The 225-foot museum tower in Jackson Park, Chicago. Photo: Claire Fridkin / CC BY-SA 4.0.
The Obama Presidential Center opened today — on Juneteenth — on Chicago's South Side. Museum tickets have been sold out for months.
The roughly $850 million campus splits the difference between the political and the personal. The ticketed museum tower holds campaign memorabilia, White House artifacts, and a full-scale replica of the Oval Office. The free, open grounds around it add a Chicago Public Library branch, an NBA-regulation basketball court, gardens, a playground, and walking trails.
The nearly 20-acre campus in Jackson Park opened to the public on Juneteenth. The invite-only dedication ceremony was held the morning before — Thursday — at John Lewis Plaza. Most of the campus is free; only the museum requires a timed ticket.
Former Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Biden joined the Obamas at Thursday's ceremony, alongside a host of celebrities and musical performers.
Five-foot concrete letters wrap the top of the 225-foot tower, spelling out a line from Obama's 2015 Selma speech — "You Are America." The lettering is cut so daylight filters through into the galleries; from the top-floor Sky Room, visitors look out at the city through the words themselves.
The timing wasn't accidental. Opening on Juneteenth — on the South Side, steps from where Barack Obama organized communities before anyone knew his name — was the whole point.
The Receipts
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$850M campus, opened to the public June 19, 2026, on Juneteenth — Associated Press
Dedication ceremony held Thursday morning, June 18; Clinton, Bush, and Biden joined the Obamas — NBC News
"You Are America," from Obama's 2015 Selma speech, in concrete letters cut to let daylight into the galleries — ArchDaily
Museum tickets sold out for months; most of the 19.3-acre campus is free — ArchDaily
Campus in Jackson Park, on Chicago's South Side — Associated Press
