Barack Obama accused of destroying national landmark to build brutalist monument

CHICAGO — Many Chicago residents are still asking how one of their city’s most treasured parks became the site of an $850 million monument to Barack Obama’s presidency — a project critics have branded “The Obamalisk.”

The Obama Presidential Center, now rising in historic Jackson Park, is scheduled for completion next spring. But to some Chicagoans, the towering 240-foot concrete and stone structure resembles less a library than a fortress.

“Obama, of all people, should not be building a palace for himself — a fortress in the middle of a public park,” said architect Grahm Balkany, a progressive Chicago preservationist. “So many people here didn’t want to speak truth to power, especially when that power was Obama.”

While some neighborhood residents say they welcome the new development, many historians and architects remain dismayed at what they view as the destruction of a democratic public space.

“I see it as a cenotaph — a tombstone, a crusader fortress in brutalist style,” said University of Chicago art historian W.J.T. Mitchell. “Its monumentality violates the spirit of the democratic urban park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.”

The Obama Presidential Center under construction, a tall, white, tapered building, behind a Japanese Garden with a pagoda and trees in autumn colors, with patches of snow on the ground. — The “Obamalisk” rises in Chicago’s historic Jackson Park, wrecking the viewshed of a Fredrick Law Olmsted materpiece of landscape architecture, critics say. New York Post

Olmsted, the visionary behind New York’s Central Park, created Jackson Park for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair — an event that helped define modern Chicago. The park remains on the National Register of Historic Places, but 20 acres were handed to the Obama Foundation for the project.

Mitchell noted the irony: “Olmsted wanted parks to be free of grand monuments — open, public, owned by everyone. This project reverses that idea.”

Environmental concerns followed. “They clearcut a thousand healthy, century-old trees. It struck many people as an environmental disaster,” Mitchell said.

An airplane pulls a banner that reads "STOP CUTTING DOWN TREES. MOVE OPC!" in the sky. — The Obamas clearcut nearly 1,000 century-old trees, outraging some local residents who called it an environmental disaster. Getty Images

The project’s roots go back to 2015, when Obama made Chicago compete with New York and Hawaii for his presidential center. Chicago won after offering prime lakefront land — a deal arranged under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former White House chief of staff.

According to University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein, who joined a lawsuit against the project, the foundation secured the land under a 99-year “use agreement” for just $10.

During construction, the foundation bulldozed the historic Women’s Garden — created in the 1930s to honor the women’s pavilion at the 1893 Fair — to make way for heavy machinery. The original pavilion, designed by 21-year-old Sophia Hayden, was celebrated as a milestone for women in architecture.

A view of the Basin at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, featuring large buildings with classical architecture, fountains, and bridges over water. — The 1893 World’s Fair was a crowning achievement for Chicago and the U.S. An untold number of relics were lost forever when Obama’s bulldozers arrived in 2021. AP

Illustration of the ruins of the wholesale district looking west along the Chicago River after the Great Chicago Fire. — Just 20 years before Chicago wowed the world at Jackson Park, the city burned to the ground during the Great Chicago Fire. Getty Images

Portrait of architect Sophia Hayden, who designed the Women's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. — A garden dedicated to architect Sophia Hayden was destroyed by the Obamas to make a staging area for earth movers. Hayden was the first female architect to build a major structure for a World’s Fair and was celebrated as a pioneer for women’s rights. Getty Images

Black and white photo of people crossing a bridge leading to the Women's Building at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. — Hayden was only 21 when she built the Woman’s Building, depicted here, on the future site of the hulking Obamalisk. Getty Images

Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, called the loss “deeply disappointing.”
“This was an administration many Chicagoans supported and thought was revolutionary,” Miller said. “To see it take 20 acres of public parkland was disturbing.”

The tower’s scale — nearly 23 stories tall — has also drawn sharp criticism. Congress limits official presidential libraries to a height of 70 feet, which means the Obama Center cannot legally call itself one. It will not house Obama’s presidential archives, which remain in storage at a suburban warehouse, though digitized materials will be available.

Despite its private funding, taxpayers have also paid a price. Chicago spent hundreds of millions rerouting roads to accommodate the complex, altering the city’s historic boulevard system and, critics say, deepening the divide between wealthy Hyde Park and poorer South Side neighborhoods.

“From a functional perspective, they’ve basically barricaded Hyde Park from the rest of the South Side,” Balkany said.

Barack Obama points to a rendering of his lakefront presidential center. — The Obamas bulldozed nearly 20 acres of landmarked Jackson Park for their monument, returning to a more feudalist park philosophy of the sort landscape architect Olmsted revolted against. AP

The Obama Presidential Center being built on the west side of Jackson Park in Chicago. — Bitterness plagues the vast complex as ardent local Democrats feel betrayed and worry the controversy may tarnish the legacy of their hometown hero. New York Post

Even the design decision rankled locals when Obama bypassed Chicago architects and hired a New York firm instead. “Vanity drove the structure,” said Epstein.

The Obama Foundation’s costs have soared from $300 million to $850 million, and questions about the project’s finances persist. Its endowment reportedly holds just $1 million of the $400 million promised to cover maintenance, even as annual operating costs are projected at $30 million.

Valerie Jarrett, a longtime Obama advisor and now the foundation’s CEO, earns roughly $740,000 per year, tax filings show.

“The contrast with Jimmy Carter is striking,” Mitchell observed. “Carter lived simply and devoted himself to service — he didn’t build monuments or mansions.”

Former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot breaking ground at the Obama Presidential Center. — Democrat party bosses broke ground on the Obama Presidential Center in 2021, despite efforts to stop the destruction of the beloved public land. AP

The Obama Foundation has not responded to recent media requests for comment. On its website, it says the center’s mission is “to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world.”

Meanwhile, Michelle Obama has an entire exhibit in the center dedicated to her dresses. On her podcast this month, she criticized President Trump’s expansion of the White House with a new ballroom, calling it “denigrating.” Her comments drew sharp contrast to her husband’s own controversial construction project.