White House Redux

With the inauguration of President Elect Obama just around the corner the Store Front Gallery's Project White House Redux which asked architects to re-design the White House and a subsequent book has found a second wind. The project was undertaken in early 2008 long before Obama was confirmed as the Democratic nominee, however is now receiving a new wave of publicity The New York Times reports and the winners have cleary taken a very different look at the White house;

The winning entry, “Revenge of the Lawn,” submitted by J. P. Maruszczak and Roger Connah with assistance from Ryan Manning, skirted the White House structure and instead tackled the subliminal associations of its green spaces. “We found a kind of resonance in the lawn between the public and private,” Mr. Maruszczak said, “and we were trying to get around the problem of the White House as such a potent symbol that no one could ever erase that.”

Also check out a video of the judging panel's decision making process in New York and the way in which the architectural projects were discussed in relations to American politics. Many of the other projects also tackle to concept of a more involved voter and citizen which surely aligns with the new President's ideals. Many of the works were more of a prediction than just a response to the brief and can be seen at whitehouseredux.com.