Obama Center Parking Garage Plan Moving Forward Despite Criticism
In the fall, the Obama Foundation released a look at its plans to build a 450-spot parking garage on the eastern end of the Midway Plaisance. The nonprofit Friends of the Park (FOTP) launched a campaign to stop the garage from being built on park land. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Obama Foundation intends to move forward with the garage plans.
Although the location of the garage will remain the same, the project’s leaders have made some design changes to help appease concerned neighborhood groups like FOTP. The top of the two-story garage will feature landscaping and a playground for children, according to the report. The garage will feature a design that will camouflage the building.
Additionally, the garage will no longer have a basketball court or picnic tables on top.
“It is a park with a garage under it that we are making,” said Obama Center landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, according to the report.