As Obama Center Progress Accelerates, Its Leaders Hope It Will Rev Up South Side Economy
Development of the Obama Presidential Center is in full swing, and project leaders are crystalizing their vision for what they hope it will offer to Chicago’s South Side. And it’s a tall order.
The campus aims to serve as a catalyst for growth for the historically underfunded corner of the city. But in addition to charging up its economic engine, the center is intended to become a talent developer and a sustainability leader, representatives from the project team said in a keynote presentation at Bisnow’s Chicago Architecture and Design event at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel.
The goal is for people to visit the South Side and stick around, said Lori Healey, senior vice president and executive project officer at the Obama Presidential Center.
“The last thing we want is for people to come and visit the campus and get back in an Uber or Metra or Lyft and go right back downtown,” Healey said. “We want people to be able to learn about the South Side, enjoy Hyde Park, and we're really looking forward to getting the business community down there.”
A study from the Obama Presidential Center estimates the site will have a $3.1B economic impact, bringing 700,000 visitors from around the world to the South Side each year and creating 5,000 jobs, whether directly or indirectly.
Four buildings will anchor the 19-acre campus in Jackson Park: a museum, a library, a forum and an arena. The library and forum are undergoing interior work. Meanwhile, development is in full swing on several massive pieces of the puzzle. The eight-story museum building topped off in June, and the 45K SF Programs and Athletics Center broke ground in March.
The Programs and Athletic Center is set to open in late 2025, and the Obama Presidential Center Museum and overall campus are expected to open to the public in spring 2026 after years of delays pushed back an initial 2021 opening date.
The museum, which is 225 feet high, will be the tallest building on the Obama Presidential Center campus. At the event last month marking the exterior work's completion, former President Barack Obama thanked construction workers for their dedication, professionalism, hard work and sacrifices.
“For decades to come, every time people come by here, the work they’ll be seeing will be your work,” Obama said at the event.
In putting together a design team for the campus, recruiting a diverse team was a high priority, said Renauld Deandre Mitchell, partner and director of Chicago operations at Moody Nolan. That includes gender diversity, ethnic diversity and a range in the size of firms collaborating on the project, he said.
“Diversity produces better outcomes, better business outcomes,” he said.
The project team has worked to identify the next generation of emerging talent that has the opportunity to lead the industry into the future, Mitchell said. He said he wants the project to be the “laboratory” to allow them to hone their skills and develop their craft.
Additionally, the project has lofty sustainability ambitions, sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewable energy and having all of its buildings receive LEED Platinum certifications.
Those targets, combined with high community, workforce and business goals, present a developmental challenge, said Junisa Brima, deputy operations manager and construction executive at Turner Construction.
But Brima said those challenges can’t be used as excuses to not hold the project to the highest standards.
“You have to be arrogant enough to say we can do it all,” Brima said. “Because many of the folks on the job and many of the companies on the job just historically in … the industry have been thought not to be able to do that.”
