"Nothing says “hope and change” quite like bulldozing a beloved public park for a 235-foot phallic tower dedicated to oneself. Welcome to the Obama Presidential Center (OPC), an $830 million (and rising) vanity project in Chicago’s historic Jackson Park. The man who once preached community organizing couldn’t find a single non-park site in his hometown for his monument. I get angry every time I see a story about this thing. It feels as if Obama is giving America a gigantic, double-barreled middle finger. No honest observer can look at this monstrosity and feel inspired. Like the modern Democrat Party, the OPC has zero redeeming features.
Let’s start with the trees: over 800 mature oaks, many a century old, were felled for parking and “campus” space. Environmentalists who paralyzed industries to save a single spotted owl suddenly decided trees are renewable when a favored Democrat is involved. A Frederick Law Olmsted-designed urban oasis was sacrificed without a shrug. The community hated it from the start. Bronzeville residents, preservationists, and even Obama voters begged the foundation to build somewhere, anywhere else -- abandoned lots and shuttered factories were plentiful. Instead, the Obamas demanded federally protected parkland for a private foundation that will one day charge admission. Lawsuits were filed, federal reviews manipulated, and courts eventually capitulated.
The building itself defies description. Critics call it Stalinist, Brutalist, or a rejected Bond-villain lair; supporters claim that it’s “bold.” It offends traditionalists and competent modernists alike. It resembles either a North Korean guard tower or a Star Wars Jawa sandcrawler -- take your pick.
Cost was originally pitched at $500 million; it’s now past $830 million with no end in sight. A promised $470 million endowment meant to offset neighborhood damage and future maintenance has only $1 million in it and no realistic funding plan. The Chicago machine, as usual, simply looked the other way."
