Buddy and Shirley West Building, John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute, Presidential Archive and Library

Buddy and Shirley West Building, John Ben Shepperd Public Leadership Institute, Presidential Archive and Library

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2003, Rhotenberry Wellen Architects. 4919 E. University Blvd.

Rhotenberry and Wellen Architects seemed to take cognizance of the 1942 Ector County Public Library (MT26) and other mid-twentieth-century modern buildings in Odessa in organizing the West Building around a protruding cylindrical entrance bay faced with buff brick and framed by a pair of offset bays faced with dark red brick. The combination of materials, shapes, and colors may display the influence of Postmodern architect Michael Graves, although in a simplified manner. The archive contains a collection of artifacts associated with each president of the United States, as well as vice presidents, first ladies, and presidential candidates.

Two Bush family houses have been moved to the library’s grounds: a cottage from Odessa where the family lived in 1948–1949 and a house from Midland purchased by George W. Bush in 1977.

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