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There’s a 3,ooo-pound boulder on the corner of 53rd Street and Dorchester Avenue in Chicago, in the parking lot of a strip mall. A marquee advertising Subway, T-Mobile, Dunkin, Baskin-Robbins, H&R Block, Papa John’s, and Fifth Third Bank towers above it. These storefronts are as normal as they come. But the stone is special. It marks the spot where Barack Obama first kissed Michelle Robinson.
Its bronze plaque features a quote from the 44thpresident: “On our first date, I treated her to the finest ice cream Baskin-Robbins had to offer, our dinner table doubling as the curb. I kissed her, and it tasted like chocolate.”
Two miles south, on 60th and Stony Island Avenue, there’s another monument honoring Obama—but this one is a little bit larger. It’s the still-under-construction Obama Presidential Center, a glass-and-concrete obelisk that dwarfs the rest of the neighborhood. The center aims to be a “global hub for inspiration, action, and community.”
Seen from a comfortable distance, the presidential center looks more like the Eye of Sauron attached to the Borg Cube than anything to do with the office once held by George Washington or with championing democracy. (I also cannot escape the observation that the museum building looks very much like a spaceship preparing to take Obama and his wealthy friends off this godforsaken planet and leave the rest of us behind.)
The presidential center, set to open in spring 2026, sits at the eastern end of Chicago’s Midway Plaisance, a mile-long public park that bisects the University of Chicago’s campus, dividing it between the Hyde Park and Woodlawn neighborhoods. Frederick Law Olmsted built the plaisance as part of the “White City,” the Beaux Arts campus that hosted the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Recently, UChicago has crept south across the Midway, pushing deeper into Woodlawn and leaving a trail of glass giants in its wake. The Obama Center, when it opens after countless delays and snafus, will join the university’s existing monuments to idealism and dialogue, including the Logan Center for the Arts, the David Rubenstein Forum, and Woodlawn Residential and Dining Commons.
All these shiny toys are products of the same philosophy: The idea, embraced by UChicago leadership and now Obama, that architecture and art can still inspire, that big ideas still matter, and that people still want to learn. For example, the Rubenstein Forum “is designed to host events that promote inquiry, the open exchange of ideas, and the power of convening.” In the first five years of its existence, the Forum has lived up to expectations, hosting events with Obama, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, journalist Anne Applebaum, and others. (When, as a high school senior, I toured UChicago during a misleadingly warm weekend in April 2022, a conference on Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy was in full swing.) For its part, the Logan Center brands itself as “a place of possibility to experience, create, and contemplate art,” all while connecting with the surrounding community.
The Obama Center will provide another space for civic-minded Chicagoans to gather and, according to its website, start building “an active democratic culture where people are equipped and motivated to make change.” To that end, the Obama Foundation, working with Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, has developed a 19-acre campus that will boast a museum celebrating Obama’s presidency, a plaza named after the civil rights activist John Lewis, a forum with plenty of space for locals to relax, connect, and “be in community,” and a fruit and vegetable garden dedicated to Eleanor Roosevelt.
The people behind the center, then, seem to hope that the project will stand as a monument to American idealism. But, one crucial issue lingers: relevancy. As a concept, is the Obama obelisk already obsolete? Will Obama’s call to action turn out to be evidence of our incredible naivete? I can’t help imagining someone looking back, from the not-too-distant future, and scoffing at the people who actually believed in the power of democracy, hope, and change. Reality may already be staring us in the face: Bluster, braggadocio, and the general idea that “might makes right” are devouring high-minded ideals by the second. In other words, President Donald Trump’s political philosophy seems to be winning out over Obama’s.
