Preservationists’ issues with new Obama Presidential Center continues

The main issue, however, really can’t be solved by design necessarily, which is that the center’s location is within Jackson Park, a designated historic place, that preservationists don’t want to see change. 

“The people of Chicago were told they would get a presidential library administered by the National Archives, a federal facility, in exchange for the confiscation of historic parkland, listed in the National Register of Historic Places,” said The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s president and CEO Charles A. Birnbaum in a statement. 

“Instead, they’re getting a privately-operated entertainment campus with a 235-foot-tall tower, a recording studio, auditorium, sports facility, and other amenities,” his statement continues.