Obama Presidential Center Opens June: 850 Million Dollar Legacy Project Reshapes Chicago

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Barack Obama has stayed largely out of the spotlight this week but made waves with updates on his long-awaited Presidential Center in Chicago, now barreling toward a June opening after a decade of drama, delays, and a whopping 850 million dollar price tag that makes it the priciest U.S. presidential library ever. CoStar reports the South Side complex, with its towering 225-foot main structure and an 83-foot painted glass window by artist Julie Mehretu titled Uprising of the Sun, is set to dazzle visitors near Jackson Park, complete with a museum, auditorium, library branch, and even an NBA-sized basketball court that doubles as banquet space. Obama himself hyped Mehretus piece in a promotional video, calling it an iconic contribution to Chicago, according to WKAR Public Radio, while the Obama Foundation insists the windowless design protects priceless artifacts from sunlight.

He recently dropped in at an event in Arkansas, where he confirmed the June debut to cheers, per CoStar, amid gripes from locals about skyrocketing real estate prices in Woodlawn and Kenwoodfueled by the projects buzz, though agents like Susan OConnor Davis say pandemic trends share the blame. Big donors including Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Oprah, and Jordan have bankrolled it all privately, outpacing even Joe Bidens lagging library effort, as noted by The New York Times via CoStar.

Elsewhere, Obama popped up in op-eds getting dragged back into geopolitics: the New York Post on January 13 blasted his 2012 Syria red line flop as a credibility killer thats haunting Trumps Iran stance now, with analyst Ahmad Sharawi warning history could repeat. SCOTUSblog dissected his rhetoric on justices like Garland, praising empathy and independence over hardline policy pledges. Fox News aired Obama-era ICE chief Sarah Saldana slamming Trumps enforcement as police-state vibes, but no direct Obama tie-in there. No fresh public appearances, business moves, or social media blasts from the man himselfjust this center stealing the show as his biographical North Star for legacy-building. Word on the street? Its already reshaping Chicagos skyline and sparking Trump rants from last year calling it a woke disaster. Stay tunedChicago partys coming.

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