{"id":641,"date":"2026-06-26T21:38:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641"},"modified":"2026-06-26T21:38:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T21:38:26","slug":"the-obama-presidential-center-is-decidedly-meh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641","title":{"rendered":"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Meh.<\/p>\n

If you remember Barack Obama\u2019s official presidential portrait, you know what his new presidential library-that-isn\u2019t-a-library is like: highly unconventional, tediously provocative, instantly forgettable.<\/p>\n

Read more Democrats\u2019 \u2018Fix\u2019 For A $5 Trillion Medicare Spending Increase Is The Same Proposals That Caused It<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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 long white translucent window gouged 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

The other side has some scribbling.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s capture a close-up for a better look at that window.<\/p>\n

Okay?<\/p>\n

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

Concrete chunk, concrete chunk, concrete chunk, concrete chunk. They kind of march in line across the landscape like an Eastern Bloc parade.<\/p>\n

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 next to a park, 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

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

There\u2019s also a \u201cWomen\u2019s Garden,\u201d though I don\u2019t know what message is being conveyed by chaining in<\/em> the women\u2019s grass.<\/p>\n

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 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

Read more At This Point, It Will Take A Political Revolution To Save Britain<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it looks from the apartment buildings across the street.<\/p>\n

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

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 local news story 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

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

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 words<\/em> were very important.<\/p>\n

Nice views up here, anyway.<\/p>\n

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 branch 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, public art by Maya Lin, and a land acknowledgment.<\/p>\n

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

Please allow me to assure you that I didn\u2019t drink from that toilet. I mean, it\u2019s rainwater<\/em>, for crying out loud.<\/p>\n

Image from the lobby, without comment:<\/p>\n

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

Read more Roberts Court\u2019s Latest Term Replete With Legal Cowardice The Nation Can\u2019t Afford<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new Barack Obama Presidential Center is much reviled, but it isn’t worth the hate. It’s much too dull to bother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[983],"tags":[217,1792,2262,2263,2264,2265,2266,2267,2268,2269,2270,2271,2272,2273],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-barack-obama","tag-chicago","tag-dullness","tag-hyde-park","tag-maya-lin","tag-michelle-obama","tag-midwittery","tag-museum","tag-nelson-mandela","tag-obama-presidential-center","tag-oprah-winfrey","tag-rachel-carson","tag-sky-room","tag-tediousness"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh - Property Transition Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh - Property Transition Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The new Barack Obama Presidential Center is much reviled, but it isn't worth the hate. It's much too dull to bother.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Property Transition Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-26T21:38:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/318e38080556664c79a2d76a6b0894b2\"},\"headline\":\"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T21:38:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641\"},\"wordCount\":1069,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/99927c0c43096877f62743ded67a97a1.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Barack Obama\",\"Chicago\",\"dullness\",\"Hyde Park\",\"Maya Lin\",\"Michelle Obama\",\"midwittery\",\"Museum\",\"Nelson Mandela\",\"Obama Presidential Center\",\"Oprah Winfrey\",\"Rachel Carson\",\"Sky Room\",\"tediousness\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641\",\"name\":\"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh - Property Transition Media\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/99927c0c43096877f62743ded67a97a1.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T21:38:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/318e38080556664c79a2d76a6b0894b2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/99927c0c43096877f62743ded67a97a1.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/99927c0c43096877f62743ded67a97a1.jpeg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1920},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?p=641#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Property Transition Media\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/318e38080556664c79a2d76a6b0894b2\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/propertytransitionmedia.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh - Property Transition Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh - Property Transition Media","og_description":"The new Barack Obama Presidential Center is much reviled, but it isn't worth the hate. It's much too dull to bother.","og_url":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641","og_site_name":"Property Transition Media","article_published_time":"2026-06-26T21:38:26+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/318e38080556664c79a2d76a6b0894b2"},"headline":"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh","datePublished":"2026-06-26T21:38:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641"},"wordCount":1069,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/99927c0c43096877f62743ded67a97a1.jpeg","keywords":["Barack Obama","Chicago","dullness","Hyde Park","Maya Lin","Michelle Obama","midwittery","Museum","Nelson Mandela","Obama Presidential Center","Oprah Winfrey","Rachel Carson","Sky Room","tediousness"],"articleSection":["Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641","url":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641","name":"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh - Property Transition Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/99927c0c43096877f62743ded67a97a1.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-06-26T21:38:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/318e38080556664c79a2d76a6b0894b2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/99927c0c43096877f62743ded67a97a1.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/99927c0c43096877f62743ded67a97a1.jpeg","width":2560,"height":1920},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=641#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Obama Presidential Center Is Decidedly Meh"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/","name":"Property Transition Media","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/318e38080556664c79a2d76a6b0894b2","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com"],"url":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}