Obama shows up as the presidential center tops out
Photo Credit: Hyde Park Herald
"It's good to be back," said former President Barack Obama as he strode across the dusty staging area of the 225-foot tower construction site at the heart of the incoming Obama Presidential Center (OPC).
Decked out in the same reflective safety vest and bright hard hat of the scores of construction workers he approached, Obama was back in Jackson Park Monday afternoon to mark a milestone in the nearly decade-long presidential project: the topping out ceremony.
A tradition in the construction trades, topping out marks the moment a building attains its maximum height and enters its final build-out phase. For Obama and the OPC, a 19-acre campus that includes the presidential museum, this day was a long time coming. Though the Jackson Park site was selected in 2016, legal challenges to deter construction delayed its groundbreaking to September of 2021.
Photo Credit: Hyde Park Herald
"When we started this thing, I wasn't sure it was ever going to get up," said the president to the 100 or so construction workers who had gathered at the base of the tower.
The OPC is more than 50% complete as of the June 10 ceremony, an Obama Foundation spokesman told the Herald. It’s expected to open to the public in the spring of 2026.
The main event of the topping out ceremony involved Obama signing a beam that will hold up part of the ceiling of the museum’s top-floor Sky Room, a “place to reflect and take in sweeping views" of the lake and the city, the Obama Foundation wrote in a statement.
Photo Credit: Hyde Park Herald
The beam, which had already been signed by hundreds of construction workers, rested on waist-high supports to the east of the tower. On a nearby willow overlooking Jackson Park's West Lagoon, a red-winged blackbird stretched its wings and sang its familiar, territorial “conk-la-ree” trill as Obama spoke after signing.
"It's just a reminder that every day all across the country, here in Chicago, working people are putting on their boots and their hard hats, doing work, making things happen," he said, moving his gaze between workers and the tower.
From the beginning, project organizers have made a point to hire local and minority workers. As of April 30 of this year, the Obama Foundation reports, about 50% of the project’s on-site workers were Chicago residents and 35% were South and West Siders. About 35% of the subcontractors were minority-owned businesses, 15% were women-owned and led businesses and 9% were local to the Greater Chicago Area.
"We are trying to set the bar high such that other mega projects will copy us," said Ernest Brown, founder of construction firm Brown & Momen, ahead of the signing. A general contracting, construction services and carpentry provider on the project, Brown’s company is part of Lakeside Alliance, the joint venture of several firms that is constructing the OPC.
When completed, the OPC campus will also include a forum building with its own restaurant, auditorium and meeting rooms; a Chicago Public Library branch; an athletic center (dubbed “Home Court” by the foundation); and several courtyards and landscaped areas.
"We probably have another year and a half until the entire building is complete," said Brown. When asked what is happening now, Brown answered, "Currently rough-in plumbing, rough-in electrical, framing has already happened, heating and ventilation; it’s just a lot of things going on."
After signing the beam, Obama entered the mass of hard hats, shaking hands and thanking the workers one by one. Many of the workers then got out their cell phones and took photos of their own and Obama's signatures on the beam.
Photo Credit: Hyde Park Herald
