WOODLAWN — After many delays, the Obama Presidential Center is scheduled to open this spring.
Block Club Chicago podcast Jon Hansen and Woodlawn reporter Maxwell Evans talked about what’s been happening with the center — and if it’ll actually open soon.
Listen to the podcast here, and read a partial transcript of their conversation below.
JON: The center really is scheduled to open as of right now in 2026, right?
MAXWELL: Yes, completion is expected in the spring; and by that time, it’ll be about 10 years since it was announced. It’s been a very long process for the Obama Presidential Center to roll out.
JON: For those that haven’t driven by the site, tell us a bit about what it looks like.
MAXWELL: It’s a massive granite slab. A little irregular looking — well, a huge irregular-looking slab. Personally, I think up close it’s a beauty. You see the details of the granite and the colored glass window. It it really pops and you can see the creativity in the design.
But from a distance, I feel totally the opposite. I hate the way it looks with the surrounding structures, the surrounding skyline. It’s really weird to have like a real appreciation for it up close, but then you get on DuSable Lake Shore Drive, or you get elsewhere in the community, and I’m just like, “What is that off in the distance?”
Construction on the Barack Obama Presidential Center on Jan. 22, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
JON: What is the goal when this thing opens up?
MAXWELL: Yeah, so the Obama Foundation and former President Obama himself have repeatedly said they want this to be a community space. For years there’s been concerns about repurposing public land like 20 acres of Jackson Park was used for this project. There were some real concerns about privatizing land.
Consequently, the public messaging from the foundation has been that the center is going to be a space for South Siders — a space “for you all to come and visit and engage with the various programs at the museum at the athletics facility at all the different venues on this campus.”
That’s been the line you hear over and over, and starting in the spring, we’ll get to see how how accurately that applies.
I’m curious if anything like 5th Ward meetings or other meetings that I cover will actually be held in this space. I’ve heard that it will be a space for community meetings, but no real specifics on that yet.
I’m kind of wondering how deep that goes if it is just like everyday sort life of the neighborhood or if they’re thinking bigger like nationally even national events, citywide events, things like that.
JON: Has this always been the projected start date, 2026, or has this been pushed back a couple times?
MAXWELL: No, it’s definitely been pushed back. I started working for Block Club in 2019, and that was kind of my first big area to cover, and I believe the initial planned date was 2021. There were a massive delay caused by many legal challenges from groups concerned about the use of public land. There was debate about the destruction of trees, and some people wanted to stop this from being built in Jackson Park in the first place.
It was five years of legal challenges of debates, of frustration, of excitement all existing before even a shovel was in the ground.
JON: Now that it’s being constructed, what’s the vibe about the center as you chat with people in the neighborhood?
MAXWELL: I think since you’ve started to see the structure itself it has become less of a conversation, actually. There was such a debate leading up to construction starting, that now that it’s going up, it is kind of more of a like, “Well, we’ve already talked about this for years.”
JON: What about the architecture, that’s got to be a point of conversation?
MAXWELL: I’ve heard a huge spike in conversations about that. I’m thinking back to a rideshare where somebody from out of town was just kind of picking up jobs in my neighborhood, he happened to pick me up and he asked, “What do you think, what do you think about that thing on the street in front of us?”
I saw that and I told him, “Oh, that’s actually President Obama’s Presidential Center,” and he responded “Ugly. Hideous. I hate that thing.”
And so just getting that visceral reaction about the architecture, good or bad, like that’s … definitely ramped up.
Attendees visit an informational table on Aug. 2 during the first of four scheduled public tours of the Obama Center site prior to its opening next year. Credit: The Obama Foundation
JON: Who’s paying for all this, by the way, and do we have any idea how much it costs?
MAXWELL: Yeah, $850 million is about the latest estimate. That, again, is a massive increase over the initial estimates, hundreds of millions of dollars over what was initially projected. It’s entirely privately funded, and the Obama Foundation won’t be taking money from the federal government.
JON: I know there are a few projects popping up around the center. Has the cost of living for people already living in the area been addressed?
MAXWELL: In recent weeks, there has been the the passage of a long-stalled housing ordinance. It stalled for two years before getting any movement, and then all of a sudden it was drastically overhauled and passed in the span of about one week.
JON: What’s the gist of that ordinance?
MAXWELL: Some of the biggest aspects of this are actually reserving land for affordable housing, and in some cases for very low-income people. It’s modeled after an ordinance passed in 2020 which reserved land for these types of housing developments, trying to make sure that there is a housing stock in Woodlawn that cater to people that can’t afford the high six figures, even approaching seven-figure developments that you’re seeing in the neighborhood. It also invests money in programs for homeowners as well as just trying to really make sure that the people that have lived in the neighborhood are able to stay.
JON: It seems construction is really chugging along.
MAXWELL: One thing that’s really caught my eye is in recent months you’ve seen more than just the main museum structure. I was kind of taken aback that there’s been so much progress in terms of the campus. You can see like the park elements there. You can see the athletic facility looks like it’s close to being finished. It’s really coming into form. I can’t obviously confirm whether it’ll be completely done by spring as projected, but it looks like progress is coming along.
JON: Once it’s open, what are you going to be watching for?
MAXWELL: My focus will definitely shift to all the promises that have been made, all the talking points that I’ve heard for over six years.
JON: Is that being acted on, and do neighbors feel that’s being acted on?
MAXWELL: Obviously once the development is finished, that’s not the end of the work here. I’m definitely gonna keep up with that.
You can listen to the full episode on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
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