Header: Angie McMongical
The Obama Presidential Center is a new 19.3-acre campus in Jackson Park, on the South Side of Chicago, home to a museum, a forum, a library, a home court, gardens and public outdoor spaces. Set to open this month, on the 19th of June 2026, it was designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, with Interactive Design Architects as the Chicago partner and Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates as landscape designers. First envisioned by the Obama Foundation, this new campus was created to look back in time and learn history while enjoying quality time in the community.
The campus’s layout
Simply laid out and easy to access, the museum tower, forum and library sit around a public plaza together. Each building can be accessed from this outside landmark, but visitors can also move around each space through underground paths. John Lewis Plaza, set directly in the middle of the campus, acts here as the main outdoor space, the heart of the Center.
The Center is built with heavy stonework, softened by planted roofs and bases. The museum tower is clad in granite, with bronze used around the windows and glass panels in the Sky Room Vista. Stone is also used in the forum, while the Elie Wiesel Auditorium has timber panels across the ceiling and walls, with some perforated panels concealing the audio equipment.
The many buildings of the Center
The museum, the tall building on the site, holds four levels of exhibitions about Barack and Michelle Obama, the White House years and the people and movements linked to that story. The exhibitions, divided around themes including “Toward a More Perfect Union”, “Working for the Common Good”, “The People’s House” and “We the People”, include objects, films, images, interactive displays and a full-size replica of President Obama’s Oval Office. At the top is the Sky Room, a public room with views across the South and West Sides of Chicago. It is eight storeys tall and shaped to suggest four hands coming together.
The outside of the Sky Room is marked by words from Obama’s speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. The “You Are America” lettering comprises two 84-foot-high by 67-foot-wide ultra-high-performance concrete screens wrapped around the corner of the 225-foot tower, with 458 cast letters across 39 unique panels making up the speech.
The forum is the main indoor public building for events and everyday use. It has two levels and includes the Hadiya Pendleton Atrium, the Elie Wiesel Auditorium, seven programme rooms, a media suite, a restaurant, a café and a shop. The programme rooms include the Democracy in Action lab, while the Media Suite functions as a recording studio for Center programme participants. The building is there for talks, concerts, workshops, meals and meetings, giving the campus a working public programme beyond the museum.
The Center’s library is a new branch of the Chicago Public Library, and it includes a main reading room, the President’s reading room, YOUmedia programming for teenagers, a City Maker Space, a children’s area and the Rachel Carson courtyard. The main reading room features a 70-foot mural by Aliza Nisenbaum, while the courtyard includes “Book Bird”, one of the last sculptures by Richard Hunt.
The home court brings sports and health to the campus, as it is a 60,000-square-foot sports and events building with an NBA regulation-size basketball court, practice courts, accessible seating and flexible rooms for programmes and events. It was designed by Moody Nolan using metal and fritted glass panels, with a pattern drawn from the form of a basketball net.
The Nancy Pelosi Garden Pavilion sits on the eastern edge of the Eleanor Roosevelt Fruit and Vegetable Garden. It contains a garden classroom, a garden workroom and public restrooms, plus accessible planting beds and a teaching kitchen connected with the Center’s food and gardening programmes.
A thorough use of the landscape
The landscape is a large part of the design and the perfect place for gatherings and relaxing afternoons. The gardens and smaller trenches with planting are located everywhere in the campus, rising from ground level to the roofs of the forum and library. Smaller gardens continue onto rooftops and down into sunken courtyards, while the wider campus includes the restored Women’s Garden, the Wetland Walk, wooded paths, plazas, a playground and a 58,000-square-foot Great Lawn.
The centre also uses the landscape as part of its environmental strategy. All electricity comes from renewable sources, and the buildings do not use fossil fuels in daily operation. Solar panels have been added to the garden pavilion and home court, while a geothermal system supports heating and cooling. Across the campus, rainwater is collected and reused, with the system designed to capture 98% of rainfall and save more than one million gallons of drinking water each year. Nearly a third of the planting has also been restored with native or adapted species, and the removal of a six-lane road helps reconnect parts of Jackson Park.
The Obama Presidential Center tells the story of the Obama presidency, but it also gives the people of Chicago a culturally enriching place to enjoy their days and learn about their country’s history.
Project information
Architecture Company: Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects
Local Architecture Company: Interactive Design Architects
Landscape Design: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Local Landscape Design: Living Habitats
Lighting Design: Fisher Marantz Stone
MEP Engineering: Altieri Sebor Wieber
Structural Engineering: Thornton Tomasetti
Civil Engineering: David Mason & Associates
Environmental Engineering: Fluid Clarity
Sustainability: Atelier Ten
Parking: Carl Walker
Fountain Design: CMS Collaborative
Soil Science: Craul Land Scientists
Irrigation Design: WC3 Design
Security: DVS
Code Consulting: Jensen Hughes
Client: The Barack Obama Foundation
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Date: 2015-2026
Area: 20.5 acres
