Barack's $850M 'Obamalisk' in Jackson Park slammed for destroying parkland and violating rules

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Former President Barack Obama is under criticism for his Presidential Center, which critics say involved the destruction of a historic public park to make way for a monument to himself. 

Many Chicagoans, historians, and preservationists have questioned the project's impact on Jackson Park and its fundamental contrast with the democratic design principles of the park.

Critics say monument violates Frederick Law Olmsted's democratic park vision

The $850 million Obama Presidential Center, scheduled to open next spring, has widely been called "The Obamalisk" by its critics. 

The Obama Foundation had acquired 20 acres of the landmarked Jackson Park for the project, which is listed on the national registry of historic places. 

The park was famously designed by a visionary architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, who co-designed New York's Central Park, for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Critics say the monolithic, 240-foot-tall beige concrete and stone-clad structure violates the spirit of the democratic public park he intended. 

"I always see it as a cenotaph, a tombstone, a crusader fortress in brutalist style," WJT Mitchell, an art historian at the University of Chicago, told The New Post. "It’s not a beautiful building. Its monumentality violates the spirit of the democratic urban park."

Olmsted's philosophy was to democratize the public park experience, moving away from the European tradition where grand buildings signified feudal ownership. 

Mitchell explained that Olmsted believed, "this is public land, this is owned by everybody. There should not be any great monuments or monumental buildings. It’s about the people."

This democratic spirit was further compromised by the massive environmental impact of the construction. "The most atrocious thing was when they started clearcutting a thousand, healthy, century-old trees. I was there to document it. It struck many people as an environmental disaster,” Mitchell added. 

A relic of women's history was also paved over when the Center bulldozed Jackson Park’s Women’s Garden which was created in the 1930s by landscape architect May McAdams to commemorate the first structure at the 1893 Fair built by a female architect, Sophia Hayden, to create a staging area. 

Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, noted the deep disappointment among former supporters: “This was an administration that many people in Chicago supported and thought was really revolutionary. And then to see that same administration take these 20 acres from the public was very disturbing."

The Obamalisk’s land acquisition and financial criticisms

The location choice itself was controversial. Chicago had to bid against New York and Hawaii to host the Center, eventually sweetening the deal with the prime lakefront public land. 

This deal was finalized under the mayorship of Rahm Emmanuel, Obama's former chief of staff. The Foundation acquired the public land not via a lease, but a 99-year-long “land use agreement” that cost the Obamas just $10, according to University of Chicago law professor Richard Epstein. 

Epstein, who was involved in a lawsuit against the Foundation, said "vanity drove the structure." The building's height, towering 240 feet high, is also a violation of congressional rules for a presidential library, which has a maximum allowance of 70 feet high, rendering the Center unable to legally take on the designation. 

In addition, the administration's official records and archives will not be housed at the Center, they are currently in a warehouse in the Chicago suburbs, with only digitized archives available to visitors.

The cost of the Center, which spiraled from an initial estimate of $300 million to $850 million, was privately funded, although critics point out it has a significant public-private partnership component. 

Chicago taxpayers had to spend hundreds of millions rerouting roads around the site through the city's celebrated boulevard system. Architect Grahm Balkany said this road reconfiguration has "basically barricaded Hyde Park from the rest of the South Side," further sequestering poorer black residents. 

Another key issue is the financial sustainability of the Center. It's estimated to need $30 million in annual operating costs, yet the endowment has only $1 million of the promised $400 million on hand, raising fears that taxpayers could be on the hook for maintenance and operations if the endowment proves insufficient.

Michelle Obama's critique contrasts with Jimmy Carter's example

The former First Lady, Michelle Obama, has also garnered attention for the involvement of an entire exhibit dedicated to her dresses while simultaneously speaking out against President Donald Trump's White House renovations on her podcast:  “To tear it down, to pretend like it doesn’t matter — it’s a reflection of how you think of that role.” 

Critics tend to draw a stark contrast with the Obamas' monumental project with the post-presidency actions of others.

Mitchell approvingly mentioned this difference, “I often think of the contrast with Jimmy Carter, as an ex-president. He stayed in the same house in Plains, Georgia and engaged in direct action programs in Africa, all sorts of philanthropic enterprises."

He concluded, "He didn’t focus on building monuments or building fancy houses in Hawaii and Martha’s Vineyard, so he could vacation all over the place.”