Obama's Museum Tower: Chicago's next big landmark
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The Museum Tower on the campus of the new Obama Presidential Center. Photo: Talia Sprague/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Obama Presidential Center opens to the public Friday, but Chicagoans are already panning one part of the project: the 225-foot Museum Tower.
- Social media has roasted the design, likening it to a mausoleum, while The Guardian said it looks like "a Klingon prison."
Context: Chicago has a long history of hating new architecture before eventually embracing it.
- Consider the Picasso in Daley Plaza. When it was first unveiled in 1967, one alderman was so disgusted by its shape and style that he petitioned Mayor Richard J. Daley to replace it with a statue of Ernie Banks.
- Today, it would likely cause a riot if the Picasso was removed.
- The Thompson Center's modernist glass design was panned when it opened; so was the sleek McCormick Place. The Soldier Field redesign was hated; even Cloud Gate, aka "The Bean," had mixed reviews when it was introduced in 2004.
Between the lines: While reactions vary, one thing is undeniable: The Obama Museum Tower is audacious. In a city famous for architectural experimentation, it looks like nothing else.
- Its presence is also amplified by its setting. Rather than disappearing into a dense skyline, the tower rises largely alone above Jackson Park, making it visible from across large swaths of the South Side.
Zoom out: The granite-clad building combines contemporary design with the scale and symbolism of a civic monument.
- Yet unlike an obelisk or memorial, the tower is functional — housing museum galleries, gathering spaces and exhibits rather than simply commemorating history.
The bottom line: If Chicago's history is any guide, today's punchline may become tomorrow's civic treasure.