Following a decade of planning, construction and delays, the Obama Presidential Center’s opening has been narrowed to a specific month next year — but not yet an exact date, former President Barack Obama said Monday.
“We’re going to open in June so that y’all don’t have to bring your coats up,” Obama said in a conversation during a visit to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas.
The presidential center in Jackson Park was announced in 2015 and was originally slated to open in 2021, but lawsuits and federal reviews suspended construction at times. Construction didn’t actually begin until 2021. The center’s opening had recently been set for sometime in spring 2026.
The $800 million project — the most expensive presidential center in U.S. history — is centered around a 225-foot museum tower and will consist of an auditorium, a Chicago Public Library branch, gardens, parkland and an athletic facility — all spanning 20 acres in historic Jackson Park.
“We want to create a campus, a place where the public gathers for a range of things that puts them face to face with each other and get them to meet and be in dialogue and conversation and exposed to new ideas with each other,” Obama said.
Construction of the presidential center has faced several controversies, most notably the Obama Foundation’s decision to build it in National Register-listed Jackson Park, which led to lawsuits that tried to block the center from being built. A judge later tossed the legal challenges.
The project also caused concern for nearby South Side residents over potentially leading to rising property taxes and rents, and resulting in displacement. But a City Council housing ordinance aimed at easing the negative impacts passed the full council this year.
During his speech Monday, Obama emphasized the Obama Foundation’s plan for the presidential center to serve as a network for young leaders in different sectors to collaborate and streamline their work toward solving large-scale issues.
“We have programs that reach into elementary schools, but our main focus is young people in their, from 25 to 35, who are already doing remarkable things. … And what we discovered is they’re doing great work already, but they don’t have a lot of a support system,” Obama said, using an example of someone working on education who could learn from an entrepreneur working in business.
“We’ll create a virtual classroom for civic education, because my bet is that all the issues, problems that we have right now will be solved if old folks get out of the way,” Obama said. “We’ll bring those good old-fashioned American values to new sets of problems that any of us, even my age, you know, we’re not going to experience.”