The design of the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Center and Library is the work of world-renowned Polshek Partnership Architects. Partners James Polshek and Richard Olcott have created a building that symbolically realizes a central theme President Clinton defined during his administration-- Building a Bridge to the 21st Century. It is also in harmony with its natural surroundings, creating a significant new public park for the city of Little Rock.

Cantilevered over the Arkansas River, the main library building appears to form a seventh, glass-enclosed bridge over the water. It offers visitors breathtaking views of the Center's nearly 30-acre park, downtown Little Rock, the city's other six bridges and the mountains beyond. Polshek and Olcott's design strategy also preserved historic Choctaw Station and the Rock Island Railroad Bridge, which will become a pedestrian crossing. Additionally visitors can wander a chain of parks that unfold along the river and flow beneath the library uninterrupted.

Polshek and Olcott were selected in 1999 to design the Center. "This kind of commission only happens once in a lifetime," says Polshek who in 1963 founded the firm bearing his name, Polshek Partnership Architects, LLP.

His firm now employs 150 architects and work has encompassed historic preservation, adaptive reuse, and new building design for cultural, educational and governmental organizations. Polshek also served as dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture for 15 years.

"I've always been interested in working on projects that have an implication or aspect of satisfying the public good," says Polshek.