Protesters raged, critics mocked — now Obama says his library’s actually opening
Former President Barack Obama has announced that his long-awaited presidential center in Chicago will officially open in June 2024, following a series of delays and controversies that have marred its development. Speaking at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, Obama humorously urged attendees to leave their coats behind, hinting at the warmer weather expected by the opening. The center, which includes the presidential library, has been in planning since May 2015 but has faced numerous legal challenges and federal reviews that have postponed its launch from the originally projected date in 2021.
The ambitious $850 million project, located in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side, aims to serve as a multifaceted community hub featuring a presidential library, museum, auditorium, a branch of the Chicago Public Library, gardens, and athletic facilities across a sprawling 20-acre campus. Obama expressed his vision of creating a space that fosters dialogue and community engagement, stating, “We want to create a campus, a place where the public gathers for a range of things that puts them face to face with each other.” However, the development has not been without its critics. Local residents have voiced concerns about potential displacement due to rising property values and have derisively referred to the center as a “monstrosity,” with some likening its brutalist architectural style to a “cenotaph” or “tombstone.”
The journey to the center’s opening has been fraught with obstacles, including a significant lawsuit from the group Protect Our Parks, which argued that the Obama Foundation improperly acquired parkland for the project. This legal battle extended for several years, only concluding in 2022. Additionally, the project underwent extensive federal reviews due to its location in a historically significant park, further delaying construction. Despite these challenges, the Obama Foundation has positioned the center as a “beacon of democracy” and an economic anchor for the community. With construction finally gaining momentum over the past year, the upcoming opening is seen as a pivotal moment for both the Obama legacy and the South Side of Chicago, promising to transform the area into a vibrant gathering place for residents and visitors alike.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDxgZNi4PdU
Former President
Barack Obama
‘s much-maligned presidential center will officially open in June in Chicago after years of delays and protests, the former president revealed.
“We’re going to open in June so that y’all don’t have to bring your coats up,” Obama said during a visit to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas on Monday, without revealing a firm opening date, according to the
Chicago Sun-Times
.
The presidential center has been in the works for more than a decade, with the Obama Foundation announcing the site on Chicago’s South Side back in May 2015. The center, which will include the presidential library, was projected to open in 2021, but has been tied up in lawsuits and federal reviews that have pushed the timeline back years.
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The center will be home to the presidential library, a museum, auditorium, a
Chicago
Public Library branch, a garden, athletic facility and other attractions on its 20-acre campus.
“We want to create a campus, a place where the public gathers for a range of things that puts them face to face with each other and get them to meet and be in dialogue and conversation and exposed to new ideas with each other,” Obama said on Monday, according to the Chicago Sun -Times.
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The $850 million project in Jackson Park was first hit with a years-long lawsuit in 2018 when a group called Protect Our Parks alleged that Chicago illegally transferred parkland to the private Obama Foundation. That court battle persisted until 2022, when a federal judge terminated a revised version of the suit.
The planned construction also sparked
federal reviews
as the project required an overhaul of roads in the area and due to Jackson Park being listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Such reviews did not wrap up until late 2020, local media reported
at the time
.
Protests have cropped up outside the center’s site and elsewhere in Chicago as residents sounded off that it might price them out of their homes on the South Side, while also calling it a “monstrosity,” Fox News Digital previously reported. Locals have mocked the building by calling it “The Obamalisk,” according to the
New York Post
, with area artists critiquing the building’s brutalist architectural style.
“I always see it as a cenotaph, a tombstone, a crusader fortress in brutalist style,” one art historian told the outlet in November.
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Meanwhile, the Obama Foundation has celebrated the center as “a lively community hub, economic anchor, and beacon of democracy right here on the South Side of Chicago.”
A groundbreaking ceremony for the project was not held until 2021, with construction picking up in earnest in the last year.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Obama Foundation for any additional comment on the center’s opening day, but did not immediately receive a reply.
