Controversy over the Obama Presidential Center is boiling over again in Chicago, as residents and preservationists question why a former president would build what many view as an oversized monument on protected, historic parkland — concerns detailed extensively by the New York Post.
According to the Post, critics across the city are still stunned that Barack Obama’s $850 million center — derisively dubbed “The Obamalisk” by some locals quoted by the paper — replaced prized sections of Jackson Park, the landmark landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted for the 1893 World’s Fair.
Construction began in 2021 and is expected to finish next spring.
Chicago architect Grahm Balkany, a self-described progressive liberal, told the Post that Obama “should not be building a palace for himself, a fortress in the middle of a public park,” calling the project contrary to the values Obama once embraced.
He added that many Chicagoans were reluctant to “speak truth to power” when the power belonged to Obama.
While some nearby residents offered mild support in interviews with the Post, many historians and architects remain outraged.
University of Chicago art historian W.J.T. Mitchell told the Post the 240-foot tower resembles “a cenotaph … a crusader fortress in brutalist style,” arguing its monumentality violates Olmsted’s democratic vision for public parks. Mitchell also described the “clear-cutting” of 1,000 century-old trees as an “environmental disaster.”
The Post notes the project faced skepticism from the start. Obama reportedly made Chicago compete with New York and Hawaii for the center, and the city ultimately offered 20 acres of Jackson Park under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former White House chief of staff.
A lawsuit cited by the Post revealed the Obama Foundation obtained the land for just $10 under a 99-year “land use agreement,” according to University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein, who called the tower a product of “vanity.”
The Post also highlighted the destruction of Jackson Park’s Women’s Garden — tied to a groundbreaking 1893 pavilion designed by architect Sophia Hayden — which was paved over for construction staging.
Ward Miller of Preservation Chicago told the Post the center’s scale, lack of windows, and towering height clash with the park’s naturalistic landscape. Obama himself pushed architects to make the tower taller, the Post reported, even providing his own sketches.
Although privately funded, the project required major taxpayer spending to reroute roads around the site. Critics interviewed by the Post worry the changes isolate poorer South Side neighborhoods and could accelerate displacement.
The Post also reported concerns about the center’s finances — including a required $400 million endowment that currently holds just $1 million — and noted that foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett earns about $740,000 annually.
The original estimate of the center was $500 million.
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