More than a decade after it was first announced, the Obama Presidential Center and Library officially opens to the public in Chicago's Jackson Park on June 19, 2026.
The expansive 20-acre campus is located blocks from Lake Michigan and just south of the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, at the east end of Midway Plaisance.
The site was chosen for the Obama family's deep roots in the neighborhood, both in their lives before political prominence and after President Barack Obama's meteoric rise to lead the nation. More than just a library, it's a community center meant to bring people from all over Chicago, the nation and the world together in honor of President Obama's legacy and work.
President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama formally announced in May 2015 that his presidential library would be built in Chicago.
"All the strands of my life came together, and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago," the president said in the YouTube video announcing his decision.
