President Obama will build his future presidential library and museum on the city’s South Side, the Barack Obama Foundation announced Tuesday.
“With a library and foundation on the South Side of Chicago, not only will we be able to encourage and effect change locally, but what we can also do is attract a world to Chicago,” Obama said in a video posted to the foundation’s web site.
Michelle Obama, who grew up on the city’s South Side, added, “I am thrilled to be able to put this resource in the heart of a neighborhood that means the world to me.”
The library will be hosted by the University of Chicago, where both Obamas have deep roots and had long been considered the favorite to win the project. The announcement on Tuesday made it official.
The president served as a senior lecturer at the university’s law school before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and First Lady Michelle Obama was an executive at the university’s medical center. Susan Sher, a former senior aide to Michelle Obama, led the university’s bid for the library.
The Obamas also own a home near the university, but it remains unsettled whether the president and his family will return to the Windy City after he leaves office in early 2017.
The University of Chicago was picked over Obama’s alma mater Columbia University in New York, University of Hawaii, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The foundation, however, said in a statement that it “intends to maintain a presence at Columbia University for the purpose of exploring and developing opportunities for a long term association. In addition, the Foundation will work with the state of Hawaii to establish a lasting presence in Honolulu. Within Chicago, in addition to its association with the University of Chicago, the Foundation also plans to collaborate with the University of Illinois – Chicago.”
The foundation and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel have scheduled a 12 p.m. Central Time news conference in Chicago to talk about the pick.
While Obama has settled on Chicago, it remains uncertain exactly where the library will be located.
The University of Chicago predicts the project will have a $220 million annual impact for the city of Chicago and would create nearly 2,000 permanent jobs.
The economic impact study — conducted last year by the Anderson Economic Group at the behest of the University of Chicago — says construction alone would have a $600 million impact on the city. It predicts that 800,000 visitors will be drawn annually to the library and museum.
Both Obamas paid tribute to the city, which they said played an integral part in shaping the people they became. Obama moved to Chicago in 1985 to take a job as a community organizer.
“All of the strands of my life came together, and I really became a man after I moved to Chicago,” Obama said.
