The organic configuration of the Presidential Center overall allows for multiple focal points and an unfolding experience.  The splayed base of the Beacon of Hope is used to frame surrounding features and to create an animated interplay of foreground and background elements, not unlike the experience of passing through a forest.  The rich sensory experience is intended to be supportive of Olmsted’s picturesque approach, where multiple layers were composited to create temporal drama and rich chiaroscuro effects.

Reflecting unity and the supreme power of reconciliation, championed so eloquently by President Obama, the two splayed cores reach skyward, then reverse course to conclude in clasped fusion.  They achieve a pinnacle of five-hundred and fifty-five feet in height, precisely the measurement of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.  The height of the monument thus evokes a familiar American scale, establishing complimentary dialogue between the earlier tribute to the Nation’s first president, and this one in honor of the first U.S. president of color.