The Presidential Center consists of the “Obamalisk”, which will have a museum about the Obamas and special exhibit space. I think it will also house the offices of the Obama Foundation? It has to, I don’t believe an Obama museum alone warrants such a big building.
Alongside that there will be additional buildings housing a library and various other cultural facilities. The archive for presidential records that usually accompanies presidential libraries will be digitised and stored somewhere else.
This thing had to have cost billions, plus extra billions to hire the only construction crew in the u.s. who can actually finish anything in under a decade
Construction costs are currently at $850 million, more than double of the previous presidential library (). This money is coming from the Obama Foundation (from donations by God knows who), but once finished the City of Chicago will be footing the bill on operating costs, which can get out of hand fast if the center ends up flopping.
To alleviate that, the Obama Foundation promised a $470 million reserve fund to compensate, but currently there’s only $1 million in it and it has remained unchanged for years, possibly because the ballooning construction costs are eating into their budget.
The Presidential Center consists of the “Obamalisk”, which will have a museum about the Obamas and special exhibit space. I think it will also house the offices of the Obama Foundation? It has to, I don’t believe an Obama museum alone warrants such a big building.
Alongside that there will be additional buildings housing a library and various other cultural facilities. The archive for presidential records that usually accompanies presidential libraries will be digitised and stored somewhere else.
Imagine putting this amount of resources into like a housing project or community center instead of a modern day pharaoh’s burial complex
This thing had to have cost billions, plus extra billions to hire the only construction crew in the u.s. who can actually finish anything in under a decade
$850 million, all “privately fundraised”
Construction costs are currently at $850 million, more than double of the previous presidential library (
). This money is coming from the Obama Foundation (from donations by God knows who), but once finished the City of Chicago will be footing the bill on operating costs, which can get out of hand fast if the center ends up flopping.
To alleviate that, the Obama Foundation promised a $470 million reserve fund to compensate, but currently there’s only $1 million in it and it has remained unchanged for years, possibly because the ballooning construction costs are eating into their budget.
So literally the whole point and the only thing of possible value to anyone else.
And ‘digitized’ might as well mean ‘shredded’