{"id":2952,"date":"2026-06-15T15:10:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losangelesmovinginsider.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/15\/the-radical-hope-of-the-obama-center-rethinking-what-a-presidential-library-can-be\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T15:10:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T22:10:28","slug":"the-radical-hope-of-the-obama-center-rethinking-what-a-presidential-library-can-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losangelesmovinginsider.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/15\/the-radical-hope-of-the-obama-center-rethinking-what-a-presidential-library-can-be\/","title":{"rendered":"The radical hope of the Obama Center: Rethinking what a presidential library can be"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Obama Presidential Center, which opens to the public on Friday, on Juneteenth, hugs the north end of Jackson Park, runs alongside a lagoon, rises 225 feet at its highest, and rolls backward down Stony Island Avenue, settling into 58,000 square feet of brilliantly green sloping lawn.<\/p>

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Michelle Obama wants you to sled here in the winter. Nearby are picnic tables and a sprawling fruit and vegetable garden and cast-iron barbecue pits for grilling \u2014 Barack Obama would like you to use those in the summer. Need a book? There\u2019s a new branch of the Chicago Public Library, one of the center\u2019s four buildings. Want to exercise? There\u2019s 60,000 square feet of athletic facilities, rooted around an NBA-regulation court, the Obama Foundation\u2019s rising-sun at its hub.<\/p>\n

Everything about the Obama Presidential Center feels inviting, packed with meaning, deliberate, more than you expect of what is ostensibly an $850 million community center.<\/p>\n

Or rather, a museum with a remarkable, warmhearted community center attached. Initially, it can be hard to explain exactly how this place should be described. But on your first or second visit, do not expect to dip in and dip out. This is an all-day place.<\/p>\n

ObamaLand.<\/p>\n

That is not meant glibly, but literally: The Obama Presidential Center is a world unto itself, a self-contained universe, a self-described space where \u201chope has a home,\u201d where every cynical thought you bring in is met with a history lesson and call to action, where the former president is like the Mickey Mouse, steadfast optimist. And then you leave, struck by how different the world feels outside its grounds. It contains multitudes.<\/p>\n

It contains \u2014 oh, where to begin \u2014 a 75-foot long mural by Aliza Nisenbaum telling the story of a library from morning to dusk (with yes, a nod to Walt Whitman); a four-story-high video wall; beehive boxes on the roof; an homage to the Thorne miniatures at the Art Institute; a new film about the Obamas by mixed-media theater company Manual Cinema; 3.7 acres of new parkland; an enormous playground; a restaurant serving Obama Burgers ($15.50); a cafe offering chilled water infused with fresh-cut fruit; a replica Oval Office; a pair of Muhammad Ali\u2019s boxing gloves; a new sculpture by Maya Lin; one of the last sculptures by Chicago artist Richard Hunt; and views of Chicago that would rival anything downtown.<\/p>\n