As a construction project goes, President Barack Obama's Presidential Center isn't the quickest or easiest. Quite rightly so.
But on Monday, 3,317 days after President Obama announced plans to build the facility in Chicago, the former president was scheduled to visit the city to celebrate the long-awaited structure rising 225 feet above Chicago's South Side. If all goes according to plan, the center is scheduled to open to the public in 2026.
“When we started this project, I wasn't sure if we'd ever get it done,” Obama joked, signing in black marker a beam that was to be installed at the center, where work has already begun on the framing of the building's interior walls and plumbing.
Many Chicagoans cheered in 2015 when President Barack Obama, a former community activist who was elected to the Illinois State Assembly and the US Senate, announced plans to build a center in the city, but pulling off the project proved to be a piece of cake.
After the announcement, Obama spent about a year deciding on which parcel to build on, eventually settling on land in Jackson Park, near Lake Michigan and the University of Chicago. Residents worried about gentrification, and parks advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit alleging the center was an inappropriate use of public land. The 2021 groundbreaking came more than a term after Obama, the nation's first Black president, left office.
But the facility is steadily taking shape, and Southside has been preparing for the influx of tourists the museum will bring: The concrete structure now stands tall above Stony Island Avenue, with a stone facade taking shape.
Monday's ceremony took place at a time of uncertain political momentum: Many polls show President Biden, who served as Mr. Obama's vice president, lagging former President Donald J. Trump in key battleground states; Israel's war on Gaza has divided the Democratic base; and some in the coalition that elected Mr. Obama to two terms in the White House have told pollsters they feel more comfortable with the Republican Party.
President Obama did not address those issues during the short event, where he thanked construction workers for their efforts and spoke about the importance of American workers but did not answer questions from reporters.
“Every day across this country, here in Chicago, workers put on their boots, they put on their helmets, they get to work and they get things done. And all too often, we take that for granted,” Obama told the workers, adding, “For decades to come, my hope is that every time people come through here, they'll see some of your work.”
Ernest Brown, president of Brown & Momen, one of the contractors leading the construction, said the building was built to last and “it's just a fantastic space inside.”
“Because of COVID, it's taken a lot longer to get certain materials, so it's taken a lot of careful planning and pre-purchasing and it's all coming together,” Brown said, estimating construction will continue for another year and a half.
Obama outlined his vision for the 19-acre center, which would incorporate amenities typically found in a presidential library, such as a replica of the Oval Office and exhibits from the White House era.
But the plans also include meeting space, a garden, a gym and a branch of the Chicago Public Library. Obama, who owns a home on the South Side but spends most of his time in Washington, sees the center as not just a museum, but a neighborhood gathering place and a training ground for future leaders.
The Obama Presidential Center is not an official presidential library, nor is it run by the National Archives and Records Administration. Obama broke with recent precedent by instead choosing a privately run facility and borrowing some materials from the archives, an approach that has raised concerns among historians. The National Archives runs the “first fully digital presidential library” related to Obama's time in office.