Footprint of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park

Following a lengthy federal regulatory review, the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) is now preparing for its official groundbreaking in the fall of 2020, and the City of Chicago is beginning pre-construction work in Jackson Park. Updates on the OPC construction can be found at https://www.obama.org/updates/.

The OPC campus has several components, all localized in the southwest corner of what was the fairgrounds for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. That space today has a track and football field, playground, bathroom and other buildings, parking lot, and a busy street (Cornell Drive)—none of which were present at the time of the World’s Fair.

How does footprint of the new Obama Presidential Center relate to the buildings of the 1893 World’s Fair? We’ve created this overlay of the OPC plans with a map of the fairgrounds:

The main museum building (B on the map) is sited just south of where the Woman’s Building stood and just west of where the Children’s Building stood. A new branch of the Chicago Public Library (G on the map) will stand just west of where the Horticultural Building once was, and an athletic and activity center building (N on the map) will fill a space just west of where the Horticultural and Choral halls stood in 1893.

In 2000, construction of the ice rink in the Midway Plaisance uncovered timbers and concrete from the foundation of the original Ferris Wheel. Columbian Exposition enthusiasts likely cannot avoid thinking about the possibility that relics from the fair may be unearthed during construction on the OPC site. The minimal overlap between past and future buildings, however, may mean that not much will be found.