The former Cornell Drive, which ran between the Obama Presidential Center’s museum tower and the lagoon, was removed as part of the campus’ publicly-funded infrastructure improvements. | Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
By Lee Bey | Chicago Sun*Times
When the Obama Presidential Center opens next month, and its funders are honored and congratulated, there are two major financial contributors worthy of a bow or two: Chicago and Illinois taxpayers.
The Chicago Department of Transportation said it has spent $123.3 million since 2022 on capital projects aimed at remaking the roadways and green space in Jackson Park and around the center.
And there’s still more work to be done. The final public infrastructure costs are likely to approach $200 million.
The costs are not part of the presidential center’s privately-funded $850 million price tag.
“The Chicago Department of Transportation has delivered a series of roadway and mobility improvements in and around Jackson Park in coordination with the Obama Presidential Center,” CDOT said in a statement to the Sun-Times.
One major change included ripping up a half-mile of Cornell Drive between Midway Plaisance and Hayes Drive. The center’s landscape architect, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, turned what was an obtrusive six-lane highway ripping through Jackson Park into walkable green space that links the Obama campus to the park’s historic lagoon to the east.
Other projects included adding a third southbound lane on DuSable Lake Shore Drive between 57th and Hayes drives; reworking Hayes Drive east of Stony Island Avenue that involved reconfiguring intersections at Cornell, Richards and DuSable Lake Shore drives; and adding a pump station to help fix flooding at the 59th Street pedestrian underpass.
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