For all the affection and admiration Chicagoans have for their hometown president, to South Siders, the Barack Obama Presidential Center means much more.  This complex has a mission to shine far and wide – naturally, to craft a new American monument, but more critically, to erect an enduring expression of the individual potential of all Chicago’s citizens.  It must cut above the noxious narrative of negativity that clouds our communities and assails far too many futures.

A possibility exists at the Gateway to Washington Park to locate the Barack Obama Monument in such a way as to frame numerous vistas and capture the spirit of all South Siders.  The diagram above illustrates the great prominence such a monument would have, providing striking views along Garfield Boulevard and 55th Streets from the east and west, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from the north, and an animated, unfolding character from within the park itself.  This arrangement brings well-deserved nobility and stature to the Obama Presidential Center, resulting in a fulcrum of visibility that will establish a heroic new marker and a signature destination on the South Side of Chicago.

The potential exists, at this particular site, to reorient the South Side of Chicago toward an exceptional new symbol of our community’s achievement and collective progress:  A Beacon of Hope.

The following section on The Cityscape provides visual demonstrations of this bold planning as it could manifest.