Obamas’ Private Offices Revealed in Chicago Center

The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago is a culmination of a long design trajectory that began when the writer was chosen to be the White House decorator for the Obama family in 2008. The writer’s first visit to the Obama’s home in Chicago was impactful, with a warm and inviting atmosphere that reflected the family’s personality.

The design process for the Obama Presidential Center started midway through President Obama’s second term, with the goal of creating a center that would reflect the president’s vision of a reimagined presidential center. The writer was part of a small advisory committee that helped select the architects for the project, and eventually, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien were chosen for their elegant and humane building designs.

The Design Process

The writer’s job was to protect the Obama’s vision and find the point where their taste fused with the architects’ design. The building is located on the South Side of Chicago, blocks from where Michelle Obama was born and raised, and is meant to be a living destination, not a monument to the past.

President Obama was very involved in the selection process and every decision that followed, with a mandate that the center should be a place where things happen, not a reliquary. The campus includes gardens, public art, an athletic center, a huge plaza for concerts, a Chicago Public Library branch, playgrounds, and even a sledding hill.

The writer was most deeply involved in the design of the private presidential suite, which includes a seminar room with a ceiling oval that takes its proportions from the iconic Yellow Oval Room in the White House. The rooms are clad in koa wood, a wood almost spiritual in Hawaiian tradition, and the carpets and furnishings were made by artists and craftspeople, many of whom are Chicago-based.

The Presidential Suite

The seminar room’s art program includes a Lorna Simpson work that surrounds the fireplace form, and the dining chairs are replicas of chairs the writer made for the Obama’s house in Hawaii. The writer also designed Mrs. Obama’s office to feel like a retreat, with soft creams and pinks that are as impactful and dynamic as she is.

The president‘s office is a study, with his books at hand, a table for meetings, and places to read and reflect. A canvas hangs on one wall, an echo of an iconic painting that was displayed in the Treaty Room in the White House. The presidential floor has a golden hour, when dappled light moves through the space, highlighting the frieze of four-foot-tall words that wrap the tower’s corner and spell out part of the president’s historic Selma speech.

The Obama Presidential Center is a place that will continually generate new ideas, reflecting the president’s and Mrs. The center’s art program includes many works by artists who became friends of the Obama’s over the years.

The writer’s institutional knowledge was instrumental in distilling the Obama’s vision into the DNA of the OPC’s interiors, from the Kailua Blue tile cladding the café walls to the custom daybeds by Luteca in the seminar room. The Obama Presidential Center is a living destination, not a static tribute to the past, and its design is a reflection of the Obama’s commitment to public service and their vision for a reimagined presidential center, with more information available on the center’s design and mission.

A Chicago Public Library branch is also located on the campus, providing access to knowledge and resources for the public.

The Community Impact

The center’s design is meant to be a living destination, not a static tribute to the past. The Obamas’ commitment to public service is reflected in the center’s mission to continually generate new ideas and inspire the community.