The $850 million Obama Presidential Center's brutalist design has drawn harsh critiques as well as praise.
The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago opened to the public on the Juneteenth holiday Friday, following plenty of controversy over its "audacious" brutalist design.
The striking complex in the Jackson Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, which cost an estimated $850 million to build, documents and celebrates Barack Obama's eight-year tenure as the country's 44th president.
The center has four separate buildings: an eight-story museum; a library with interactive media area; a community forum with an auditorium for performances; and a sports facility that boasts an NBA regulation-size basketball court.
The museum showcases four levels of exhibits that tell the story of the former first family as well as impactful social movements; memorabilia from the family's time in the White House; and interactive activities.
On the museum's top floor is an observation tower with sweeping views of the South Side.
It's the museum tower that has gotten the most criticism, thanks to a brutalist, monolithic, nearly windowless granite form that has drawn comparisons to a mausoleum or prison.
The Obama family attend the opening of the Obama Presidential Center in the Jackson Park neighborhood of Chicago. The museum building's boldly brutalist design has drawn both praise and criticism. (Bloomberg via Getty Images) The design controversy
Georgia pastor Todd Friel is a longtime Obama critic, but he isn't alone in his negative feelings toward the museum, labeling the building "monstrous" and "downright ugly."
"It looks like a World War II-era German antiaircraft tower. It belongs in the 'Hunger Games.' It was designed by Minecraft," he ranted on his YouTube channel.
The complex was designed by New York City's Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (who also designed Chicago's Logan Arts Center), and the surrounding grounds by New York landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (behind both Maggie Daley Park in Chicago and Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, NY). Home Court, the campus athletic facility, was designed by the Moody Nolan architectural firm.
The most distinctive part of the museum's facade is the tall print wrapped around the upper portion, words taken from a 2015 speech that Obama gave on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, AL. The speech was titled "You Are America," and Obama considers it one of his most important.
The museum's exterior is light gray granite (harvested in New Hampshire) with glass installations, featuring a one-of-a-kind glass art installation by Julie Mehretu entitled "Uprising of the Sun."
On the top floor is the Sky Room, named after activist Nelson Mandela, where visitors can ogle sweeping views of Jackson Park, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Lake Michigan.
The fruit and vegetable garden is seen on the grounds during a media preview of the Obama Presidential Center in the Jackson Park neighborhood of Chicago. Text from a 2015 Obama speech is seen on the upper half of the building. (Bloomberg via Getty Images) 
A view of the playground area is seen from the Nelson Mandela Skyroom atop the museum tower at the Obama Presidential Center. (AFP via Getty Images) No 'icon' is without controversy
Designer Billie Tsien told the Sun-Times that the museum's controversial "mausoleum" look was inspired by a rock the architect found in Ethiopia.
"In a dusty box on the floor of a souvenir store in Aksum in the Tigray section of Ethiopia," she said. "It fits in the palm of your hand. The letters carved are unintelligible—maybe Amharic? Not sure if it was 100 years old or 10 days old, but it was mysterious and felt as if it carried a message."
The tower's lack of windows wasn't an oversight—the impenetrable walls of gray granite were intended to keep sunlight away from the delicate art exhibits housed inside.
And perhaps the rugged, simple look is growing on people.
John Poillucci, a strategic construction adviser with Real Estate Bees, registered architect, and principal with Spacehouse Architecture in Pennsylvania, praises the design, calling it "graceful" with "obvious nods to the past."
He also counters the criticism heaped on the complex for being built in a public park—and the massive cost, not only the reported $850 million cost for the entire center (the most expensive presidential library on record) but the $200 million worth of infrastructure needed to support it.
"A cynic may look at these figures, and make the sweeping claim that it's over a billion dollars lost," he tells Realtor.com®. "The reality is that it's over a billion dollars invested in the local economy. The construction talent for almost any large project is primarily local. On top of this, the project represents a mainstay for tourism in Chicago, bringing in dollars for decades to come."
He also touts the building's eco-friendliness, noting that the project has LEED v4 Platinum, SITES Silver, Zero Energy, and International WELL Health-Safety credentials.
Additionally, the all-electric campus utilizes geothermal wells and solar, 98% of rainfall on campus will be captured and reused, and the grounds are planted with native plants for a sustainable landscape.
"It's a greatest hits of responsible site and building design," he says.
Chicago landscape architect Paul Blanding, cofounder of The Outside Design Studio, was recently invited to a preview tour of the center and told Realtor.com that he too enjoyed the look.
"I didn’t mind the monumental, slightly brutalist vibe of the building," he says. "I found it suitably awe-inspiring in scale, more sublime than foreboding, and very warm in its choice of materials. I thought the large swaths of stone, bronze, and wood throughout was very elegant, and provided a gorgeous backdrop for the art."
While he says the views from the Sky Room are "stunning," he notes that "the power of the words on the facade of the building gets a bit lost from below—nearly impossible to read."
He adds that his visit was unexpectedly emotional. While looking through the portals formed by the precast concrete letters, he says he "couldn’t help but get a little choked up at the view of my city."
Hyde Park and the University of Chicago are seen from the Sky Room of the Obama Presidential Center. Landscape architect Paul Blanding found the sweeping views from the space unexpectedly emotional, he told Realtor.com. (Bloomberg via Getty Images) And Leeswann Bolden, a solutions engineer at architecture software development company Graphisoft and architect who grew up on the South Side and saw the museum from its inception, says, "Of course, I heard things like 'What is that big boulder they are building?' 'Where are the windows?' and simply put, 'What is that thing?'"
She tells Realtor.com she had "concerns" over the museum proportions, feeling it should have been taller. But she appreciates the views to the south, "which are typically overlooked in favor of the view downtown to skyscrapers.
"No, it is not typical. Yes, it is audacious. Yes, it is unlike any structure we have seen. It dares to be different. ... After all, name an icon, and, by that, I mean both the building and the president, that isn’t widely critiqued, loved, and hated by the masses."
The grounds too have drawn criticism, as the 19.3-acre campus is built inside of the public Jackson Park, though the design itself has generally been free from the harsh reviews piled on the museum.
The campus, which will be open to the public, contains a 58,000 square foot great lawn, multiple gardens, a water terrace and wetlands walking paths, and art installations.
There's also a vegetable garden named after Eleanor Roosevelt, said to be Michelle Obama's pet project.
A playground is seen on the campus of the Obama Presidential Center in the Jackson Park neighborhood of Chicago. The Obamas and their chosen architects, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, designed the space with two dueling purposes: a sculptural totem that celebrates the president and a sprawling program that promotes community. (Bloomberg via Getty Images) Neighborhood reaction in Chicago
Beyond the polarizing design, Chicago denizens have other concerns about the center, such as rising rents and the sudden influx of Airbnbs in the immediate area.
"How can I be excited about something that has displaced families in the ward?" Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor asked at a press conference, asserting that she wanted to throw rocks at the tower.
The center comes at a daunting time for Chicagoans who, like people in much of the country, are concerned about skyrocketing housing costs.
Housing affordability has emerged as Windy City residents' top concern this year, overtaking crime and gun violence, according to a new poll by Illinois Realtors.
But others are looking forward to the center becoming a permanent part of the neighborhood.
"I'm excited to go to the campus, maybe the library," South Side resident Kandria Keller told the Obama Foundation.
"I like the idea that [the architects] are thinking of the activities and space ... with the mindset that people all over are coming and participating and seeing what the South Side of Chicago offers to the world."