In a city with an iconic skyline, the Obama presidential museum aims to reshape Chicago architecture

Syracuse artist to have piece featured at new Obama Presidential Center

Syracuse will be represented at the new (Barack) Obama Presidential Center in Chicago when it opens to the public on Friday, June 19.

In a city with an iconic skyline, the Obama presidential museum aims to reshape Chicago architecture

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, Texas Democratic Senate candidate and Texas state Rep. James Talarico, and former President Barack Obama visit the Taco Joint on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez, Pool)The Obama Presidential Center is seen Thursday, April 9, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)The Obama Presidential Center is seen Thursday, April 9, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Ho…

Here's a photo tour inside the Obama Presidential Center

The Chicago Sun-Times architecture columnist Lee Bey got an early first look at the Obama Presidential Center last week. Designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, the center is a five-building complex. Two of the structures — the Forum and a new Chicago Public Library branch — sit south of the 225-foot Museum Tower beneath rolling parkland designed by New York landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.A 437-car parking gara…

No tower of glower: Obama Center and its maligned signature building are worthy of consideration

Ever since the Obama Presidential Center began rising out the historic grounds of Jackson Park, its Museum Tower — the campus’ most visible structure — became a riddlesome, what-the-heck-is-this kind of a building. And there was a reason for this. In a city of tall, glassy skyscrapers, the Museum Tower is shrouded in granite and virtually windowless. While the best of Chicago’s parks buildings attempt to blend in with their landscapes, the stock…

Sky of Hope: The British Pakistani Artist Who Designed the Most Audacious Part of  the Obama Presidential Center

On June 19, 2026 — Juneteenth, the federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States — the Barack Obama Presidential Center will open its doors to the public in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side. The $850 million, 19.3-acre campus has been nearly a decade in the making, and its opening coincides with the 250th anniversary of American independence. It is a monument to hope, democracy, and civic participation — and running q…

Obama Presidential Center Unveiled, Newly Authenticated Lucian Freud Painting On View, and More: Morning Links for June 2, 2026

Good Morning! Experts say a painting Lucian Freud long denied ever making was, in fact, an early painting by the artist. The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam denies obstructing provenance investigations of the Koenigs collection in its holdings. Feminist, self-taught French artist Raymonde Arcier has died at 86. The Headlines FREUDIAN FEUD. The late artist Lucian Freud long maintained he never made the striking portrait titled M…