Obama center opens after years-long saga as locals warn ‘monstrosity’ could price them out

The Obama Presidential Center is opening to the public on Friday morning following an expensive and controversy-laden construction history. 

Former President Barack Obama’s presidential center was initially estimated to cost $350 million; however, after a slate of setbacks and delays, the price of the project has more than doubled to a staggering $850 million. As construction was ongoing in Chicago, the center faced an array of controversies, including opposition from locals, anger over the use of tax dollars to support surrounding infrastructure, critiques of the building’s design, alleged failure to pay contractors and even a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.

Unlike a traditional presidential library, the Obama Presidential Center is designed as a broader civic campus, with a museum, public plaza, forum, Chicago Public Library branch, recreation space, gardens and community programming. 

"It’s a monstrosity. It’s over budget, it’s taking way too long to finish and it’s going to drive up prices and bring headaches and problems for everyone who lives here," one Chicago resident who grew up in the area near the campus' location told the Daily Mail. "It feels like a washing away of the neighborhood and culture that used to be here."

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One of the most prominent lines of criticism levied against the new presidential center was that its construction materially harmed those it was seeking to serve. 

Beyond its museum exhibits and planned displays of presidential records and artifacts, the Obama Presidential Center features prominent exhibits on slavery, racism, the civil rights movement and African American history. Additionally, the Obama Foundation wanted the center to be a boon for the local community, billing it as an "economic engine for South Side residents." 

To accomplish this, the center prioritized locals for contracting and staffing while also promising to provide workforce development services to surrounding communities.

These moves, however, were not enough to assuage the concerns of some residents that the racial justice-infused center would ultimately displace many predominantly Black American locals by increasing the value of nearby lots, thereby raising rents and driving up property taxes.

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"What we got was a lease saying you have to pay $2,450 a month to stay in your home," a lifelong resident of a neighborhood near the center told the Chicago Sun-Times, recounting how his rent had gone up after construction began. "My home that they had let fall into disrepair, my home that they had decided wasn’t worth caring for. So we had to move … our beautiful Black beach neighborhood was no longer ours to enjoy."

Numerous residents have shared similar stories with the press, prompting Chicago to set aside $6 million to develop affordable housing in the area and providing residents with property tax relief. 

Further complicating the Obama Presidential Center’s mission of racial justice was a lawsuit filed by a local subcontractor against one of the firms managing its construction in early 2025.

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One African American-owned concrete and rebar company working on the project alleged that the company overseeing structural engineering and design on the Obama Presidential Center unfairly singled out black-owned firms for errors. 

The lawsuit alleged that those in charge of the presidential library’s construction "directly undermined the Obama Foundation's DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) goals and commitments and mission to bring transformative change to the construction industry and local community," a claim that was strongly denied by management. 

Management argued that many of the subcontractors were "questionably qualified" and that they regularly underperformed or displayed inexperience, factors that contributed to the presidential library’s ballooning costs. The Obama Foundation emphasized hiring black-owned businesses when seeking out subcontractors for its center.

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In yet another snag, many subcontractors who worked on the center are claiming that they have yet to be paid for their work on the Obama Presidential Center. 

A Fox News Digital investigation previously identified multiple firms that say they haven’t received payments, with outstanding invoices ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to tens of millions.

"I haven't had eight hours or six hours sleep in over a year," one African American subcontractor told Fox News Digital. "I'm cooked emotionally. I feel like an aluminum can that's been thrown in front of a steamroller. We're crushed. And I have to fight for my company and for my people."

When pressed by Fox News Digital, the Obama Foundation passed the blame onto Lakeside Alliance, its primary contractor, stating that it was responsible for handling payments to subcontractors. Lakeside Alliance, meanwhile, said projects of this size are complex matters and that it is working to resolve all loose ends.

"That's a bad signal to put out the fact that seven to eight to maybe 10 of our contractors in our community are going to be eliminated from doing business because of the debt that they incurred on this particular project," Omar Shareef, the president of the African American Contractors Association, previously told Fox News Digital. "If they would have known it was a Trojan horse or a Pandora’s box, I don't know if they would have raced as much as they did to be a part of it."

Fox News Digital could not independently verify claims that firms had been forced to shutter due to their work on the Obama Presidential Center.

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While most of the Obama Presidential Center’s rocky history was privately funded, taxpayers were on the hook for the infrastructure surrounding it. 

Illinois has so far spent over $120 million on infrastructure improvements in South Chicago to accommodate the presidential center, with the total public cost estimated to reach around $200 million. 

Even with roughly $1 billion spent on its construction and design, the appearance of the Obama Presidential Center has proven controversial, drawing comparisons to everything from a maximum security prison to a garbage can.

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"The building has an ominous presence, its mostly windowless heft recalling a menacing sci-fi headquarters," The Guardian’s architecture critic wrote of the structure.

One person dubbed it the "Obamalisk."

Some, however, have pushed back on these critiques.

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"Today’s punchline may become tomorrow’s civic treasure," Justin Kaufmann, writing for Axios Chicago, said. He pointed to the center’s blending of modern architecture with the design language of classic civic buildings.

The Obama Presidential Center did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Thursday.