Former President Barack Obama’s presidential library project in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side has been controversial from the get-go.
Since its inception back in 2021, the short-sighted nature of the project has repeatedly raised by historians, archivists, environmentalists, community organizers, and local residents alike.
Now you can add accountants to that list as new financial records surrounding Obama’s project have just been released, highlighted a skyrocketing price tag that continues to go up, and up.
A newly financial report has revealed that Obama’s presidential library will now cost an eye-popping $850 million.
Fueled by soaring operational budgets and huge salaries for executives, Obama’s pet project has already surpassed the total budget set out when Obama first proposed the building before he left the White House.
The towering grey property will eventually serve as the headquarters of the Obama Foundation and will house a museum, library and education center dedicated to his eight years as president — if it ever gets completed.
The project was initially estimated to cost $300 million, before the budget was revised to $500 million in 2017, and then again to $700 million in 2021.
Fast forward to details in an annual financial disclosure form released last week, the foundation reported spending an extra $90 million to prepare exhibits and $40 million in operating costs for the first year alone.
Executives at the center raked in a total of $6.1 million and are among the best paid of all cultural centers in the nation, with CEO Valerie Jarrett paid $740,000 last year, according to reports.
OPC Executive Vice President Robbin Cohen earned $610,195 and Tina Chen, the organization’s chief legal and people officer, earned about $425,000.
Although the cost of all artworks within the center was not disclosed in the report, the museum recently installed an 83-foot painted glass window by artist Julie Mehretu to its exterior to beautify the grey building’s exterior, fueling continued speculation that this also has contributed to the out-of-control costs.
Many Chicagoans who have slammed the ‘ugly’ construction for pushing up rents and displacing locals.
Critics have slammed the construction of Obama’s project, with residents saying it has been doing more harm than good for the community in recent years.
Alderwoman Jeanette Taylor, who represents much of the area where the center is being built, told the Daily Mail last month that she is a fan of Obama and believes in the project but has fought aspects of it to protect her constituents. Her efforts have had mixed results.
“We’re going to see rents go higher and we’re going to see families displaced,” Taylor said.
A key point of the controversy surrounding the project over the past few years also centers around that the Obama Presidential Center departs from precedent by being run by the private, nonprofit Obama Foundation rather than the National Archives and Records Administration, the federal agency overseeing all other recent presidential libraries and museums.
Critics like former Nixon library director Timothy Naftali warned this privatization opens the door for partisan curation of the archives meant to remain an impartial public resource.
Additionally, the Center will contain no physical research library on-site, with Obama’s unclassified records being digitized and put online by the Foundation. Scholars fear this lack of a dedicated presidential library could hamper in-depth archival study of the Obama White House.
Additional controversy surrounding the polarizing project has centered around Presidential Center’s location – 19.3 acres of historic public parkland in Chicago’s Jackson Park, necessitating removal of over 1,000 mature trees and migratory bird habitat disruption, despite an alternative site being available nearby.
Local environmentalist groups like Protect Our Parks filed lawsuits tried to block construction in Jackson Park, seeking to preserve the urban greenspace and prevent a precedent of allowing private development of public parks.
However, federal reviews eventually cleared the project under environmental regulations, but admitted the Obama Library would “diminish” the park’s historic integrity.
Obama’s center is set to open in the spring of 2026 following years of delays and legal challenges.