{"id":2619688,"date":"2026-06-26T17:27:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-obama-presidential-center-is-decidedly-meh\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T17:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:31:06","slug":"the-obama-presidential-center-is-decidedly-meh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-obama-presidential-center-is-decidedly-meh\/","title":{"rendered":"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-obama-presidential-center-is-decidedly-meh%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2619688&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article offers a critique of Barack Obama\u2019s new presidential center located in Chicago. Described as highly unconventional and visually incoherent, the building is criticized for its brutalist architecture, which is considered dull and ordinary despite its attempts at being bold. The facility is situated in an underwhelming urban area wiht little neighborhood activity or amenities, making it feel disconnected and isolated. The museum includes abstract art, quotes from Obama\u2019s speeches, and various symbolic rooms with names referencing prominent figures, portraying a fa\u00e7ade of significance that seems more superficial than substantive. The surrounding park and outdoor spaces are considered somewhat pleasant but underutilized, with little evidence of community engagement. the center is seen as a monument to style over substance &#8211; a costly, provocative architectural statement that ultimately contributes little to its neighborhood or cultural landscape.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Meh.<\/p>\n<p>If you remember Barack Obama\u2019s official <a href=\"https:\/\/npg.si.edu\/object\/npg_NPG.2018.16\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">presidential portrait<\/a>, you know what his new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/obama-library-looks-to-put-presidency-in-context-as-tickets-sell-out\/\" title=\"Obama library looks to &#039;put pre...ncy in context&#039; as tickets sell out\">presidential library-<\/a>that-isn\u2019t-a-library is like: highly unconventional, tediously provocative, instantly forgettable.<\/p>\n<p>On the political right, pictures of the big Battlestar Galactica museum tower are being taken as evidence that the place is a hideously ugly architectural abomination. It\u2019s not that interesting. It\u2019s ugly, but it\u2019s a brutalist stub of a building in Chicago. Complaining about a squat gray tower in Chicago is like b-tching about scones in a bakery. The thing fits into its place, dull and ordinary while it tries to be wild. It\u2019s Barack Obama, an appearance that never grows into substance. Above all, it\u2019s incoherent:<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I \u2026 uh \u2026 what? It sucks, but you can\u2019t really bother to hate it. It merits a shrug, and then you can leave. Why is the right side covered in bumps? Dunno. Why is a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >long white translucent window gouged<\/a> into the middle of its face? Dunno. Why is there a notch chunked out of the left side that produces an overhang? Dunno. I spent several hours here today, and I dunno. The building \u2026 exists.<\/p>\n<p>The other side has some scribbling.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Let\u2019s capture a close-up for a better look at that window.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>Screenshot       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Okay?<\/p>\n<p>If you look at the museum in the context of its neighborhood, you can see how it blends in with the other brutalist-ish whatevers.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Concrete chunk, concrete chunk, concrete chunk, concrete chunk. They kind of march in line across the landscape like an Eastern Bloc parade.<\/p>\n<p>The thing sits in a 19-acre park with a quite pleasant-looking playground and some public amenities like picnic areas and basketball courts. There\u2019s a walking path along a lagoon. It\u2019s enjoyable enough, though it\u2019s also a park <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagoparkdistrict.com\/parks-facilities\/midway-plaisance-park\">next to a park<\/a>, with a playground across the street from a playground. It\u2019s a bold, expensive intervention that doesn\u2019t accomplish much, which is on brand. It looks like the locals haven\u2019t yet noticed that they can do stuff here.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The stuff you can do comes with a pedantic lecture, quite appropriately framed with references to Michelle Obama. I sighed heavily, which was probably not the intended effect.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>         <span>Image Credit<\/span>Screenshot       <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>There\u2019s also a \u201cWomen\u2019s Garden,\u201d though I don\u2019t know what message is being conveyed by <em>chaining in<\/em> the women\u2019s grass.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bizarrely, the Obama Presidential Center inhabits an urban dead zone. I planned to spend many hours in the neighborhood, watching people come and go and seeing how the place fits into its surroundings, but there\u2019s nothing there. If you don\u2019t get lunch or a cup of coffee inside the Obama Center, you\u2019re not getting lunch or a cup of coffee. Across the street is a University of Chicago park-and-ride lot and some fenced-in apartments. There\u2019s no <em>neighborhood<\/em>. You can\u2019t run across Stony Island Avenue to shop and hit the restaurants, because they aren\u2019t there. The street name is appropriate, because it\u2019s like visiting an island.