Halfway built, the Obama Presidential Center is already a South Side landmark

An aerial view - looking north - of the Barack Obama Presidential Center construction site. Construction has reached the halfway point. The Museum of Science and Industry is in the background. (Brian Ernst/Sun-Times)

Since August 2021, the sprawling Obama Presidential Center complex has been taking shape in Jackson Park on what will be a 19.3 acre campus fronting on Stony Island Avenue and stretching from 62nd Street on the south to 59^th Street on the north.

For months, the rising tower — which will house the museum dedicated to former President Barack Obama — has been visible to the surrounding Hyde Park neighborhood, already tall enough to call it a South Side landmark.