The deal is done. If you visit this site with any regularity, you'll recall that there was some non-secretive debate about who was going to get the commission to design and build the new George W. Bush Presidential Library and where it was going to be. Now, by way of Archinect, we learned that, according to the Houston Chronicle, winning finalist, Robert A.M. Stern of an architecture firm sharing his name, sat down with the President recently and sealed the deal.

New York-based Robert A.M. Stern Architects was chosen out of three finalists by a committee, and the decision was finalized after Stern met last week with Bush at his Crawford ranch, presidential library site selection committee chairman Donald L. Evans said Tuesday.

The library selection committee remains in exclusive talks with [Southern Methodist University] and a decision is expected later this year, Evans said.

We guess they're still on this secrecy kick. Whereas everyone else in the world knows the stupid thing is going to be built there. Is this some form of trying to build up excitement? Is it an attempt to try and make the other finalist feel bad about itself (any article we've ever read about this mentions Baylor University as "the other finalist" each and every time)? We don't get it.