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Here\u2019s how it looks from the apartment buildings across the street.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I don\u2019t know, hope and change or something. There\u2019s not much going on there, but the signs all say that it\u2019s very exciting.<\/p>\n<p>Tickets for the museum are sold out for months, and the Obama Foundation greeted my many requests for media access first by saying they\u2019d think about it and then by ignoring me completely. The only detail I\u2019m sorry I missed in the museum is this one, from a <a href=\"https:\/\/commonedge.org\/blair-kamin-on-the-obama-presidential-center-a-huge-improvement-to-the-public-realm\/\">local news story<\/a> on the architectural significance of the site: \u201cYou can go through and weep, as many liberals have \u2014 the center has even placed tissue boxes in the museum spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Missing the chance to weep, I stood in line to score a free ticket to the Sky Room, up at the top, where you find yourself encased in Barack Obama\u2019s platitudes.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The windows are covered by words from a speech, and then the ceiling is covered with words from many speeches, so Barack Obama\u2019s words descend toward a collision with Barack Obama\u2019s words. This is a man who thought that his <em>words<\/em> were very important.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nice views up here, anyway.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When you visit this view, you\u2019re in the Nelson Mandela Sky Room. When you get lunch, you can eat it in the Oprah Winfrey Courtyard. There\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chipublib.org\/locations\/90\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">branch<\/a> of the Chicago Public Library on the campus (though you can\u2019t take books out of the building, which would seem to defeat the point of adding a branch of a public library to a neighborhood), and the courtyard outside the local library is the Rachel Carson Courtyard. There\u2019s a Sojourner Truth Program Room, and a Harriet Tubman courtyard. There is, inevitably, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fifth-graders-forced-to-celebrate-black-communism-hold-mock-black-power-rally-honor-angela-davis\/\" title=\"Fifth Graders Forced To Celebrate \u2018Black Communism,... Hold Mock \u2018Black Power... Rally, Honor Angela Davis\">public art<\/a> by Maya Lin, and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.obama.org\/visit\/land-acknowledgement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">land acknowledgment<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re 17 years old and taking AP U.S. History, you know the names of all the rooms and courtyards. The whole place functions as a monument to midwittery, proudly naming the obvious. Walking down a hallway here is like listening to an AWFL name-drop her favorite cultural and historic figures, or majoring in sociology at Vassar. The toilets warn you not to drink from them, by the way.<\/p>\n<figure><video height=\"1080\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_0906.mov\"><\/video><figcaption>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Please allow me to assure you that I didn\u2019t drink from that toilet. I mean, it\u2019s <em>rainwater<\/em>, for crying out loud.<\/p>\n<p>Image from the lobby, without comment:<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>\n<div>\n<p>Chris Bray\/The Federalist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Barack Obama grew up in Hawaii, has degrees from Columbia and Harvard Law, owns homes in Chicago, D.C., Martha\u2019s Vineyard, and Hawaii (again), and taught for a while as an untenured lecturer at the University of Chicago. So his presidential center is across the street from a parking lot for a university where he wasn\u2019t a student and didn\u2019t have a tenure-track teaching job, a not-bad symbol of cosmopolitan placelessness. He\u2019s the man from nowhere. The absence of lively neighborhood amenities seems like a feature. Like the man himself, you can briefly stop by this place before you shrug and move on.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Chris Bray is a senior correspondent at The Federalist and a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army. He has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles, not that it did him any good. He also posts on Substack, at &#8220;Tell Me How This Ends,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/chrisbray.substack.com\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unremarkable, odd, and forgettable: Obama\u2019s new center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":2619689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_0849-scaled.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[20234,81809,81811,81810,34832],"class_list":["post-2619688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-architecture","tag-obama-presidency","tag-political-landmarks","tag-presidential-centers","tag-public-opinion"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_0849-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2619688"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2619692,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619688\/revisions\/2619692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2619689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2619688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2619688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2619688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}