Obama Foundation officials host meeting Sept. 14 for public input

For the first time, the top Obama Foundation officials and consultants will discuss at a public meeting the program and design plans for the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.

The meeting will be next Thursday, Sept. 14, at the Hyatt hotel at McCormick Place with doors to open at 5 p.m. with the discussion to start at 5:45 p.m. The foundation officials will include Michael Strautmanis, vice president of civic engagement; museum director Louise Bernard, who will be making her public debut in Chicago; Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, lead architects for the center; and Michael Van Valkenburgh, lead landscape designer for the center.

Bernard is leading the design, development and operation planning for the museum and is just starting to raise her public profile. She will be speaking next month at the Lincoln presidential library in Springfield.

The foundation is stepping up outreach as design plans are being finalized in order to submit them to the Chicago Plan Commission by the end of the year and with some proposed elements, such as street closings, controversial.

The Chicago Park District is holding hearings on the center on Sept. 21 and Sept. 25 with many issues still on the table, including how to make the park district whole in the wake of the Obama Center being built on park land and the overall future of all of Jackson Park.

For more details, click here.