On Juneteenth 2026, the $850 million Obama Presidential Center opened to pomp and circumstance on John Lewis Plaza, the centerpiece of the FPOTUS’s new nineteen-acre campus on Chicago’s South Side. Foreign dignitaries (Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau) rubbed shoulders with doddering grandees (Joe Biden) and grinning celebs (Stephen Colbert in a tan! suit). The first couple and friends took turns at the mic. Michelle Obama began her speech by remarking on the auspicious weather: “Nothing like a project by my husband to bring out the sun.” The building’s reception has been far from sunny, however, and the press wasted no time saddling Forty-Four’s granitic self-commemoration with the unflattering moniker “the Obamalisk.” The critical debate that follows moves beyond punditry and PR to consider the architectural significance of the megalith, its impact on its South Side neighbors, and the legacy it so audaciously seeks to enshrine. —THE EDITORS
