Obama center opens after yearslong saga as locals warn ‘monstrosity’ could price them out

The Obama Presidential Center is opening to the public on Friday morning following an expensive and controversy-laden construction history. 

Former PresidentBarack Obama’s presidential center was initially estimated to cost $350 million;however, after a slate of setbacks and delays, the price of the project has more than doubled to a staggering $850 million.As construction was ongoing in Chicago, the center faced an array of controversies, including opposition from locals, anger over the use of tax dollars to support surrounding infrastructure, critiques of the building’s design, alleged failure to pay contractors and even a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.

Unlike a traditional presidential library, the Obama Presidential Center is designed as a broader civic campus, with a museum, public plaza, forum, Chicago Public Library branch, recreation space, gardens and community programming. 

“It’s a monstrosity.It’s over budget, it’s taking way too long to finish, and it’s going to drive up prices and bring headaches and problems for everyone who lives here,” one Chicago resident who grew up in the area near the campus’ location told the Daily Mail.“It feels like a washing away of the neighborhood and culture that used to be here.”

CHICAGO RESIDENTS CALL OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER A ‘MONSTROSITY,’ FEAR THEY’LL BE DISPLACED: REPORT

The Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side will open this week.

One of the most prominent lines of criticism levied against the new presidential center was that its construction materially harmed those it was seeking to serve. 

Beyond its museum exhibits and planned displays of presidential records and artifacts, the Obama Presidential Center features prominent exhibits on slavery, racism, thecivil rightsmovement and African American history.Additionally, the Obama Foundation wanted the center to be a boon for the local community, billing it as an “economic engine for South Side residents.” 

To accomplish this, the center prioritized locals for contracting and staffing while also promising to provideworkforce developmentservices to surrounding communities.

These moves, however, were not enough to assuage the concerns of some residents that the racial justice-infused center would ultimatelydisplace many predominantly Black Americanlocals by increasing the value of nearby lots, thereby raising rents and driving up property taxes.

Former President Barack Obama reacts as he leaves 10 Downing Street in London following a meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on March 18, 2024.(Adrian Dennis/Getty Images)

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“What we got was a lease saying you have to pay $2,450 a month to stay in your home,” a lifelong resident of a neighborhood near the center told the Chicago Sun-Times, recounting how his rent had gone up after construction began.“My home that they had let fall into disrepair, my home that they had decided wasn’t worth caring for.So we had to move … our beautiful Black beach neighborhood was no longer ours to enjoy.”

Numerous residents have shared similar stories with the press, prompting Chicago to set aside $6 million to develop affordable housing in the area and providing residents with property tax relief. 

Further complicating the Obama Presidential Center’s mission of racial justice was alawsuit filedby a local subcontractor against one of the firms managing its construction in early 2025.

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Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama join Illinois Gov.JB Pritzker at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Sept.28, 2021.(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

One African American-owned concrete and rebar company working on the project alleged that the company overseeing structural engineering and design on the Obama Presidential Center unfairly singled out Black-owned firms for errors. 

The lawsuit alleged that those in charge of the presidential library’s construction “directly undermined theObama Foundation’s DEI(diversity, equity and inclusion) goals and commitments and mission to bring transformative change to the construction industry and local community,” a claim that was strongly denied by management. 

Management argued that many of the subcontractors were “questionably qualified” and that they regularly underperformed or displayed inexperience, factors that contributed to the presidential library’s ballooning costs.The Obama Foundation emphasized hiring black-owned businesses when seeking out subcontractors for its center.

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An Obama Foundation banner is displayed at the Obama Presidential Center construction site in Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois, on Oct.18, 2022.

In yet another snag, many subcontractors who worked on the center are claiming that they haveyet to be paidfor their work on the Obama Presidential Center. 

�t received payments, with outstanding invoices ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to tens of millions.

“I haven’t had eight hours or six hours sleep in over a year,�“I’m cooked emotionally.I feel like an aluminum can that’s been thrown in front of a steamroller.We’re crushed.And I have to fight for my company and for my people.”

Lakeside Alliance, meanwhile, said projects of this size are complex matters and that it is working to resolve all loose ends.

“That’s a bad signal to put out the fact that seven to eight to maybe 10 of our contractors in our community are going to be eliminated from doing business because of the debt that they incurred on this particular project,�“If they would have known it was a Trojan horse or a Pandora’s box, I don’t know if they would have raced as much as they did to be a part of it.”

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A view of the Obama Presidential Center from a nearby roadway in Chicago.

While most of the Obama Presidential Center’s rocky history was privately funded, taxpayers were on the hook for the infrastructure surrounding it. 

Illinois has so far spent over $120 million on infrastructure improvements in South Chicago to accommodate the presidential center, with thetotal public cost estimatedto reach around $200 million. 

Even with roughly $1 billion spent on its construction and design, theappearance of the Obama Presidential Centerhas proven controversial, drawing comparisons to everything from a maximum security prison to a garbage can.

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Work continues on the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago on Jan.13, 2026, featuring former President Obama’s speech marking the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” inscribed on the building’s side.(E.Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“The building has an ominous presence, its mostly windowless heft recalling a menacing sci-fi headquarters,” The Guardian’s architecture critic wrote of the structure.

One person dubbed it the “Obamalisk.”

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Some, however, have pushed back on these critiques.

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“Today’s punchline may become tomorrow’s civic treasure,” Justin Kaufmann, writing for Axios Chicago, said.He pointed to the center’s blending of modern architecture with the design language of classic civic buildings.