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The Bold Gamble Behind the Obama Presidential Center: Barack Obama Is Betting His Legacy on Something No President Has Tried Before – EWC Communication
The doors to Barack Obama’s Presidential Center in Chicago will be officially open to the public next week.
The first black president who once sparked outrage over a simple tan suit is again breaking with tradition — replacing the conventional presidential library model with a sprawling civic campus.
The center, an accompanying museum and forum, is a 10-year project in the making. It took nearly five years to build, with construction beginning in September 2021.
Still, people plan to show up and out for Obama on Juneteenth.
The words etched across the Obama Presidential Center offer a glimpse into the values and messages that shaped Barack Obama’s legacy. (Photos courtesy of The Obama Foundation)
Obama’s Presidential Center looks nothing like the presidential libraries that came before it.
Designed as a campus rather than a single building, it intentionally breaks with tradition in many ways.
The 19-acre campus features a museum, BBQ grills, picnic areas, an NBA-sized basketball court, a playground, and a fruit and vegetable garden.
As the first presidential library and center built around a fully digital archive, the Obama Presidential Center marks a major break from the traditional model.
Despite its $850 million price tag, the center will not house Obama’s original archives the way traditional presidential libraries do.
Most records have already been digitized, while the remaining documents are stored physically in Maryland, more than 600 miles from Chicago.
Michael Strautmanis, a longtime Chicagoan and trusted Obama adviser, has worked alongside Barack and Michelle Obama for decades.
After serving in the Obama administration as senior adviser Valerie Jarrett’s chief of staff, he joined the Obama Foundation. He now oversees corporate affairs and helps lead the development of the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side.
“It was so important to the Obamas to have something that is much more frankly democratic in nature,” Strautmanis tells ABS. “Something that invites people in.”
Unlike some monuments that become targets for vandalism, Strautmanis says Obama’s Presidential Center is “not something that pushes people away.”
Obama’s Giant Musuem Tower
Seen from almost anywhere in Chicago sits a chunky 225-foot-tall statue nicknamed ““the Obamalisk” on the campus.
Due to it’s granite design, it’s been compared to everything from a trash can or Star Wars spaceship and the Eye of Sauron from “The Lord of the Rings.”
“He wanted this to impact people in a way that they could think about his story in connection to their own story, his desire to choose to get involved in public life and make the world a better place,” says Strautmanis.
“And then have people realize that you know, they could do that too,” he adds.
Obama’s Dream Team
Michael Smith is currently a key adviser to the Center, having led the renowned 2013 redesign of the Obama Presidential Center.
Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, the architects who crafted the museum design of four hands coming together to symbolize the idea that many people help shape a community.
“They wanted something that was enabling, right? Empowering, but they also wanted something that was ennobling, something that would signify the importance of having the first black president, something that last for hundreds of years,” says Strautmanis.
The space invites people in from all walks of life, including stories from people who worked to push the message of change Obama brought to the White House.
Barack Obama assembled a diverse team of architects and designers to help bring the Presidential Center to life, putting representation and community at the heart of the project. (Photos courtesy of The Obama Foundation)
Strautmanis said four Black-owned construction firms that had spent years competing against one another joined forces with a multinational company to form the Lakeside Alliance.
The partnership gave the Black-owned firms majority control, with a 51 percent stake in the entire project rather than just a small portion of the work.
Williams and Billie Tsien have admitted that Obama was heavily involved with crafting designs due to his deep passion for architecture, according to The Guardian.
The Obama Center Purpose
A centerpiece of the Obama Presidential Center is “Uprising of the Sun,” an 83-foot glass installation by Ethiopian American artist Julie Mehretu.
“You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, because you’re ready to seize what ought to be.”
Those are words from Obama’s 2015 Bloody Sunday speech that now reside on the exterior of the Obama Presidential Center Museum.
@everythingbriefing On March 7, 2015, President Barack Obama spoke at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. In his remarks, he said that the civil rights marchers on that day in 1965 were engaging in a “contest to determine the true meaning of America,” and that their actions would “reverberate through the ages.” #uspolitics#barackobama#bloodysunday#2010s#history♬ original sound – everythingbriefing
Inspired by his remarks marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march, the work honors the civil rights movement and the power of collective change.
“Our goal is not to create a monument to my prsidency,” Obama explained in 2021, when the special text was revealed. “But rather describe for anybody who visits how Michelle and I and so many others stood on the shoulders of those who fought the good fight before us.”
The center also features a full-scale Oval Office replica where visitors can sit behind the desk.
Visitors to the Obama Presidential Center can step inside a replica of the Oval Office, offering a glimpse into the room where some of Barack Obama’s biggest decisions were made. (Photos courtesy of The Obama Foundation)
Other unique touches include hand-painted keepsakes called “Ba rocks,” from a Maryland mother as a node to the trend of painting “Obama 2008” on rocks nicknamed “Ba-rocks” during his first presidential campaign.
A life-sized bronze statue of Barack and Michelle outside the Museum Tower recreates their iconic walk during the 2009 inauguration.
“We have all these touches that are there for families,” says Strautmanis, “These spaces that are for multi-generation families who are coming to visit us … you know, if you have your seniors, your tots and toddlers, you know, your kids running around.”
Beyond the museum, the center includes commissioned art, a Chicago Public Library branch, the Sky Room, Tafari’s Kitchen, a media suite, community programs, the Women’s Garden, a Wetland Walk, picnic areas and expansive green space.
The sledding hill addition was inspired by Michelle Obama. The former first lady grew up on the South Side, where the flat terrain left little room for winter sledding.
The Obama staffer confirmed that four Black-owned construction firms teamed up to form the Lakeside Alliance after years of competition.
The partnership, with a multinational company, gave the Black-owned firms a 51 percent stake in the project.
Despite years of lawsuits to block production and warnings about traffic and gentrification, former President Barack Obama continued the project, which had initially been estimated at $300-$500 million.
Local residents argued the center would alter Jackson Park’s historic landscape, remove hundreds of trees and drive up housing costs. Yet supporters insisted the development would bring jobs, investment and a lasting tribute to the nation’s first Black president.
Strautmanis had a pointed response when asked about the message the center sends to the community.
“‘I matter’ … because I have been able to get the inspiration, tools and the connection to be able to be the change I want to see in the world.And that is what I believe success is.”
From large-scale installations to intimate pieces, the artwork inside the Obama Presidential Center reflects culture, history and the stories that shaped a generation. (Photos courtesy of The Obama Foundation)
His answer came after an emotional moment watching boys play near the Oval Office replica, imagining where they’ll be in 20 years.
Despite complaints about the admission fee and pile-ons from politicans, demand for the Obama Presidental Center remains strong. Museum tickets are largely selling out through August 2026.
Adult admission to the Obama Presidential Center museum costs $30, the most expensive price among U.S. presidential museums and libraries.
Obama Foundation officials defended the cost by pointing to free areas throughout the campus and discounted tickets for Illinois residents.
Tickets are available through November 2026. While there is no wait list, the Obama Foundation uses a virtual queue to manage the high demand.
Visitors can still access much of the 19-acre campus without a ticket.
On March 7, 2015, President Barack Obama spoke at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. In his remarks, he said that the civil rights marchers on that day in 1965 were engaging in a “contest to determine the true meaning of America,” and that their actions would “reverberate through the ages.” #uspolitics #barackobama #bloodysunday #2010s #history ♬ original sound – everythingbriefing
