Our design explorations led to a crystalline bridge, with formal and material qualities that resolve the inherent tension between monumentality and physical and intellectual accessibility.
Richard Olcott and James S. Polshek, Design Partners
The main body of the Center is elevated off the ground plane, allowing the new park to flow uninterrupted underneath and emphasizing the public nature of the site.
Clad in glass and metal, the building’s bold cantilevered form emphasizes connections and is both a reference to Little Rock’s distinctive “Six Bridges” and a metaphor for the President’s progressive ideals. Its principal interior feature is a naturally-lit, 240-foot-long, forty-foot-high exhibition space.
Reinforcing urban design goals to reclaim and transform a derelict area, the building is oriented perpendicular to the River: its link to downtown is manifest, with the principal entrance on axis with the city’s main thoroughfare.
[The building] is the symbol of not only what I tried to do but what I want to do with the rest of my life – building bridges from yesterday to tomorrow.
William Jefferson Clinton
Linked to the main building, the Archive is both research center and a secure environment for the documents and objects of the Clinton Administration. Two historic structures expand the complex’s outreach and further its connection to the city.
Transformed into a pedestrian crossing, the Rock Island Railroad Bridge links the site to North Little Rock. The refurbished 1899 Choctaw Station houses the Clinton Public Policy Institute and Clinton School of Public Service.
