CHICAGO | Obama Presidential Library

[Domer2019]

Originally Posted by Sequenza

But the library won't be in Washington Park. It'll be one mile east in Jackson Park.

Maybe look at the actual article linked above ^

https://www.citylab.com/design/2017/05/one-big-problem-with-obamas-presidential-library/525447/

Bigger quote:

The Obamas considered two options for siting the presidential library in Chicago: Jackson Park and another South Side gem, Washington Park. It’s for the best that they went with the former, not the latter, according to Charles A. Birnbaum, president and CEO of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy organization charged with preserving America’s historic landscapes. “Had the Obama Library gone [into Washington Park], it would have claimed some 23 acres along the park’s western edge, which would have been both devastating and irreparable,” he writes.

Washington Park is considered one of Olmsted’s four complete masterpieces, along with Central Park and Prospect Park in New York and Franklin Park in Boston. Any presidential library would be glad to have one of them as a front yard. But to plant such a facility in Central Park, Prospect Park, or Franklin Park—to even propose it—would raise howls of protest. Washington Park is no less sacred, but it’s located on Chicago’s South Side, a place with less social and political power than the others.

On the other hand, Chicago has already infringed on Jackson Park’s integrity. And as far as that goes, Olmsted and Vaux included in the original design an administrative building. It was never built, but it was planned quite close to where the Obama Presidential Center is slated to go. Between the two sites, the cultural cost to build in Jackson Park was lower. It was altogether too low: The July 2016 decision raised few howls of protests from critics. As Birnbaum lamented at the time, design journalists who cried over the dismantling of the Four Seasons restaurant in New York had nothing to say about the Obama Foundation dismantling an Olmsted park in Chicago.

Mr Downtown just wanted to bring up the community dynamic misrepresentation.