Obama in Chicago to see prototype of 88-foot 'Power of Words' immersive exhibit
Before heading to McCormick Place to see the prototype, former President Barack Obama will review interior designs of furniture, the retail store, the restaurant, the café and everything in between for his presidential center.
A rendering of the athletics/conference facility at the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.
Courtesy of the Obama Foundation
WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama will be in Chicago Thursday to see a 44-foot prototype of the largest of 50 video installations slated for the Obama Presidential Center, where construction starts next week for a 45,000-square-foot athletic and conference center.
Since August 2021, the sprawling complex has been taking shape in Jackson Park on what will be a 19.3-acre campus along Stony Island Avenue, from 59th Street stretching south to 62nd Street.
In an exclusive interview Wednesday, Obama Presidential Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett updated the Chicago Sun-Times on the combo sports/meeting building and what will be a focal point of the museum — images from seven projectors telling the story of the “Power of Words” on an 88-foot, four-story interior wall.
Jarrett said the exhibit is intended as “an immersive experience for those who come to visit. They can see it on the various floors, and they can also see it if you stand on one floor and look all the way up.”
Obama’s belief in the power of words and storytelling is a theme for the museum — from design to content. In 2021, the foundation announced words will be part of the exterior design, with two upper walls of the museum tower featuring quotes from Obama’s 2015 speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march that include, “America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’”
Before heading to McCormick Place to see the prototype, Obama, who has been hands-on in developing the Obama Presidential Center, will be in briefings covering the interior designs of the furniture, the retail store, the restaurant, the café and everything in between.
“He really enjoys going through the details of what this campus is going to look like down to the finishes,” Jarrett said.
Construction starts Monday on the athletic/conference center, which Jarrett said will be the first part of the campus to open to the public when it is completed in next year.
Jarrett said the museum will have 50 video installations, with some interactive. Screen sizes could range from an iPad to the largest, the 88-foot high “Power of Words.” Obama will see how the half-size model works Thursday.
The 44-foot mock-up was built in McCormick Place “because we want to test out the technology and give him an opportunity to see how this film will be projected onto a multifloor canvas” using seven projectors, Jarrett said. “We will be using four projectors for the prototype tomorrow. So in a sense, we’re going to give him a mini version of what the ‘Power of Words’ installation will look like once it’s installed.”
The film itself is under development. It will be projected onto a stretched fabric designed to highlight the unique dimensions of the building.
“The president has been deeply involved in all aspects of the center’s design, including the selection of the exhibit, the art commissions, dining experiences, interior design and furnishing, and of course, the development of programming that we will offer at the center —all of which we will update him on tomorrow,” Jarrett said.
A rendering of an athletics/conference facility to be built on the campus of the Obama Presidential Center.
Courtesy of the Obama Foundation
The Athletic/Conference Center
Construction fences around the south portion of the complex were being erected Wednesday for the athletic/conference center, a stand-alone 45,000-square-foot building. It will be a glass pavilion set in a smooth metal shell, with some details inspired by the design of a basketball net. It will be a contrast to the stone-sheathed museum tower anchoring the north end of the complex.
The architect is Moody Nolan, an African American-owned firm that designed the Wintrust Arena. The other construction contracts and subcontracts will follow Obama Foundation guidelines requiring 50% minority participation.
The project changed through the years. The original design for this combo structure was 28,000 square feet.
The building is being built to handle meetings and events as well as host athletes — and will have an NBA-size basketball court for the hoops-loving Obama.
“It was important to us that this incredible amenity for the community be the first thing that is open and available for both community residents as well as we’ll be able to rent out space for events there. I think it’s going to be a jewel on the South Side of Chicago ,” Jarrett said.
“We will be able to convert the basketball court into a venue if people want to hold large dinner parties or other large events,” she said.
Former President Barack Obama points out features of the planned Obama Presidential Center during a gathering at the South Shore Cultural Center in 2017.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
I reported in October 2023 that the target date for completing the complex was October 2025. Jarrett said the grand opening for the center now will be in 2026, timed for weather warm enough for visitors to enjoy the entire landscaped campus.
