A Visit to Obama’s Presidential Center

Today, I’m reviewing the Obama Presidential Center, having spent most of a day last week at a press preview of the 19.3 acres, $850 million museum, community center, sports facility, and gardens in Jackson Park between Lake Michigan and the Science and Industry Museum and the University of Chicago. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien designed most of the buildings, including the museum. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates designed the grounds, a big part of the project.

First, a disclaimer. I loathe the Obamas. Good friends raved about him in early 2008 so I read the first hundred pages of his biography. “This guy’s full of doo-doo,” I thought, and said it to one spellbound friend who then stopped speaking to me. By Election Day, I knew Obama was a hard-left Chicago pol, a faculty-lounge gasbag, and a hothouse flower. He was surely born in the U.S. since his mother didn’t have a passport until he was two, but who was he? A friend of Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and the godawful race pimp Reverend Wright, you say? I know I’m not on their May Day greeting card list. Who or what was behind him? I thought Lady Michelle was an ingrate.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

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Today, I’m reviewing the Obama Presidential Center, having spent most of a day last week at a press preview of the 19.3 acres, $850 million museum, community center, sports facility, and gardens in Jackson Park between Lake Michigan and the Science and Industry Museum and the University of Chicago. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien designed most of the buildings, including the museum. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates designed the grounds, a big part of the project.

First, a disclaimer. I loathe the Obamas. Good friends raved about him in early 2008 so I read the first hundred pages of his biography. “This guy’s full of doo-doo,” I thought, and said it to one spellbound friend who then stopped speaking to me. By Election Day, I knew Obama was a hard-left Chicago pol, a faculty-lounge gasbag, and a hothouse flower. He was surely born in the U.S. since his mother didn’t have a passport until he was two, but who was he? A friend of Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, and the godawful race pimp Reverend Wright, you say? I know I’m not on their May Day greeting card list. Who or what was behind him? I thought Lady Michelle was an ingrate.