Variously likened to a Tatooine Sandcrawler, a mausoleum, a Minecraft creation, and a giant thumb drive, the architecture of the long-awaited Obama Presidential Center has inspired no shortage of creative and snarky descriptors online and in Chicago, where the center stands in lakeside Jackson Park on the South Side.
Perhaps architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien can console themselves by remembering that ungenerous design criticism is a tradition as cherished in Chicago as Vienna Beef hot dogs and shots of Malört.
Describing the now-iconic untitled sculpture created by no less an eminence than Pablo Picasso for Daley Plaza in 1967, legendary newspaper columnist Mike Royko wrote that it has “a long stupid face and looks like some giant insect that is about to eat a smaller, weaker insect.”
Years later, hating on the former James R. Thompson Center, a government building or possibly a spaceship, was one of the few points of agreement between the 2018 Democratic and Republican gubernatorial candidates.
In a city known for its innovative architecture—after all, the skyscraper was born here and don’t you let any New Yorker tell you otherwise—new additions to the skyline are bound to stir debate. Eventually, the city often comes around to loving the buildings. Or at least loving to hate them, which can also be fun.
Why don’t you come take a look for yourself? The Obama Presidential Center is slated to debut with a televised, star-studded grand opening ceremony on Thursday, June 18. The facility will then become fully open to the public on the following day, Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.
General admission tickets for the Obama Presidential Center museum are $30 each. Bookings are open now; many dates have already sold out.
The center expects upwards of one million visitors per year. We had an opportunity to tour the complex ahead of its opening and before all those throngs show up.
Here’s what you should know.
The museum
If you’ve seen any renderings or photos of the center up to now, what you’ve seen is almost certainly the campus’s eight-story, 225-foot-tall museum centerpiece.
In person, is the building more appealing and thoughtfully integrated into its surroundings than detractors suggest? Yes. Does it nevertheless look like something from Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies? Also yes.
So much ink has been spilled summarizing the shape and granite design of the outside that it’s easy to forget there’s a museum in there—and a pretty compelling one at that.
There’s no such thing as an apolitical presidential museum, and visitors shouldn’t expect one here. But there’s as much a focus on Obama-era America as Barack and Michelle Obama themselves, with the former president’s foundation aiming to “engage, challenge and inspire” visitors with a focus on democracy, community, and the Obamas’ legacy.
Accessing many parts of the museum building doesn’t require a ticket—a theme the leadership team kept returning to during the media preview.
“I often say I grew up in a house where we were not allowed to play in the living room,” said John Roberson, the Obama Presidential Center’s incoming executive vice president during a presentation. “For a very long time, Chicago has been like a living room with plastic on the furniture. This Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago is going to become the new living room for the world.“
Interestingly, the open-access philosophy includes the 8th floor Sky Room—which is legitimately stunning. If you’re limited on time or just don’t want to shell out $30 for the full museum experience, definitely make your way to the top of the building for a new look at (and hopefully a new appreciation for) Chicago.
Amid art installations, you’ll take in a panoramic view of Chicago’s hypersegregated South and West sides through 5-foot-tall letters quoting President Obama’s remarks recognizing the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches.
First greeted outside by a bronze statue depicting Michelle and Barack Obama holding hands and waving during the president’s first Inauguration, ticketed visitors make their way up to Level 2, Toward a More Perfect Union, for an exhibit designed to contextualize the progressive movements of the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s that informed the Obamas’ public service.
Alongside historical artifacts such as civil rights buttons and protest signs, you’ll see personal items from the Obamas’ early lives, such as a copy of their wedding invitation and materials from Barack’s first political campaigns. The optional audio tour is narrated by Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey.
Level 3, Working for the Common Good, documents the policy achievements and setbacks of Obama’s two terms in office, including the Affordable Care Act, education initiatives, climate agreements, military actions, and events relating to gun violence, immigration, and the economy.
It’s a remarkable achievement in historical storytelling, using photos, text, and elements such as firsthand accounts from military veterans discussing the raid on Osama bin-Laden and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Making room for hard truths as well as uplift, curators convey both the enthusiasm of the 2008 election night victory speech in Chicago’s Grant Park as well as the sobering reality of the economic crisis the country was facing at the time—visualized by a dramatic illuminated red stock market line right off the escalator.
Referred to by staff as a “palate cleanser,” Level 4, The People’s House, features the fun stuff, like a built-to-scale replica of the Oval Office (yes, you can take a seat and get some selfies at the Resolute desk), diorama miniatures of White House rooms, first lady fashions, and a kid-friendly exhibit about Bo and Sunny, the Obama family’s Portuguese water dogs.
Level 5, We the People, invites guests to share their own experiences in an interactive “story booth,” design digital buttons, and imagine their own roles in advancing the causes of justice and equality in an increasingly unjust and unequal world.
The public library
More of a library-ette, if we’re being honest, but a lovely one. The free-to-visit Chicago Public Library branch within the Obama Presidential Center doesn’t compare in size or purpose to something like the mammoth, full-scale Harold Washington Library in the South Loop. But this is a nice, quiet spot to read or get some work done.
(Incidentally, the public library branch is technically the only library at the center, which is not a traditional presidential library operated by the National Archives. The Obama Foundation opted to digitize the president’s records instead.)
The highlight of the public library on-site is the Presidential Reading Room, a welcoming and calming space filled with 3,500 noncirculating books that have inspired both the former president and first lady. (You’re welcome to check the books out to read in the room but you can’t take them out of here.)
Many little touches throughout nod to the Obamas’ cultural interests, like a Jean-Michel Basquiat basketball and albums by Beyoncé and Prince.
The Forum
Located just south of the museum in a separate building, the Forum houses the Elie Wiesel Auditorium, a 299-seat venue where most of the center’s special events will be presented. Those will include musical and poetry performances, academic lectures, workshops, and presentations.
The Forum also has a cafe and a sit-down restaurant.
The campus grounds
A lesser-discussed but arguably just as significant achievement of the Obama Presidential Center is the 19.3-acre landscape campus designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh. This is where nearby Chicago residents will engage with the center most often.
Most of the campus’s buildings, including the Forum and the parking garage, have significant underground elements, allowing for large expanses of green space, rolling hills, and winding paths. Even prior to opening day, it’s remarkable how vibrant the plant life is.
There are multiple gardens, wetlands, tons of bike racks, barbecue stations with picnic tables, hundreds of thousands of newly planted bulbs, shrubs, and trees, and even a small sledding hill (or at least what passes for one in this incredibly flat city).
Walking the colorful grounds, it’s easy to see why Obama selected artist Kehinde Wiley for his official portrait in 2018. The man likes a botanical motif.
A multilevel, 21,000-square-foot playground features colorful and squishy rubberized flooring, lots of creative climbing structures, shaded metal slides, a sand pit, animal- and plant-inspired wooden nooks, and a mud kitchen.
There’s a touchable water feature nearby, but given Chicago’s sweltering summers, the playground could use a full splash pad, too.
Finally, at the far south side of campus is Home Court, an NBA-sized basketball court housed in a 60,000-square-foot athletic and multipurpose facility that’s free to access.
According to the Obama Presidential Center’s website, Home Court was inspired by “two of President Obama’s personal passions—basketball and building community.” He believes that sports have the “power to bring us together, even when the country is divided.”
For more information or to purchase museum tickets, visit Obama.org.