These two presidents—the two most influential in recent memory—are seemingly battling for the soul and future of the Windy City. Indeed, Trump says he wants to make Chicago safer, assuring us that he, like Obama, has a distinct vision for the city’s future. He begins from a much different premise, lambasting Chicago as a crime-riddled hellhole instead of a flawed metropolis brimming with promise. In fact, he frequently refers to it as “the most dangerous city in the world.” To hear him tell it, before leaving my Hyde Park apartment, I need to lob several flash bang grenades out my window, don my flak jacket, and have my roommates lay down suppressive fire. (This has so far never been necessary.)
All that aside, Trump is still transforming Chicago, using his authority as president to bring his vision for the city to bear. He too has a stronghold in the city, only he didn’t need to build it himself: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has its Chicago headquarters at 101 W. Ida B. Wells Drive, almost ten miles north of the Obama Center. Back in September, ICE launched Operation Midway Blitz, ostensibly targeting illegal immigrants all across the city. Earlier this fall, federal agents laid siege to a South Shore apartment building, detained a UChicago student, and, overall, have arrested almost 1,500 people.
As many before me have observed, President Trump is a man of tremendous bravado. His projects are big and gaudy. He loves putting his name in HUGE (often gold) letters on the front of all his buildings, boasting about his incredible wealth and deal-making ability. The Trump Organization’s website depicts the current president as a genius businessman and a one-of-a-kind developer who built most of Manhattan’s skyline. In New York City alone, Trump owns—or claims to own—Trump Tower, Trump World Tower, 1 Central Park West, Trump Parc, Trump Park Avenue, Trump Parc East, and many other “luxury” skyscrapers. Somehow, all of these Trump-owned buildings tower above New York’s “most desirable intersections,” house “world-renowned restaurants,” and are always “meticulously adorned with a sense of sophistication and classicism.”
Chicago hasn’t escaped his appetite for creating luxury. The Trump International Hotel and Tower opened in 2008, transforming downtown Chicago to the tune of $847 million. The sleek, reflective 98-story skyscraper is the seventh tallest completed building in the United States, looming high above the main branch of the Chicago River and abutting the Michigan-Wacker District. Anyone making an online reservation at Trump Chicago is immediately assured they will be staying at “one of the best luxury hotels in downtown Chicago” and, in case they were at all curious, in a building that served as "inspiration for Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.”
For those who can afford to stay there, Trump International Hotel and Tower sounds like a pretty nice place. Who doesn’t love dining on an “idyllic rooftop patio” high above bustling city streets? But, that’s just it. Trump Chicago—like his other properties—caters to the uber-wealthy by highlighting its exclusivity. A luxury hotel, by definition, isn’t for everyone. Neither are the residential properties at Trump Chicago. The cheapest studio apartment rents for $2,900 a month. Back in 2022, the penthouse sold for $20 million, the second-priciest home sale in the entire state. All the riches in Trump’s gold-encrusted kingdom are there for the taking, if you’re rich enough. Despite his claims to populism, he doesn’t build for your average joe.
President Obama, on the other hand, claims to build for regular South Siders: His foundation told The Dispatch in an email it is attempting to build “a campus that creates economic opportunity, new jobs, and wealth generation for residents and small businesses.” Obama is gambling that everyday South Siders will respond to his message of hope and justice. But it’s a risky bet: In the 2024 election, Americans rejected idealism in favor of pragmatism, preferring Trump’s promises to bring down prices over the Democrats’ paeans to democracy and bedrock freedoms. I, for one, remain skeptical that the Obama Center will change their minds.
While Trump’s anti-immigration forces are roaming the streets of Chicago arresting people, the idealists—the people already giving tours down at the Obama Center—are preparing to retreat into their brand new conference rooms to hold long discussions about how to change the world and help the underprivileged. They’re trying to restore optimism and light, rolling back Trump’s advances. However, their high-minded appeals to democracy, hope, and the power of change ring hollow when they can’t balance a budget and stick to a schedule. In Chicago, two masterful salesmen are at work. One of them is selling luxury suites at five-star hotels. The other is selling luxury beliefs.
Are these Chicago’s only two choices? Are they America’s?
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