The Barack Obama Foundation announced previous year that Chicago would house the future library, capping an intense campaign for the library.
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Jackson Park is a 543-acre South Side oasis with a forested island in a scenic lagoon and a golf course.
Today, the Obama Foundation announced that Jackson Park will be the site of the Obama Presidential Center.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with four South Side aldermen last week to announce plans to convene a group of stakeholders to gather community engagement on the process. Partners (TWBTA) has been chosen to be the head architects of the presidential library project. But the decision to build the museum in a lakefront park rather than a nearby impoverished neighborhood has left some residents anxious that it was a missed opportunity.
Now the legacy of the first African-American president will have a permanent fixture in the city he called home for so many years, as President Obama has selected Jackson Park as the site of his presidential library. “We are proud that the center will help spur development in an urban area and we can’t wait to forge new ways to give back to the people of Chicago who have given us so much”, the president said in a statement provided by the Obama Foundation.
A mile to the west is Washington Park, also designed by Olmsted, who originally conceived of the two expanses as one park. The President and First Lady believe that locating the Presidential Center at Jackson Park will have the greatest long term impact on the combined communities.
“I’m thrilled that President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have selected Jackson Park as the site for the Presidential library and museum”.
The Obama Foundation will hold a ceremony Wednesday to unveil details of the president’s choice of Jackson Park instead of Washington Park. His wife, First Lady Michelle Obama, was born and raised on the South Side.
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Even when the Barack Obama Foundation announced it had selected architects for the project this month – choosing the NY husband-and-wife team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien – it had still not made its final choice of sites.
