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Let’s face it, the Obama Presidential Library, which opens sometime next year is a large gray behemoth that makes one think of either North Korea prisons or a new incarnation of the Death Star.
The new Barack Obama Presidential Library is nearing completion
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) November 3, 2025
After roughly $850 million dollars spent, this is what the finally project looks like and is expected to open in just a few months pic.twitter.com/zncM1b39Qx
Quite frankly, this library is not only ugly it is totally mockable. And boy howdy, people have been mocking this Death Star library for months now.
Evidently the CEO of the Obama Library has had enough of the mockery and has issued the following explainer.
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.
Too much sunlight will hurt the artwork she claims. You mean like THIS artwork?
Grace & Beauty. Official #ObamaPortraits revealed by artists Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley. pic.twitter.com/cicZuWnkpf
— Jesse Tyler Ferguson (he/him/his) (@jessetyler) February 12, 2018
Folks, did you know this library was designed to evoke unity? Oh it sure has alright. Unity in universal contempt for the design. The exterior is bad enough, I shudder to think how the interior is designed.
As for the four hands coming together, I’ve looked at that thing six ways to Sunday and see zero and I mean ZERO indication of hands joining in any type of fashion. The Obamas went so esoteric that no one gets the meaning of what the giant concrete block stands for.
The windows the block tower will have will be covered in a paragraph of one of Obama’s speeches from 2015. Pretty sure you can’t read it from the ground.
Some of the park areas look good. The block of concrete however, sticks out like a sore thumb. Which makes sense given that Valerie Jarrett informs us that Obama has been front and center on the design decisions.
Jarrett notes that Obama is intimately involved in building his Death Star.
“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,” she said.
That includes the cafeteria that will be operated by the newly formed partnership between Chicago Chef Cliff Rome and the California-based Bon Appétit Management Company.
“I sent him the menu for the restaurants. He cares about what food we’re offering. Is it affordable? Is it tasty? Will children want it?” Jarrett said.
Wasn’t Michelle the one touting the healthier meals for our kids and revamped school lunches? How come she’s absent on this particular topic?
Meanwhile, the cost overruns continue.
Obama's presidential library may come to symbolize more than intended from the administration. The library was supposed to run $330 million and is now over $850 million and growing. The promised endowment to protect the public from debt is virtually empty. https://t.co/B03oaICIsX
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) September 27, 2025
Great. Now we’ll not only have a Death Star cluttering up part of Chicago’s South Side, taxpayers are going to be on the hook for it.
Which was par for the course during the Obama Administration. Everything he did left the taxpayers twisting in the wind. His library center Death Star is no different.
Feature Photo Credit: Obama Presidential Center via iStock, cropped and modified
Wfjag says: It has one beneficial characteristic:
There will be lots of room for Graffiti Artists to display their work.
SFC D says: Mr. Architect, if you have to explain your vision to the general public, you have failed miserably. This… building… look like it was designed by a 5 year old with a blunt crayon, and formed by a concrete crew of nearsighted monkeys. Who in their right mind would want to be associated with this? And how much of those “cost overruns” went straight into Michelle’s designer purse?
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