More than four years after leaving the White House, Barack Obama’s Presidential Center is officially underway. On September 28th, the Obama's broke ground on the presidential center with a small ceremony that took place on the project's lot. The gathering stayed small, in light of the pandemic, but included live stream for viewers across the globe.
It was a big day for Obama, who chose the location over five years ago. As he remarked during the ceremony, Chicago remains the roots that define his most formative years: from growing up and developing his career, to started a family. The former president also hopes to bring career growth and opportunity to the South Side – an area that has long housed many underprivileged communities. Beyond being a commemorative site, the project will serve the community, hosting concerts, cultural events, summits, lectures, and trainings. It will also feature a public (entirely digitized) library, children's area, fruit and vegetable garden, and teaching kitchen.
Approval for the center —which is set in Chicago’s leafy Jackson Park and slated to cost some $830 million— has not come without its challenges. Since its conception nearly five years ago, the Obamas have faced extensive delays, following a demand by the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office (HPO) , which required the project to have “additional design reviews.”
The HPO is a relatively little-known state agency whose purview, reports public television channel WTTW , includes evaluating construction projects that may impact “cultural resources” in the state of Illinois. The HPO’s main concern is the center’s potential impact on Jackson Park itself, a verdant 500-acre expanse which debuted in 1893 for Chicago’s now legendary World’s Fair and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who’s also responsible for Central Park in New York City.
An aerial view shows the entirety of President Obama’s Presidential Center, which is set within the 500 acres of Jackson Park.
The center, which is being designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, has been heavily criticized for its proposed destruction of a connection zone linking Jackson Park with nearby Midway Plaisance Park.
Indeed, so great is this worry that those critical of the center—such as local watchdog groups Jackson Park Watch and Protect Our Parks — even suggested that the complex be entirely relocated out of Jackson Park to a new site on Chicago’s South Side. “I’m all in favor of this investment on the South Side,” Protect Our Parks president Herb Caplan told the Chicago Tribune last year after his group filed a lawsuit to relocate the center from Jackson Park. “I’ve argued that the South Side would be better served if the OPC were built in another community like Woodlawn and South Shore.”
The Obama Presidential Center is being designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.
Beyond the legal maneuvers, the relocation option was also supported by prominent civic associations such as the Cultural Landscape Foundation . The opposition even made its way to Washington, D.C., since the park and nearby boulevard are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For these activist groups, the goal was not to merely “mitigate” the center’s potential impact, but to avoid it entirely.
Two years ago, The City of Chicago established that relocating the Center is not a viable option. Today, the Presidential Center is officially underway, expected to finish in the next four years. Still, cautions remain high, including one that the resulting gentrification will end up displacing many of the surrounding black communities.