{"id":472612,"date":"2025-12-26T10:41:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T10:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/472612\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T10:41:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T10:41:35","slug":"obama-presidential-centers-dour-death-star-shape-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/472612\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Presidential Center’s dour ‘Death Star’ shape explained\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The odd design of former President Barack Obama\u2019s new presidential center<\/a> is supposed to evoke unity and not Darth Vader, according to an Obama Foundation official, who explained the bizarre look of the austere building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The $830 million monolith \u2014 slated to open in Chicago next year \u2014 has drawn comparisons to the \u201cDeath Star\u201d<\/a> on social media, and some locals have described it as a \u201cconcrete tomb\u201d<\/a> and a \u201cmonstrosity.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shape of the building was actually meant to mimic four hands coming together to show the importance of our collective action,\u201d Obama Foundation Deputy Director Kim Patterson told CBS Chicago<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shape of the building was actually meant to mimic four hands coming together to show the importance of our collective action,\u201d Obama Foundation Deputy Director Kim Patterson said. New York Post<\/p>\n

The 225-foot tower\u2019s windows are few and far between, which Patterson noted was also purposeful. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are not a lot of windows on the building, but that\u2019s intentional because sunlight is just not a friend to the artwork and the artifacts that are going inside of the building,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett, who served as a senior adviser during the former president\u2019s two terms in the White House, noted that Obama has been very involved in the design of his library.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish that people could be a fly on the wall to see how many times in the course of the day that I hear from President Obama about ideas for the center, tweaks, programming, what we can do for the design,\u201d Jarrett said.<\/p>\n

The former president has been very involved in the design of his library, according to Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett, who served as a senior adviser during his two terms in the White House. Ron Sachs \u2013 CNP for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI sent him the menu for the restaurants,\u201d she added. \u201cHe cares about what food we\u2019re offering. Is it affordable? Is it tasty? Will children want it?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jarrett touted the foundation\u2019s efforts to contract with racially diverse businesses throughout the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we believe inclusion is actually a strength,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s sprawling 20-acre presidential center is expected to open in June in Jackson Park, on the South Side of Chicago.\u00a0 New York Post<\/p>\n

Rather than housing physical copies of Obama\u2019s presidential records, the library will contain digital files because Obama was \u201cthe first president to digitize all of his papers from the White House,\u201d according to Jarrett.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a real advantage for those who are interested in doing research, whether you\u2019re a school student, or whether you\u2019re a PhD or a world expert,\u201d she argued.<\/p>\n

Obama\u2019s sprawling 20-acre presidential center is expected to open next June in Jackson Park, on the South Side of Chicago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former president has said visitors can expect to see his wife Michelle\u2019s dresses on display, and the facility will also have \u201can audio and recording studio so we can bring kids in to give exposure and training to tell their stories.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The odd design of former President Barack Obama\u2019s new presidential center is supposed to evoke unity and not…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":472613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,2513,11744,960,8160,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,113937,345,14398,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-472612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-architecture","10":"tag-barack-obama","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-museums","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-presidential-libraries","21":"tag-social-media","22":"tag-star-wars","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-us-news","29":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115785451732099715","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}