“In about two months, hopefully, the president of the United States will pick – because it could have been in New York, Chicago – and he will either pick Jackson Park or Washington Park for his library”, Emanuel said at the time.
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The parks preservation group said it remains opposed to using parkland for the project but will not put up a legal roadblock. A controversy over a lakefront site east of Lake Shore Drive caused George Lucas to pull his planned museum out of Chicago in June. While Jackson Park runs from the lakefront west to Stony Island, the actual proposed site for the center will be along Stony Island south of 61st Street. They considered several places including NY and Hawaii, but ultimately, they settled on Chicago’s Jackson Park.
President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have selected Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side to build President Barack Obama’s presidential library near the University of Chicago, where Obama once taught constitutional law.
The complex in Jackson Park, which will contain the 44th president’s library, archives and foundation headquarters, is expected to be completed by 2021.
A dismayed Friends of the Parks announced Wednesday it does not plan to sue over the chosen site of the Obama Presidential Center on existing parkland as it did with the proposed sites for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
Much of the land Barack Obama’s presidential library will occupy was once a part of the famous 1893 World’s Fair. The loss of the presidential center and library is another blow to the neighborhood’s quest for a revival.
Jackson Park is already home to the Museum of Science Industry, which was designed as the Palace of Fine Arts for the 1893 World’s Fair.
“Here is a grand opportunity that is being missed”, she said.
“We admire President Obama’s record as a champion of the environment”.
But Washington Park, too, is steeped in historical significance. They called on the foundation to maximize use of available vacant land on the parkland and underground space.
Washington Park would have been at the center of the world this week if Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics had succeeded.
But Martin Nesbitt, chairman of the Obama Foundation, which will develop the presidential library, seemed to interpret the decision not to file suit as a green light.
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“I’m just so unhappy”, said Jacky Grimshaw, vice president for policy at the Center for Neighborhood Technology, an urban development and economic advocacy organization.
