It’s a literal eyesore.
The bizarre design of former President Barack Obama’s new presidential center in Chicago is being mocked once again — this time over complaints that a new inscription on the side of the building is nearly impossible to read.
The words recently added to the $830 million monolith are from a 2015 speech Obama delivered in Selma, Ala., to mark the 50th anniversary of the historic civil-rights marches, but the way the text is laid out and wraps around the building has left some people squinting and confused.
“I’m outside the Obama Center museum tower right now. The new letters – an excerpt from Obama’s Selma speech – are tough read to me, giving off the lorem ipsum vibes,” Chicago Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bay wrote on Linkedin, referring to the Latin placeholder text often used in graphic design templates.
“The words are cut off. The Ts, Ls, and Is are indistinguishable,” former investment banker and best-selling author John LeFevre wrote on X, adding that the structure, “Looks like a trash can.”
Temple University Professor Jacob Shell noted that the E’s are also “indistinguishable from F’s,” and that “multiple words get disjointed – not just on one plane but two.”
“Truly, one of the most headache-inducing reading experiences I’ve ever had,” Shell said of trying to read the script.
“They somehow managed to make the Obama presidential library even uglier,” conservative influencer Johnny Maga said bluntly. “My gosh.”
The odd text has already spawned several memes on X.
“We have been trying to reach you about your car warranty,” the side of the building reads in one meme with fake text.
“If you like your plan, keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor,” the inscription reads in another meme.
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The building’s austere look has previously drawn comparisons to the “Death Star” and a “concrete tomb,” but an Obama Foundation official explained in December that the design was meant to evoke unity, not Darth Vader.
“The shape of the building was actually meant to mimic four hands coming together to show the importance of our collective action,” Obama Foundation Deputy Director Kim Patterson told CBS Chicago.
The 225-foot tower’s windows are few and far between, which Patterson noted was also purposeful.
“There are not a lot of windows on the building, but that’s intentional because sunlight is just not a friend to the artwork and the artifacts that are going inside of the building,” she said.
Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett, who served as a senior adviser during the former president’s two terms in the White House, noted that Obama has been very involved in the design of his library.
“I wish that people could be a fly on the wall to see how many times in the course of the day that I hear from President Obama about ideas for the center, tweaks, programming, what we can do for the design,” Jarrett said.
Obama’s sprawling 20-acre presidential center is expected to open next June in Jackson Park, on the South Side of Chicago.
The former president has said visitors can expect to see his wife Michelle’s dresses on display, and the facility will also have “an audio and recording studio so we can bring kids in to give exposure and training to tell their stories.”
The Obama Foundation did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
