Obama Presidential Center Opens Without Federal Archives
The $850 million Obama Presidential Center in Chicago will open June 19 without the former president's physical or digital records. The Obama Foundation controls the site after ending formal ties with the National Archives.
bleedingcool.comThe $850 million complex on Chicago's South Side includes a museum, basketball court, playground, public library branch, and sledding hill. The records remain in Maryland, where the National Archives is digitizing them.
The center operates independently of the federal presidential-library system. The Obama Foundation ended formal partnership with the National Archives during planning, so the site receives no federal funding and has no National Archives staff on site.
The foundation maintains a storytelling council of historians to advise on exhibits. Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett said the decision favors public amenities over document storage. "We would much rather have a Chicago Public Library on our site than filling it up with a bunch of papers," she told reporters.
The foundation also cited displays on the Affordable Care Act website problems and the failure to pass gun legislation as evidence of self-criticism.
The federal presidential-library system began in the 1930s under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The George W. Bush library ended its National Archives relationship in 2022 and later agreed to signage distinguishing foundation and federal spaces. The Obama Center marks the first major presidential site built entirely outside the federal system since its creation.
