CHICAGO | Obama Presidential Library

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Originally Posted by buildityesterday

Great pics, Nick! The stone almost appears to match the color of MSI in this lighting, which is a cool effect. Does anyone know if the color of the stone will change after it develops a bit of patina? It could look different after a few decades of Chicago weather.

Also, does the layout of the pathways bother anyone else? I'm sure they are made for meandering, but none of them seem very practical for traveling from point A to point B... A nitpick, I know.

Overall, I think this came out phenomenally.

Originally Posted by ardecila

I think we've discussed this to death, but granite in the warmer tone is not available domestically, and the Obamas didn't want to be caught using imported stone instead of American. So we ended up with this New Hampshire granite.

You can get domestic limestone in a warmer tone (Indiana, Kasota, etc) but it's a weaker stone and will need continuous repairs for its entire lifespan.

Originally Posted by sentinel

Those photos are sublime, Nick! Really lovely, thank you.

Originally Posted by twister244

Maybe I'm the anomaly here, but I like the color of the stone. It's really coming through well in Nick's photos with the warm lighting. I feel like if it was a "warmer" color, it might start to get a more beige look......

Just my 2 cents though.

Originally Posted by woodrow

The architects and the Obamas selected the stone together. They looked at a dozen samples and landed on this one. I would imagine they knew it would change the feel of the building from the initial renderings.

I think I agree with you. I little warmer would be nice. Maybe. I won't see it until I tour in July.

Again, fantastic shots Tom.

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Thanks, all! I really lucked out with the light. I've envisioned this shot for a while and it all fell into place on Saturday. I tried my best to make the stone look neutral, but it was tough in that dusky light. It was more blue in the photos than in reality so I desaturated and warmed the stone up slightly - but the blue cast was moreso due to the fact that the tower was in shadow - particularly the drone shots. In person it's an almost-neutral-but-slighlty-cool gray. Of course, sun angle and atmosphere will always affect the 'mood' of the stone a bit