Letter: Obama center plans suffer from a lack of transparency

The Jan. 22 column “It's not Obama center vs. Olmsted” by architecture critic Blair Kamin is a welcome addition to the debate over the siting of the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago’s historic Jackson Park. However, the column is misrepresentative in some ways, and it fails to raise an important issue about land use and equity.

First, the opening two paragraphs, deliberately or not, seemingly lump The Cultural Landscape Foundation in with opponents of the center who Kamin says are “painting the project as a self-indulgent statement by former President Barack Obama.” That characterization does not apply to TCLF. TCLF is not opposed to the Obama Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side; however, TCLF does not support the confiscation of parkland held in public trust — whether in Jackson, Washington or other parks.

What has gotten lost in the discussion is why the University of Chicago, which won the contest to host the center, is not using any of its own land for the project. The university’s winning bid to host the center — which has never been made public — is remarkable because the university has no “skin in the game,” i.e., none of the property it owns would be used for the center. Instead, the university demanded that Chicagoans give away public parkland listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Meanwhile, over the past few years, the university has spent millions of dollars acquiring more land on the South Side. The public deserves to know how, exactly, the university benefits, because it appears to be an all-reward, no-risk situation for the school. University officials could start by making their winning bid public.