America’s first black president is building America’s most expensive, opulent, and expansive presidential library.
It should be noted that all presidential libraries are built using donations from individuals and corporations. The Barack Obama Center was originally going to cost $300 million. However, by the time the design was unveiled in 2017, the estimate had been revised to $500 million.
The Obama Foundation, which is building the Center, was just getting started.
In 2021, construction costs ballooned to $700 million alone. Another $90 million for artifact preparation and $40 million for the first-year operating budget bring the total to a smooth $830 million. Foundation spokeswoman Emily Bittner said the most recent all-in estimate is $850 million.
After years of delays and legal fights, the center is scheduled to open its doors to visitors in the spring. Obama officials are hosting community tours beginning late this month so neighbors “can begin to imagine how they will use and enjoy” the center.
When finished, the campus will include the main building housing the museum; a forum building that includes an auditorium, media suite and other programming rooms; a Chicago Public Library branch; and farther south, a 45,000 square foot multipurpose athletic center.
That athletic center was supposed to open later this year, but foundation officials revised the opening date to 2026 earlier this summer. “We are planning to fully open the campus as a whole in the spring of 2026,” Bittner said.
By comparison, the Ronald Reagan Library cost $40 million in 1991, which is about $95 million today.
The Bill Clinton Library cost $165 million in 2004 dollars, about $283 million in today’s currency.
Obama’s Caesar-like vision of his own greatness was under pressure from the start by civil rights hustlers and racialists demanding that the project hire workers on the city’s South and West sides, according to the Obama Foundation report. About half the workers are from Chicago, with another 35% from the majority minority wards of the city’s South and West sides.
Related: ‘Operation Midway Blitz’ Immigration Crackdown Begins in Chicago As Confrontation Looms
Fundraising has now topped $1 billion as Obama, as always, has been able to shake the money tree for Democrats and himself.
Staff salaries are exorbitant.
Valerie Jarrett, the foundation’s CEO, told the Tribune in March 2024 that construction of all the buildings should be finished by the end of this year. Exhibit installations started across several floors of the museum this year, according to the foundation’s website, as has lighting and interior granite work in the forum building, drywall at the athletic center, and trees and playground equipment across the grounds.
The towering, 83-foot painted glass window by artist Julie Mehretu on the exterior of the museum building has also gone up.
Fundraising efforts have continued apace — the foundation’s net assets surpassed $1 billion for the first time after raising $195 million last year, according to the report.
That came from nearly 92,000 donors, the foundation said. More than 56,000 gave for their first time. The most common amount was $25. The foundation added more than 100 donors that gave more than $1 million, according to its website. The exact amounts are not specified.
The architect should be fired. Or hired by North Korea.
👏 FROM KEN BLACKWELL: 🗣️👉 The Obama Presidential Library, under construction in Chicago, looks like a… (Fill in the blank.)
I think it looks like a totalitarian command center dropped straight out of 1984.
You can’t make this up. This hulking, gray monolith doesn’t look like… pic.twitter.com/geS3CiFAWY
— ❤️🔥 𝓓𝓪𝓻 ❤️🔥 (@DameScorpio) July 28, 2025
Michelle and I think that Julie Mehretu’s art installation, titled “Uprising of the Sun,” will be one of the most important aspects of the Obama Presidential Center and an iconic contribution to the South Side and the city of Chicago. We can’t wait for you to see it. pic.twitter.com/1m63mZwVjt
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 9, 2024
I can’t wait to see it .
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