In response to a growing problem concerning its ability to adequately and safely store the papers and collection of President John F. Kennedy, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has been working with a local architecture firm to design a new addition that would be sited immediately adjacent to the Stephen Smith Center. The Boston Globe ran a front-page article in April about the proposed expansion.
Plans for the new addition began in 2001 when the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which oversees all presidential libraries, conducted a program review of the Kennedy Presidential Library which concluded that “the storage problems seen at the Kennedy Library are the worst in the entire Presidential Library system.”
In FY2005 Congress appropriated $1 million for the preliminary design of the 30,000 square foot building and the following year appropriated $1 million more to complete the design and clear the way for construction of the proposed new addition.
The new addition will be built on a portion of land immediately adjacent to the existing Library which the University of Massachusetts of Boston has agreed to sell to the federal government. Legislation authorizing the University of Massachusetts to sell the parcel of land was introduced on behalf of the Kennedy Library by State Senator Jack Hart and was enacted by the Legislature this summer.
Construction of the addition to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is ready to commence once Congress appropriates the necessary funds.