It’s official: The Barack Obama presidential library will be built in Chicago.
In a video released Tuesday morning, the Barack Obama Foundation announced that the University of Chicago’s bid to build the library near campus in Chicago’s South Side — where the president’s political career began — was picked over bids made by Columbia University in New York, the University of Hawaii and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The decision is not surprising: Chicago was a front-runner for many months.
“All the strands of my life came together, and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago. That’s where I was able to apply that early idealism to try to work in the communities in public service,” Obama said in the nearly 3-minute-long video. “That’s where I met my wife, that’s where my children were born, and the people there, the community, the lessons I learned, they’re all based right in this few square miles where we’ll be able to now give something back and bring the world back home after this incredible journey.”
Both the president and first lady Michelle Obama have ties to the university and the area: He was a teacher there, she was an administrator at its Medical Center. He worked as a community organizer on the South Side and considers it his adopted home; she is a Chicago native.
The foundation now has to select between two properties near the campus to build: Washington Park or Jackson Park.
Foundation Chairman Marty Desbitt and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel are set to appear at a news conference about the library later Tuesday.
(h/t the Associated Press)
