Posted on 12/26/2025 1:49:22 AM PST by Libloather
The odd design of former President Barack Obama’s new presidential center is supposed to evoke unity and not Darth Vader, according to an Obama Foundation official, who explained the bizarre look of the austere building.
The $830 million monolith — slated to open in Chicago next year — has drawn comparisons to the “Death Star” on social media, and some locals have described it as a “concrete tomb” and a “monstrosity.”
“The shape of the building was actually meant to mimic four hands coming together to show the importance of our collective action,” Obama Foundation Deputy Director Kim Patterson told CBS Chicago.
The 225-foot tower’s windows are few and far between, which Patterson noted was also purposeful.
“There are not a lot of windows on the building, but that’s intentional because sunlight is just not a friend to the artwork and the artifacts that are going inside of the building,” she said.
Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett, who served as a senior adviser during the former president’s two terms in the White House, noted that Obama has been very involved in the design of his library.
“I wish that people could be a fly on the wall to see how many times in the course of the day that I hear from President Obama about ideas for the center, tweaks, programming, what we can do for the design,” Jarrett said.
“I sent him the menu for the restaurants,” she added. “He cares about what food we’re offering. Is it affordable? Is it tasty? Will children want it?”
Jarrett touted the foundation’s efforts to contract with racially diverse businesses throughout the process.
“Because we believe inclusion is actually a strength,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
It’s a racist Black thing.
The Obama presidential center is to architecture what rap is to music.
Rap is the cultural high point of America’s Black citizenry
” to show the importance of our collective action,”
“We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good”. Hillary Clinton
Anyone see a commonality of philosophy here?
They’re all Communists.
Look at his Presidential portrait, the one with a sperm on his head. Same thing.
Finding out that Valerie Jarrett was CEO of this mess helps give another view of it. The building, by most descriptions is just plain ugly on the outside. Since I have no interest in Barack Obama except the things he never disclosed as president, I doubt we’ll learn a lot more we should have known before he was ever elected.
I’m sure the Hennessey and blunts sold in the gift shop will be a visitor favorite.
Obama Presidential Center’s dour ‘Death Star’ shape explained.
CEO Valerie Jarrett, who served as a senior adviser said her work isn’t over yet.
Harris / AOC / Newsom nod
The Obama portrait that I remember most has him on a simple chair against a background of leaves like ivy with a few small flowers. Odd, at best.
Is that a picture from 59th Steet? It looks like the Salonika got replaced. The Medici and the record shop are long gone. The opposite side has the fine used book stores.
The Regenstein Library down the street is just as Brutalist, but is not as ugly. It is, at least, symmetrical Brutalism.
Communism’s headstone.
Words have meaning! I thought this was a particularly fitting approved application of two of the varying formal definitions of the word "folly". I don't know if the word folly is in usage in other areas of the country to describe a structure, but it is in New England. (And I agree with FReeper Semper Vigilantis who describes it as resembling "the old AA towers the Nazis built in Berlin.)
It really fits. I think henceforth, this structure should be known as:
"OBAMA'S FOLLY"
German flak tower?😎😂
Beat me to it, indeed it does
Will be awesome to see this monstrosity compared to President Trumps magnificent library paid for by legacy media😂
Most famously as "Bob's Folly" in beautiful downtown Burrville.
If you have to explain what a building design is supposed to invoke, you have failed.
I do think "Brutalist" is sometimes incorrectly applied to things that are quite beautiful (and NOT "brutalist") such as The Gropius House in Lincoln, MA which is an odd tourist magnet for people all over the world:
My wife and I took a tour of it, and our tour group included a bunch of architects from Germany who had come just to see that house. (The use of space in that little house is astonishing, and the setting is quite beautiful, but when it was built in 1937, the people of Lincoln, MA were in an uproar at the "ugly" house being built in their town!)
I have even seen "brutalist" inappropriately applied to the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, which is not only NOT "brutalist", but is sleek and appealing to me.
However, I see the label applied to things like THIS, Boston City Hall, which is an eyesore and FULLY deserving of the "Brutalist" appellation: 
Not only is building itself butt-ugly, but the horrible "landscaping" around it of red brick is an abomination. I have been there many times, and it reminds me of a scarred and sterile battlefield of red brick.
This is right up there with "Obama's Folly"!
Ahh...so it must be. I had never heard or seen it used until I went to New England, but...that is likely more my ignorance than anything else.
When I see that abomination, I see a big fat middle finger of a mulatto grifter.
Whoever designed that building and the one who signed off on it had to be on something not yet known to the public.
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