Obama Presidential Center

Location
Hyde Park, Illinois

Owner
Obama Presidential Foundation

Team
Acoustics - Threshold
Architect - Tod Williams Billie Tsien with Interactive Design Architects (IDEA)

Size
225,000 square feet

Schedule
Groundbreaking 2021

The Obama Presidential Center will be a campus and resource for collective civic engagement in Chicago’s South Side. Past Presidential libraries have often emphasized story-telling – enshrining past achievements – while the Obama Presidential Center will extend its reaches as a place for story-making. 

The Center is designed as a campus integrated with landscape, comprising a museum tower, forum building and library surrounding a public plaza.  Each component is individually accessible on the plaza level, yet all are connected below-grade.  

The architecture of this place must embody both the symbolic nature of the Obama Presidency while serving pragmatic functions of an active institution inspiring local, national and international dialogue.