Obamas Want Presidential Center To Give Back To Chicago Neighborhood

CHICAGO, IL — Barack and Michelle Obama continued to shape their post-presidential public lives Wedenesday with the unveiling of the Obama Presidential Center, a South Side facility built around a dominant theme for the former first couple: the promise and potential of future generations. In a presentation at the South Shore Cultural Center, the Obamas showcased the plans for the presidential center that will be built in Jackson Park and "give back to the community that has given them so much," according to a statement from the Obama Foundation about the project it will be spearheading alongside the City of Chicago and local institutions, such as the Museum of Science and Industry, the DuSable Museum and the University of Chicago.

“What we want this to be is the world-premiere institution for training young people and leadership to make a difference in their communities, in their country and in the world,” former President Barack Obama said at the invitation only event for the center, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

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The heart of the center will be anchored by a public plaza that will merge into a landscape design that will be a seamless fit with Jackson Park and surrounding neighborhoods. The center's campus will feature three main buildings with very specific purposes:

• The museum, the center's tallest structure that anchors the plaza's northern end, "will serve as a beacon for the Obama Center and the South Side and mark a visitor’s arrival." Exhibits will focus on Obama's presidency, as well as the people and process leading up to it. The museum also won't shy away from spotlighting more popular topics. "Let's face it, you all want to see Michelle's dresses," Obama said, according to the Sun-Times.
• The library will be one of two single-story structures with planted terraces. It will house Obama's papers and documents, and there is the possibility that it could incorporate a branch of the Chicago Public Library, the report stated.
• The forum, the other single-story structure, will contain the campus' auditorium and have a roof covered with plantings to create new park land.

Built out of stone and designed with multiple windows, the buildings will create a campus that will sprawl around 200,000 to 225,000 square feet with connections below ground and above ground via the structures' rooftops, according to the foundation.

Along with establishing a monument to the former first couple's presidential legacy, the Obamas hope the center has more of a direct impact on the Chicago neighborhood it will call home.

"The Center will strengthen the economic climate in our community by bringing hundreds of thousands of visitors to Chicago every year, creating new jobs on the South Side, and revitalizing historic Jackson Park in the process," the foundation stated.

Construction is expected to take four years and create 1,400 to 1,500 jobs, the Sun-Times reports. Once it's up and operating, the center will employ around 200 to 300 people, and programs are expected to begin before the institution is officially open, the report added.

“It’s about hope. It’s about belief. It’s about a story that our kids tell themselves when they see a world-class institution in their community, populated by people who come from their community, then they have a sense of importance,” Obama said in describing the center, according to the Sun-Times. “And that ultimately is what I want to give back because that’s what Chicago gave to me.”

WATCH: Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama unveil the plans for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago's Jackson Park neighborhood:

More via the Chicago Sun-Times

Image via the Obama Foundation

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