Obama Presidential Center

The Obama Presidential Center will be a campus and resource for collective civic engagement in Chicago’s South Side. Past Presidential libraries have often emphasized story-telling – enshrining past achievements. The Obama Presidential Center will go beyond simply chronicling the Obamas’ leadership to extend its reach inspiring visitors as a place for active story-making and civic engagement.

The Center is designed as a campus integrated with landscape, comprising a museum tower, forum building and library surrounding a public plaza. Each component is individually accessible on the plaza level, yet all are connected below-grade.

The architecture of this place will embody both the symbolic nature of the Obama Presidency while also serving pragmatic functions of an active institution inspiring local, national and international dialogue. The project broke ground in 2021, and construction is ongoing.

All buildings and facilities that are part of the Obama Presidential Center will be LEED Platinum®, and the Center anticipates achieving NetZero.