CHICAGO (CN) — Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama joined the governor of Illinois and mayor of Chicago in Jackson Park to break ground Tuesday at the site of the forthcoming Obama Presidential Center.
“This day has been a long time coming,” the 44th president of the United States said.
The center, whose patrons billed it as both a presidential library and a “university for activism,” will feature walking and bike paths, a library, private event spaces, and a 235-foot-tall tower that serves as a museum dedicated to the Obama presidency. In total, it will occupy about between 200,000 and 225,000 square feet.
Jackson Park was selected to house the structure due to its proximity both to the South Side neighborhoods where Barack Obama began his political career and Michelle Obama grew up, and to the city’s famous Museum of Science and Industry. The architectural firm that designed the center, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, employs the first female architects to take part in designing a presidential center.
The governor, the mayor and the former first couple all offered short speeches to mark the occasion and explain why they thought the center would help revitalize the underserved, majority-Black communities surrounding Jackson Park. Economic investment and community engagement were themes at the top of all four speakers’ lists.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the center would represent a “transformative investment” for the South Side, promising that it would bring “good jobs prioritized for nearby residents.”
The former president said the center would “help spark economic growth in this community by bringing in … visitors who will eat, shop, explore and spend money, strengthening the South Side and making it an even more attractive place for businesses to grow and hire.”
He added that he hopes the center will become “the world’s premiere institution for developing civic leaders across fields, across disciplines and … across the political spectrum.”
Adding to these speeches, several big names in Democratic politics offered their own accolades to the Obamas to mark the occasion.
“It’s not just breaking ground on a new building, it’s breaking ground on the very idea of America as a place of possibility,” President Joe Biden, who had been Obama's running mate in both terms, said in a prerecorded video.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker called it fitting that Lincoln Park should have multiple presidential connections.
“We are proudly now known as the Land of Lincoln and Obama,” he said at the ceremony.
But out of view of the cameras, local activists were far more skeptical of the Obama Center’s capacity to improve life for South Side residents. A group called Protect Our Parks actively opposes its construction in Jackson Park. The group took to Twitter while the groundbreaking ceremony was underway, explaining how they believed the reality of the center’s construction undermined its sponsors’ lofty rhetoric.
Protect Our Parks objected to the clearing of mature trees in Jackson Park to make way for the construction site, as well as to the destruction of the park’s historic Women’s Garden. These actions, they said, could harm the health of locals.
“The homecoming of the former president and the first lady should be a moment of pride for Chicagoans. On this visit, though, we hope they will mourn the devastation of the initial clear-cutting of the mature trees and the destruction of the Women’s Garden in Jackson Park in addition to the long-term environmental and public health dangers that will ensue,” the group’s Twitter account wrote. “The effects of this climate crisis hit Black and brown communities hardest, and the clear-cutting of hundreds of mature trees will contribute to air quality issues that cause respiratory illnesses from asthma to bronchitis.”
The group also argues that the center, once completed, would effectively privatize about 20 acres of formerly free-to-enter public land. In reply, the Obama Foundation has previously stated that over 90% of the center's grounds will remain open to the public and will host a public library. In 2018, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel ordered that the center must participate in “free days,” as other city museums do.
Protect Our Parks said it does not object to the construction of the Obama Center, per se, only to the location the Obama Foundation has chosen to build it. Its members instead say the facility should be built in nearby Washington Park, which is closer to the city’s public train network and is not as large a green space as Jackson Park.
“It would take one decision by Mr. and Mrs. Obama to relocate the [Obama Center] site to the adjacent area close to Washington Park that will help transcend years of stagnation and bring new hope and opportunity to the community [without] causing unnecessary harm,” the group said in its statement.
Protect Our Parks sued the Obama Foundation in April in an attempt to force this location change, but U.S. District Judge John Blakey struck down the group’s request for an injunction against the site’s construction. President Obama appointed Blakey to his federal court seat.
The Obamas did not mention this lawsuit or the group’s other concerns about environmental health in their groundbreaking comments. Michelle Obama in particular, who was born and grew up near Jackson Park, defended the center’s site. She said she believed the center would bring prestige to her home communities that have long been denied it.
“Why didn’t our part of town draw people from around the world, just like Grant Park or Navy Pier? … Why wasn’t there more investment in us?” the former first lady asked at the ceremony. “So when it came time to decide where to build the [Obama Center], Barack and I knew this was a unique opportunity to change that narrative.”
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