'It's a monstrosity': Obama's unfinished $850M Presidential Library slammed as a ‘headache’ by residents

JACKSON PARK, CHICAGO: Barack Obama’s $850 million presidential center, currently rising in Chicago’s Jackson Park and set to open in April 2026, is sparking fierce criticism from residents, activists, and even some former supporters. 

The project, which was originally planned as a catalyst to revitalize the South Side, is now fueling gentrification, driving up rents and property taxes, and forcing longtime residents to leave. 

Despite mounting backlash, the Obama Foundation maintains the center will serve as a valuable public resource, featuring a library branch, playgrounds, gardens, and community spaces.

Chicago resident worries that rents will go higher around Obama's presidential center

According to a report by the Daily Mail, Barack Obama’s multi-million-dollar presidential center may be harming a vital part of the city he once called home.

Critics argue that the sprawling 19.3-acre facility in Jackson Park is fueling gentrification.

Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor, who represents much of the affected area, voiced her concerns. “We're going to see rents go higher and we're going to see families displaced. Every time large development comes to communities, they displace the very people they say they want to improve it for.”

She added, “This was no different, and we're living what is actually happening. The city of Chicago should have done a Community Benefits Agreement before the first shovel went into the ground, but they didn't.”

A Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) is a legally binding deal between developers and communities that typically includes promises like affordable housing, local hiring, and environmental protections.

Taylor further warned that small landlords are under pressure to raise rents as property taxes soar, while new developments fail to reflect the needs of the local community. “We’re going to see development that is not inclusive to our community.” she said.

Taylor noted that homes priced between $300,000 and $400,000, well beyond what many in the South Side can afford, are already appearing in the neighborhood.

Another resident, Kyana Butler, 30, a member of the Southside Together activist group, echoed those concerns.

“It's pretty huge and monstrous,” she told. “It could have been smaller in scale and cost a lot less money. We're all worried about the impact on the community. Rents are going up fast. A two-bedroom apartment that used to rent for $800 a month has already jumped to $1,800. Property taxes are going up so much that the owner of my building is saying she might just walk away.”

Butler was careful to distinguish between the former president and his team. “I don’t blame President Obama for all of this,” she said, “but the people on his team may not have the best intentions for people in this area.”

Local residents fear Obama’s presidential center is erasing their neighborhood and culture

One more local resident likened the project to a massive foreign object disrupting the landscape, “'It looks like this big piece of rock that just landed here out of nowhere in what used to be a really nice landscape of trees and flowers."

Ken Woodard, a 39-year-old lawyer and father of six who grew up in the neighborhood, dubbed, “It’s a monstrosity.” 

He said. “It's over budget, it's taking way too long to finish and it's going to drive up prices and bring headaches and problems for everyone who lives here. 'It feels like a washing away of the neighborhood and culture that used to be here.”

Tyrone Muhammad, a South Side native and director of Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change, has been warning about the Obama Center since 2020. Now a 2026 Illinois Senate candidate, Muhammad compared the project to the biblical Tower of Babel. 

“There's a lot of babbling going on with the Obama Center that never seems to get to anywhere,” he said. “It's disconnected from the community it says it wants to serve. There's this ongoing battle around it that involves policies that never serve or effect change for the community.”

Muhammad called the decision to build on public parkland without community involvement “disingenuous” and “hypocritical,” adding that the move “violates common decency.”

Former Trump advisor says of Obama's project, 'This is a monument to one man's ego'

Steve Cortes, a longtime Chicago resident and former adviser to President Trump, criticized the Obama Presidential Center as “absurd” and featured it in his recent documentary, 'You Don’t Know Barack: Exposing Obama.'

Cortes slammed the project’s delays and ballooning costs,  “It's way behind schedule and on track to cost upwards of a billion dollars,” he said. “Some cost overruns are normal, but not when it winds up being three times what it was supposed to cost."

Cortes blamed what he called an overemphasis on hiring minority- and women-owned contractors, comparing the project unfavorably to the Reagan Library. 

He questioned, “It's beautiful. 'This? There are almost no windows. What are they hiding? And this Brutalist cement look in a city known for its incredible architecture. Why? 'This is a monument to one man's ego. You know Obama had to approve it."

A construction foreman working on the site, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, shared similar concerns. “The place is built like a bomb shelter,” he said.

“The walls are a foot and a half thick. Some of the shafts are three feet thick. Walls have a blast rating and the windows - what few there are - and the doors have blast rating. 'I've been doing this for 37 years and this is the first time I worked on a building that had a blast rating."