George W. Bush Presidential Center

History

Site selection process

Before Bush became president, officials at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, started to work on a bid for the library. They believed that their proximity to his ranch in Crawford and their location within 100 miles (160 km) of Austin, Dallas, and the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area gave them a good shot at winning such a project. Not long after Bush became president, officials at Southern Methodist University (SMU) began working on their bid for the library.

The White House refused to discuss the issue until after Bush had won a second term. In the latter part of 2005, the White House asked a total of six colleges and one city to submit bids for the library. The six were Baylor, SMU, the University of Texas System, Texas Tech University, the University of Dallas, and Midland College. The city of Arlington, Texas, also submitted a bid. A few weeks later, Midland College announced it was merging its bid with Texas Tech to form a "West Texas Coalition" to win the library and museum. Part of the proposal was to create a Laura Bush reading center at Midland College while the main presidential library and museum would be housed on the Lubbock campus of Texas Tech.

Each of the groups had benefits and drawbacks to their bids. Arlington had land to offer near the stadiums for the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers. It was in the middle of an area that already draws a large number of tourists every year. The lack of school involvement was a large drawback to the proposal, even though the University of Texas at Arlington assisted the city in making the bid.

Baylor University had substantial land to offer on the banks of the Brazos River in Waco. The downside was that Baylor is not in a major metropolitan area and would probably not attract nearly as many visitors annually as the library would if it were built somewhere in the Dallas area.

Many on the campus of the UT System opposed the school's bid for the library; for example, The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of the UT system's university, the University of Texas at Austin, printed an editorial against the project. On the plus side, UT Austin was already home to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum and had experience in managing such a project. The drawback was the proposal to split the library up over several UT campuses around the state. This decentralized approach was sold as a way to create a "virtual" library that would benefit far more people.

Fundraising

The nonprofit George W. Bush Foundation in early 2009 had a goal to raise $300 million for construction and endowment of the library, according to its president Mark Langdale.

Construction and sustainability

The firm of architect and Driehaus Prize winner Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the architecture school at Yale University, was picked to design the library.

Groundbreaking took place on November 16, 2010. In tandem with the publication of his memoir Decision Points, Bush hosted a November 16, 2010, groundbreaking ceremony for the center. At the event, Dick Cheney commented that "this may be the only shovel ready project in America", using a term prominently and ultimately ruefully associated with President Barack Obama's 2009 fiscal stimulus package. The library foundation chose the Manhattan Construction Company as contractor, which had also built the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library.

The construction of the center was projected to cost $250 million. In April 2013, the building earned a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum green building certification, the highest possible.

Some of the sustainable features of The George W. Bush Presidential Center include that the site was built using the same fill from the excavation and there is a dynamic vegetative bioswale for storm water management. Over 90 native Texan plant species were used, 900 native trees and over 350,000 plant plugs were planted.

Environmentally, the lawn achieves a biomass density index 62% higher than a classic lawn. It also reduces potable water consumption for irrigation 75% more than the average baseline.

Completion and dedication ceremony

The center which includes a presidential library, museum, institute and the offices of the George W. Bush Foundation was dedicated on April 25, 2013, in a ceremony which featured all living former U.S. presidents: Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and then-current president Barack Obama. The library and museum are privately administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, while the university holds representation on the institute board. The project raised over $500 million for the construction and endowment of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

The previous time that George W. Bush (then the outgoing president), Obama (then the president-elect), Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Carter all met took place in the White House in January 2009, just days ahead of Obama's first inauguration.

Also in attendance were current and former US politicians and over 10,000 other invited guests, including dignitaries and ambassadors from about fifty countries. They included:

Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen from NATO

Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia

Prince Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain

President Mikheil Saakashvili and Mrs. Sandra Roelofs from Georgia

Former prime minister José María Aznar from Spain

Former prime minister and Mrs. Ehud Olmert from Israel

Former prime minister and Mrs. John Howard from Australia

Former president Lee Myung-bak and Mrs. Kim Yoon-ok from South Korea

Former prime minister Tony Blair and Mrs. Cherie Blair from the United Kingdom

Ownership transfer

On November 16, 2022, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) transferred operations of the museum to the George W. Bush Foundation effective January 1, 2023. The transfer was originally agreed to in April 2022 but was paused due to concerns about whitewashing exhibits about controversial topics, an issue which has plagued non-NARA museums like the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. To alleviate this, the foundation is required to obtain NARA and historian input, clearly designate foundation and NARA spaces, and NARA will retain all ownership of presidential artifacts which are considered loaned to the foundation for display.

Operations

It was announced in August 2019 that the Center would be the eventual burial site of George W. and Laura Bush.

Presidential library

At 207,000 square feet (19,200 m2), it is the second-largest presidential library, behind only the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Like most presidential libraries it includes a full-size replica of the Oval Office and the Resolute Desk where visitors may have their pictures taken with. Particular focus is made on Bush's decisions after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and includes artifacts from the event. Another section include "Decision Points" interactive exhibits about key events in his presidency, the title taken from Bush's memoir. Other exhibits include Hurricane Katrina and the 2008 financial crisis, and a collection of items from first ladies of the United States. A temporary exhibit hall has rotating exhibits from American history. Bush's paintings are also exhibited in the museum. There is a 14 acre native garden adjacent to the site dedicated to Laura Bush, and a farm-to-table restaurant, Café 43.

Policy institute

Ambassador James K. Glassman, a former State Department official, was appointed founding executive director of the center's George W. Bush Institute in September 2009, and held that position until 2013. It will be an "action-oriented think tank" independent of SMU.

The institute is planned "to advance four causes he adopted as his own while in office: human freedom, global health, economic growth and education reform". He has also started a women's initiative led by his wife, Laura, as well as a military service initiative to help US veterans. At the November 2010, groundbreaking, the former president said to attendees, "The decisions of governing are on another president's desk, and he deserves to make them without criticism from me. But staying out of current affairs and politics does not mean staying out of policy." Laura Bush addressed the crowd "to promote the importance of fighting for women's rights around the world."

In 2012, it published The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs (Crown Business, 2012), a collection of essays. Five Nobel Prize winners contributed. The presentation was broadcast five times on Book TV between August and December 2012. The book contains a foreword by George W. Bush, and covers immigration, Social Security, tax policy, and energy policy. It suggests policies for the U.S. gross domestic product annual growth to reach 4%. When President Donald Trump proposed repeal of NAFTA in 2017, Matthew Rooney, the director of the economic growth initiative at the Bush Institute defended NAFTA on multiple fronts but suggested an update is needed.

In early 2018, the Bush Institute received two $10 million endowments, one each from Boeing and Highland Capital Management, in support of the institute's programs.