Aloha, Obama center

Kakaako Waterfront Park affords a clear vista toward the south, but it’s the fact that Hawaii looks east that might interest the White House the most.

That’s the hope, anyway, of the team of planners trying to pitch a site here — in Kakaako Makai, more than likely — for a President Barack Obama presidential center, in the city of his birth.

The issue, of course, is that Obama has loyalties to two cities: Chicago became his political birthplace that launched him toward the White House, and that city is every bit as eager to host the presidential library.

But rather than fight about it, the Hawaii contenders seem to be adopting the aloha strategy of compromise, believing there is enough here to make both cities happy.

These centers are often described generically as libraries, but in some cases the presidential legacy takes shape with facilities in different cities. For example, former President Bill Clinton has a presidential center in Little Rock, Ark., including the conventional library and archives elements, but he’s based his foundation in New York City.

A similar outcome is the fondest desire of the team, a committee largely comprising University of Hawaii faculty members who met over coffee in Honolulu, just after Obama’s first inauguration four years ago. Among them was Robert Perkinson, special assistant to the chancellor and associate professor in American Studies.

Both the Legislature and the Honolulu City Council have passed resolutions showing that lawmakers are officially on board with the idea, but it’s Perkinson who is still at the helm of the state’s effort to bring an Obama center here.

“Presidential centers have a lot of components, and with younger, globally ambitious presidents, they expand,” he said. “Our thinking is that the president might like to have a base of operations in two cities; he might be running an operation big and ambitious enough to have that.”

Perkinson keeps a lot of the more detailed cards close to the vest. There have been conceptual ideas sketched out, but releasing them would give the wrong impression that any of them have an edge, he said. If Honolulu is fortunate enough to win a piece of the Obama post-presidential enterprise, team members agreed, it’s better if the man himself has a hand in directing those concepts.

James Spencer, an associate professor in urban planning and political science at UH, is similarly guarded about site designs, which is his primary role in discussions.

“Right now we can’t say too much about these details,” he said. “But the idea is that Hawaii is part of a growing economic region, and that plays into the hand of having something built here.

“The hope is that the decision-makers would value that as being the future of America.”

The site selection isn’t final, but most of the discussions have been around a parcel of state land near the waterfront park, in the vicinity of the John A. Burns School of Medicine and the Children’s Discovery Center. There is land mauka of the park but with unobstructed views of the ocean.

More generally, Spencer observed that aspects of the location other than the views do factor into the site selections, and this could be at least part of the Chicago advantage in the bidding for the library.

These centers are built with funds raised by the presidents themselves, often large private donations; one fundraiser is already being planned, in conjunction with the second inaugural, in a few weeks.

But the centers are managed by the federal government through the National Archives and Records Administration (www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries). And while subtropical climates may be more comfortable for people, they’re not optimal for archival preservation, Spencer said.

“The national criteria require very specific design and controls over sunlight,” he said. “Hawaii has different temperatures than Chicago, Texas or California. And even though everything is digital these days, it’s hard to imagine the whole thing would be completely paperless.”

Of course, it’s possible to plan around such considerations, but Spencer said reaping the natural advantage of the sunny vista while warding off sun damage to the exhibits does complicate the design.

A.J. Halagao is director of corporate and community advancement for Hawaiian Electric Industries but was drawn into the fold to take on some of the communications work because his wife, Patricia, is an associate professor of curriculum studies and part of the team, too.

The prospects for turning a Kakaako facility into an education center is appealing to the planners on multiple levels. It fits well with Obama’s public-policy interest and agenda, with the state as a bridge between Eastern and Western cultures and with the Kakaako Makai district itself, which already has an educational focus, Halagao said.

But the group has discussed other possibilities as well, he said, including turning the center into a leadership development center “convening institute” with a mission to hammer out accords and solve problems — something like The Aspen Institute or even with an element of the peacekeeping aims of sojourns at the presidential retreat, Camp David.

Universities are often partners in these presidential center projects because they dovetail nicely with the educational institution’s own goals, Perkinson said.

For instance, the UH work in earth sciences could fit with a center that tackles big planetary problems, he said.

“We’re imagining that President Obama is not going to be interested in making a memorial of his presidency and freezing it in amber,” Perkinson said.

“Hawaii is in the middle of the world’s most dynamic region; all of the major problems of our time have to be solved in the region, including global warming. This site looks outward to the world. It’s a more ambitious statement to make.”

Even if Hawaii misses the Obama cut, the work of planning for such an ambitious, problem-solving institution would not be wasted in that it meshes so well with the university’s mission, he added.

But clearly, everyone is banking on having a winning argument for Obama to build something forward-looking here. The options are wide open, Perkinson said.

“Hawaii has its unique multicultural population that signals the demographic future of the nation,” he said. “That makes it an interesting laboratory for educational research. We’re developing a concept for an institution that would help solve big environmental problems. … We’re going to  advance some ideas that would be good for the university and the state, regardless of what the president decides.”

“We want to send a message of openness and collaboration with the president and his team, offering a strong choice about the future of his legacy rather than the past,” Spencer added.

“It’s not a stretch to say he’s going to have a fairly long runway in front of him. Hawaii can be a platform for him to take that next step.”