The Obama Presidential Center is more than its granite tower

The imposing granite tower of the new Obama Presidential Center that’s risen from a public park on Chicago’s South Side is, depending on one’s aesthetic and political views, either jarring or monumental. But for all the hand-wringing that has come and will follow about the $850 million tower, it’s not the most important, or even the most interesting, thing about the project. In addition to being a significant piece of architecture representing the work and legacy of a president, the Obama Presidential Center is also one of the more environmentally ambitious large urban development projects to emerge in the U.S. in recent years. From the microorganisms at the roots of its trees to its carbon-free operation to the citywide benefits of its stormwater management system, the Center is performing on a lot of different levels. When it opens to the public June 19, the Center will generate more power than it uses, balance its heating and cooling through an underground network of geothermal wells, reuse or recycle nearly all of the rainwater that falls on it, and blend most of its built footprint so thoroughly into its site in Jackson Park that it will actually create a net increase of parkland. For all the pieces of the project that make it unique—the signature obelisk-shaped tower at its core, its location in a public park on Chicago’s South Side, and the decision by former President Barack Obama and his foundation to eschew the conventional presidential library model—its most impressive aspect may be its deep focus on sustainability. The sustainability measures put in place at the Center and across its 19-acre campus are, in a way, a representation of Obama’s presidency. Improving the environment and combating climate change were key elements of his agenda, and the Center is a built extension of what he sought to achieve while in office, according to Valerie Jarrett, a longtime senior adviser to Obama and now the CEO of the Obama Foundat