A glassy, angular multipurpose facility that features an NBA regulation-size basketball court and views of Jackson Park became the first building to open for business last week at the Obama Presidential Center.
The 45,000-square-foot building, called Home Court, is near 62nd Street and Stony Island Avenue, about a block south of the 225-foot tall museum tower that marks the campus.
The Obama Foundation, which held private events at Home Court as recently as Monday, provided the Sun-Times with architectural photos of the building. The images are the public’s first look at the completed facility’s interiors and exteriors.
The foundation has been moving-in furniture and art over the past two months. The entire center isn’t expected to open until June 2026.
Designed by the Chicago office of Moody Nolan, a Black-owned architecture firm based in Columbus, Ohio, Home Court is visually different from the buildings designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, located at the center of the campus.
Moody Nolan CEO Jonathan Moody said former President Barack Obama — a basketball player and fan — played a role in determining Home Court’s look and feel.
“I think the word he used was ‘fun,'” Moody said. “It was intended to be different, unique — one player on a team in a campus of buildings that has its own role, specifically around fun and sports and engagement. So it is intended to be dynamic [looking].”
The building sits back from Stony Island Avenue, with the entry space and community rooms behind its virtually all-glass front. The facility has six multipurpose rooms and an exercise area with equipment.
Home Court’s largest single space is the 13,000-square-foot professional-sized basketball court with seating. It occupies the rear of the building and has a wall of windows providing eastward views to Jackson Park and the lake.
The Obama logo — the letter “O” set against a striped curved horizon — is the center court emblem. The space also doubles as a banquet hall.
“When he was running for president and the words of ‘Hope’ and ‘Yes we can,’ — they’re painted in the basketball court,” said Nosa Ehimwenman, president and CEO of BOWA Construction, the Black-owned firm that built Home Court.
The basketball theme is visible on the building’s exterior where a metal facade, that folds down over the north elevation, has a scoring pattern that resembles a basketball net.
Ehimwenman said Home Court is an all-electric building with an array of solar panels on the roof. It’s also heated and cooled by thermal energy, as is the case with the center’s other buildings.
Building on the low-lying, lakefront site was challenging, Ehimwenman said.
“You can imagine how much water that you have to manage [during construction],” he said. “I mean, we pumped out over 1.5 million gallons of water during excavation.”
And one thing, perhaps critical this time of the year: The building’s grounds have a snow-melting system.
“So not a lot of shoveling is needed — especially when we got 10 inches [last week],” Ehimwenman said. “It’s on now.”