy parkway opposite the new Obama Presidential Center, a bit of the real city across the street from the security-conscious construction site. But the bottle’s stubby proportions were oddly consistent with the unusually shaped 225-foot-tall granite-clad tower that will house the center’s primary exhibitions.

That tower and the two low-riding structures next to it are the work of New York-based Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA). The duo’s work, which includes the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia and the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at the University of Chicago, has been consistently thoughtful, serene and cerebral for four decades. While these are qualities that seem appropriate for Barack Obama, they’

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