BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, OCT 16, 2025 – 08:30 PM
After 10 years and nearly $1 billion in total project costs, the Barack Obama Presidential Center is finally nearing completion and has been opened for limited public tours. The facility is set to officially go into operation in the spring of 2026, however, at least $230 million in construction costs still remain and the Obama Foundation simply doesn’t have it. Total reserve funds are $116 million and this does not take into account the cost of paying staff to maintain the center.
Not only is the future of the site in limbo, the building is also being called "the tomb" by many locals in the South Side of Chicago where it is located. Though the media frequently refers to the design as "warm and inviting", it looks more like a concrete bunker nightmare that one might find in Soviet era Russia.
The center’s notably harsh aesthetics are oddly similar to many pieces of architecture constructed in Russia during the height of communism using methods that seem to suck the life out of the surrounding environment. One cannot help but notice the dystopian similarities. Some might ague that buildings can’t really be "political", but these are people that don’t understand architecture.
In May of this year, President Donald Trump criticized the project as a "disaster" that has come in many millions over budget. Trump also warned about the DEI methods used to recruit construction contractors.
Obama did proudly proclaim that his library would be built with DEI initiatives and diverse contractors in mind (mostly black contractors). Now his foundation is running out of funds. Costs have ballooned due to terrible planning as well as lawsuits over "racial discrimination". Black companies argue that they have been subjected to unfair scrutiny in their building methods, while the New York engineering firm in charge of the library argues that the builders exhibit low experience and poor performance.
Get woke, go broke.
Source
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/obamas-1-billion-presidential-library-looks-tower-doom