Obama Presidential Center

For a historic president, there is a historic presidential library.

The Obama Presidential Center is a sprawling museum, library, and green space complex on 19.3 acres (7.8 hectares) in Chicago’s Jackson Park. It opened to the public on June 19, 2026. The center is the most expensive—and potentially most ambitious and audacious—presidential museum built. In addition to the museum devoted to the 44th U.S. Pres. Barack Obama, the center includes:

• a full-size basketball court
• a public library
• a vegetable garden
• a rooftop playground
• a sledding hill

The layout

Built on a parcel of land originally shaped by legendary landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the Obama complex was designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien and landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh and features four distinct buildings.

The central feature of the site and home to the presidential exhibits is a 225-foot-tall building that has been dubbed the “Obamalisk.” Criticized by some for its Brutalist design, the eight-story building features an 83-foot-tall stained glass window by artist Julie Mehretu. At the top of the building in five-foot-tall concrete letters are excerpts from Obama’s 2015 speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march. Artists including Maya Lin, Nick Cave, and Richard Hunt created works for the site. The design is modeled on the idea of four hands coming together as a sign of unity, according to the Obama Foundation.

Within the main museum building is a replica of Obama’s Oval Office, a collection of Michelle Obama’s dresses, and films and exhibits about aspects of the president’s life. It is topped off with an observation deck affording views of Chicago’s South Side.

Other buildings that are part of the center include an auditorium, with recording studios; a 5,000-square-foot branch of the Chicago Public Library that includes books chosen by the Obamas; and a 45,000-square-foot space called “Home Court” that houses meeting spaces as well as the NBA-worthy basketball court.

Connecting the four buildings is green space that includes walking trails (including one that connects to the Museum of Science and Industry); a great lawn for picnicking and movie viewing; a water terrace honoring Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham; a fruit and vegetable garden on the roof of the library; and a playground featuring swings, slides, and spider-web climbing structures. A hill for sledding in the winter was added at Michelle Obama’s request. Although admission is charged for the museum part of the complex, other parts are open to the public at no charge.

How it differs from other presidential libraries

Presidential libraries are a relatively modern conceit. Franklin D. Roosevelt started the practice in 1939 by donating his papers to the government (specifically the National Archives) and designating a space in Hyde Park, New York, to house them. That ultimately led to the Presidential Libraries Act of 1955 that established a federal system of “presidential archival depositories.” The result is that every president since Herbert Hoover has a presidential library (or has one in the planning stages). Papers from earlier presidents are housed in various places, including college libraries and the Library of Congress. Many, however, have been lost or destroyed.

The Obama Center differs from other presidential libraries in a number of ways. Perhaps most importantly, it is not run by the National Archives, and it does not house all the documents from the Obama presidency. Traditionally, presidential libraries are the repositories of the paper documents and artifacts and are built with funds that are raised privately. The Obama Center is run by the privately funded Obama Foundation, which provided funding for the Archives to create a completely digital record of the presidency. The Archives and its staff play no role in the running of the Obama Center. The Archives will loan artifacts to the center for display. It is also the first completely digital presidential library. Given that Barack Obama took office in 2008, well into the Internet age, it is not surprising that the majority of the documents generated during his presidency were digital first. The Archives is digitizing the paper records.

Controversy

The complex has been at the center of controversy and court cases since the location on Chicago’s South Side was announced in May 2015. (Other locations considered included Hawaii, where the president was born; Columbia University, where he received his bachelor’s degree; and other locations in Chicago.)

Some historians have lamented that the center does not have a dedicated research center and said the fact that it does not house presidential records will diminish the ability to do scholarship. Bob Clark, a former director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, told The New York Times in 2019, “Everybody is still calling it a presidential library, but it’s not.”

Some of the sharpest criticism, however, has come regarding the selection of the site itself. Groundbreaking was delayed for several years by lawsuits filed by park groups that did not want the Olmsted-Vaux site altered. (The city of Chicago agreed to a 99-year lease of the land to the Obama Foundation for $10.)

Although the center is seen as a potential boon to the Chicago economy, bringing in as many as 700,000 visitors annually and creating thousands of jobs, city activists have expressed concern that it will displace residents of nearby communities. The concern that buildings and land would be bought up by developers and turned into high-end housing and retail at the expense of current low-income residents led the city to pass ordinances preserving vacant lots for future low-income housing and establishing affordability requirements.

For his part, the former president defended the selection of the South Side site—which has sentimental value as the place where Michelle Obama grew up, where he began his career as an organizer, and where the pair met—as being far more beneficial than harmful:

How can we use this space to activate people and get them to feel inspired about making a difference in their own communities? To create a center for community life in a place that, frankly, has often been neglected.