Obama Presidential Center Opens on Chicago’s South Side With Museum Tower and Active Campus

Overview

• The Obama Presidential Center opened to the public after a June 18 dedication and a Juneteenth launch on June 19, and the campus has hosted large crowds, performances and family programming during its opening weekend.
• Timed-entry tickets for the eight‑story Museum Tower are selling out for weeks while most campus features—including a Chicago Public Library branch, Home Court athletic center, gardens and outdoor plazas—remain free to enter.
• The Museum Tower, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, rises about 225 feet and houses multi‑floor exhibitions, an Oval Office replica, a Sky Room with city views and a 103‑word brise‑soleil quoting Obama’s 2015 Selma speech.
• The Center uses a nontraditional archival model with presidential records stewarded as fully digital files by the National Archives and Records Administration and physical copies kept offsite in College Park, Maryland.
• The privately funded $830–$850 million project created thousands of construction jobs and is projected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors and roughly $3 billion in local economic impact over its first decade, but nearby residents and reporting note growing concerns about rising rents and displacement.