George W. Bush Presidential Center – University Park, Texas
The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is housed inside the George W. Bush Presidential Center, which is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
A Unique Experience in the Heart of Dallas
The Bush Center is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is operated by the National Archives and Records Administration, and the George W. Bush Institute, the nonpartisan, public policy arm of the Bush Center. The Bush Center is located on the campus of SMU in Dallas, Texas, and also includes a 15-acre park, a full-service restaurant, Café 43, and a museum store.
The Bush Center’s 226,000-square-foot building and 15-acre urban park sit on the beautiful SMU campus in Dallas, Texas. The Bush Center offers distinctive dining and shopping experiences, as well as an urban oasis in the Native Texas Park.
The George W. Bush Presidential Center, which opened on April 25, 2013, is a complex that includes former United States President George W. Bush’s presidential library and museum, the George W. Bush Policy Institute, and the offices of the George W. Bush Foundation. It is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in University Park, Texas, near Dallas. It will be the future resting place of George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States (2001–2009), and his wife Laura Bush.
Before Bush became president, officials at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, started to work on a bid for the library. They believed that their proximity to his ranch in Crawford and their location within 100 miles (160 km) of Austin, Dallas, and the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area gave them a good shot at winning such a project. Not long after Bush became president, officials at Southern Methodist University (SMU) began working on their bid for the library.
The White House refused to discuss the issue until after Bush had won a second term. In the latter part of 2005, the White House asked a total of six colleges and one city to submit bids for the library. The six were Baylor, SMU, the University of Texas System, Texas Tech University, the University of Dallas, and Midland College. The city of Arlington, Texas, also submitted a bid.
A few weeks later, Midland College announced it was merging its bid with Texas Tech to form a “West Texas Coalition” to win the library and museum. Part of the proposal was to create a Laura Bush reading center at Midland College while the main presidential library and museum would be housed on the Lubbock campus of Texas Tech.
Completion and Dedication Ceremony
The center which includes a presidential library, museum, institute, and the offices of the George W. Bush Foundation was dedicated on April 25, 2013, in a ceremony that featured all living former U.S. Presidents: Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. The library and museum are privately administered by the National Archives and Records Administration, while the university holds representation on the institute board. The project raised over $500 million for the construction and endowment of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.
The previous time that George W. Bush (then the outgoing president), Obama (then the president-elect), Clinton, George H. W. Bush, and Carter all met took place in the White House in 2009, just days ahead of Obama’s first inauguration.