Former President Barack Obama’s presidential library is approaching $850 million in construction costs and has been chastised by Chicago residents as an “eyesore.”
The Obama library was originally estimated to cost $300 million, before the budget was revised upward to $500 million in 2017, and then further up to $700 million in 2021. Now, in a financial disclosure form, it appears it will cost much closer to $850 million to construct the mammoth grey monolith building in the South Side of Chicago in Jackson Park.
Executives at the Obama Foundation “are among the best paid of all cultural centers in the nation, with CEO Valerie Jarrett paid $740,000 last year.” Robin Cohen, the executive vice president of the foundation, earned over $600,000 and Tina Chen, the group’s chief legal and people officer, earned $425,000.
The Daily Mail wrote:
Although the cost of all artworks is not clear, the museum recently installed an 83-foot painted glass window by artist Julie Mehretu to its exterior to beautify the grey building’s exterior.
Despite the soaring costs of the site, fundraising to Obama’s foundation has stayed high and surpassed $1 billion thanks to a $195 million cash injection last year, the foundation said in its recent financial report.
The Obama center is slated to open in the spring of 2026 after years of delays and legal challenges, and residents in the Windy City criticized the “ugly” construction and say it has pushed up rents and displaced residents.
Alderwoman Jeannette Taylor, who represents the area in which the center is being built, stressed that she is a fan of Obama but explained that the center will jack up rent prices.
“We’re going to see rents go higher and we’re going to see families displaced,” she remarked.
“Every time large development comes to communities, they displace the very people they say they want to improve it for,” the Democrat alderwoman said.
Workers have blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies for the lengthy construction of the building.
A construction foreman said, “It was all very woke from the time they broke ground in 2021.”
The foreman added, “Every so often a bunch of staffers from the Obama Foundation wearing little badges would come by the site and they’d ask us silly questions like, are you white, straight, gay, trans, whatever. It was ridiculous.”
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