The Obamalisk: The Bevel in the White City

My name is Barack Obama, king of kings; Look on my works, ye righty, and despair!

The best idea for the Obama Presidential library in Jackson Park on the south side of Chicago’s lakefront came from Michelle Obama, who recommended building an artificial sledding hill on its 19 acre of grounds.

It snows a fair amount in Chicago, but the city is dead flat, so kids seldom get to sled. I used to live near Cricket Hill, the 45’ tall artificial sledding hill on the north lakefront. It is a wonderful amenity. When my son and I revisited Chicago thirteen months ago, it was one of the nostalgic sites we made sure to revisit.

In general, Michelle strikes me as a good mom.

The Obama Foundation gets to rent the 19 acres of Jackson Park, site of the 1893 World’s Fair, that was designed by landscape architecture legends Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, creators of Central Park in New York, for ten bucks for 99 years.

Sounds like a deal!

Chicago used to create its wonderful lakefront parkland by filling in Lake Michigan, but then decided not to do that anymore back during the first Mayor Daley’s term because, I assume, people with lake views didn’t want their views blocked by new construction.

As a sponsor of architecture, Barack, on the other hand, well … The New York Times reports:

The ‘Obamalisk’ Rises on Chicago’s South Side

A look inside Barack Obama’s “living, breathing cultural and gathering space” (with an N.B.A.-size basketball court). Not everyone is cheering.

By Sam Lubell

Reporting from Chicago

Oct. 18, 2025

… Mr. Obama has been an aficionado of architecture since childhood — “Somehow I took a wrong turn and got into politics,” he said jokingly — and he was not hesitant to lend his input, sharing rough sketches with the designers.

The Obama Library’s awkwardly asymmetrical main tower is a strikingly ugly building. Here’s a CGI rendering provided by the Obama Foundation of what it will look conceivably look like at it’s best at sunset in May if all goes according to plan:

The architectural idea of reproducing Pharaoh Ahkenaten’s proportions seems, uh, daring:

But why is the Obama Library’s left hip significantly higher than its right hip?

Poor inbred Ahkenaten apparently inherited some sort of genetic defect, but at least he wasn’t asymmetrical.

Online trolls have been unkind to the design, suggesting sci-fi inspirations such as a Star Wars Jawa sandcrawler:

Paywall here.