Twin Embraces
An Inclusive Vision for the Barack Obama Presidential Center
Washington Park — Chicago
Proud Recipient of the 2021 AIA Illinois Honor Award for Master Planning

An Unfolding Crisis Demands Our Attention.

Opportunity, History, and Park Lands: LOST

Current plans for the Barack Obama Presidential Center, callously sited within Frederick Law Olmsted’s Jackson Park, represent an urban planning blunder with vast consequences. The plans are disrespectful to Chicago’s historic South Side communities, permanently compromise precious public open lands, unfairly divide neighborhoods, and, ultimately, fail to honor the pioneering legacy of the United States’ 44th President.

The Washington Park Neighborhood.

An Historic Neighborhood Calling out for Tomorrow

Washington Park is a Chicago neighborhood with rich African American heritage, beautiful historic architecture, a strategic location, and unrivaled local and regional accessibility. It offers every possibility currently found in Jackson Park, but without the profound negative impact.

This is the right place to make a sensitive, sustainable, economically impactful investment for the entire the South Side. Today.

Make No Little Plans.
Do No Harm.

A Presidential Center For The People

The Twin Embraces plan represents a community-based approach that can be molded to meet the goals and needs of the Obama Foundation and the public. It provides a comprehensive, integrated framework, intended to bring lasting benefit to the community by leveraging existing strengths and addressing legacy needs. The overarching plan sets forth a collaborative design that integrates the requirements of the University of Chicago, the Obama Foundation, the ecology, and the residents of the surrounding community into a functional whole. In so doing, the Barack Obama Presidential Center would become a keystone of the community, forming a vital part of Chicagoans’ daily lives.