The campus will have parklike space and four structures: the athletic/meeting center; the museum tower; a Chicago Public Library branch; and a forum with an auditorium, recording studio, meeting places and an indoor winter garden.
Adjacent to the athletic/conference center site is a new Chicago Park District athletic field at 63rd and Stony Island, across from Hyde Park Academy High School. It replaces the athletic field demolished to make way for the Obama center. The South Side YMCA is a block away.
“Our goal is to use that space for programming for both youth and adults,” Jarrett said. “And we’re working with a variety of partners now on what that programming will look like. … We have been surveying the market to ensure we’re not duplicating existing programs. We’re going to be creating new programs that help support the youth and the adults in the surrounding area.”
The 44-foot display at McCormick Place was just a prototype for what will be an 88-foot installation inside the museum telling the story of the “Power of Words.”
A universally accessible playground is planned for the east end of Midway Plaisance Park. The plans still have to be approved by the park district board. Other improvements include revamped ball fields at Jackson Park, as well as a new dog-friendly area.
Before heading to McCormick Place to see the prototype, former President Barack Obama will review interior designs of furniture, the retail store, the restaurant, the café and everything in between for his presidential center.
The signature tower at the Obama Presidential Center, under construction in Jackson Park, already looms over the community. It will house the museum dedicated to the former president.
U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan, whose National Archives and Records Administration operates presidential libraries, talks about the library in an exclusive Sun-Times interview.
The city and the park district need to replace recreational space taken from Jackson Park for the Obama Presidential Center, but the eastern end of the Midway should remain a sustainable wetland, parks advocates write.
By Bronwyn Nichols Lodato, Brenda Nelms, and 1 more
The firm heading construction said all staff and on-site workers participated in anti-bias training and further security measures had been implemented.
A $100,000 reward has been offered for help in finding those responsible. Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the act ‘disturbing.’ Gov. J.B. Pritzker condemned the incident.
South Shore was long seen as a “first house neighborhood” for middle-class residents, and it saw one of its favorite daughters go to the White House as first lady. Residents now hope the nearby Obama Presidential Center will make it “an area where people want to move into.”
The city hopes to complete the widening of Stony Island Avenue and construction of an additional lane on southbound DuSable Lake Shore Drive by late fall of 2023.
The city’s first couple, who no longer live full time in the city, took a walk down memory lane, going over why they chose Jackson Park for the center. But the former president promised the center won’t just be “an exercise in nostalgia or looking backwards.”
Michelle Obama talked about her vision for the center at the groundbreaking — and how the city needs to even the score between the North and South Sides.
An athletic field on the Obama Center Jackson Park site was torn up Monday, while motorists near the park were warned to expect traffic delays due to construction.
The Chicago garden, inspired by Michelle Obama’s White House garden, is such a nice idea that it unwittingly underscores other deficiencies in the OPC campus plan.
The new federal lawsuit follows an earlier failed legal battle to prevent the Obama Center from locating in Jackson Park, on the National Register of Historic Places.
Valerie Jarrett, who has been the “interim” foundation president, told the Sun-Times she is dropping her interim status. “I’ll be the president for the foreseeable future.”
With a federal review complete, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said, “Chicago is now officially the home of the presidential center for our country’s first Black president.”
A three-judge appellate panel affirmed the U.S. District Court ruling, but said they couldn’t rule on some matters it considered to be under state, not federal, jurisdiction.
“We see the importance of this community in the future of Chicago and we want to make sure that we are being a partner to this community in shaping what happens here going forward,” Chicago Department of Housing Commissioner Marisa Novara said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters.
Mayor Lightfoot told the Sun-Times she will be more aggressive than former Mayor Rahm Emanuel was in negotiating final Obama Presidential Center details.
The findings provide all the more reason why the Obama Presidential Foundation, its architects and the Lightfoot administration must get this project right.
The employee, a 45-year-old man, exchanged gunfire Friday night with two people who entered the business in the 2900 block of West North Avenue and announced a robbery.
Just after midnight, a 49-year-old man was standing in the street in the 3000 block of West Warren Boulevard when someone exited a white sedan and opened fire, Chicago police said.
