Columbia Point will be a busy, high-profile place next week. President Obama, Mrs. Obama, Vice President Biden, and scores of DC and Massachusetts glitterati will celebrate the official opening of the $79M Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the US Senate on Monday. Columbia Point is a vastly changed place since Institute president Jean MacCormack grew up in Dorchester years ago. Then, "nothing was there; now it's vibrant," she tells Bisnow. The institute pays homage to the late Senator who worked with Republicans and Democrats to further national interests, a sharp contrast to today’s bitterly partisan politics.
The EMK Institute sits next to the stunning JFK Library and Museum (above) designed by I.M. Pei, a nearly $21M project that opened in 1979. The late Senator was said to be so enamored with the site and EMK Institute—replete with a full-scale replica of the US Senate Chamber—that he had a model of it on his living room table when he passed away in '09. The 68k SF low-rise building designed by Rafael Vinoly with exhibitions and programs designed by Edwin Schlossberg — the husband of Caroline Kennedy—is on a 99-year ground lease from UMAss Boston.
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