Obamandias: “My Billion Dollar Temple Is Insufficiently Grandiose.”

 

$1.5 billion Dollars that could have fed hungry children or paid for scholarships for underprivileged teens will be spent to build a massive monument to America’s 44th president. However, God-Emperor Obama complains that the designs he has seen don’t nearly do justice to his awesomeness:

“He said it was too unflashy,” ArchDaily quoted Tsien as saying. “He looked at what we did and he said, ‘I said you could be sort of quiet, but I think you’re a little too quiet.'”

I’m think what Obama had in mind was something on the scale of the Burj Khalifa. Except that it should hover.

That he is building this temple in a city that is not just riddled with violent crime, but also $24 billion in debt is either too awesome or too tragic, depending on how much you worship the guy.

Maybe that’s the solution. Rename Chicago “Obama City.” It was good enough for Lenin, Stalin, and Ho Chi Minh.

This entire tradition of American Presidents erecting multi-million dollar palaces to their “legacy” is gross and unbecoming of a Republic. It’s more suited to an Empire; and a decadent empire at that.

It would be impressive if a modern President said, “No, I don’t want a library. Build a park for kids to play in. Build a hospital to take care of the veterans who fought my wars. Create a scholarship so that their kids have a chance at achieving their dreams.”

I can only assume that such a level of humility and perspective would preclude someone from serving in politics. Thus, we are doomed to be the subjects of megalomaniacs and blowhards.

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  1. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Elephas Americanus (View Comment):
    Every president since Hoover has had a presidential library, so I don’t begrudge our glorious ex-Sun King his, I suppose – even if it will be the first one to have a whole section devoted to selfies. But yes, the Barry Obama Golf Course, Resort, and Hip-Hop Experience Summer Camp in Hawaii seems more fitting…

    I do think it speaks volumes that, while he wants a piece of noteworthy architecture – clearly he wants this library to be a piece of architecture that will be praised and written up and memorialized over the years, and hence making his own name live on with it – but he did not pick a “starchitect” like Frank Gehry, Thom Payne, Rem Koolhaas, Herzog & de Meuron, Santiago Calatrava, Norman Foster, Jeanne Gang, Richard Meier, or the like to design it. Being the Lord God of All Things Bright and Socialist, he almost certainly could’ve recruited any architect he wanted; I’m sure even Zaha Hadid would’ve risen from the dead for The Lightworker. So why go for a rather obscure team whose best known work is the Barnes Foundation museum in Philadelphia? Because he doesn’t want the architect to overshadow himself. He still wants himself to be the marquee. They will be easier to manipulate, but they also won’t steal his royal limelight. Very telling.

    Very good. I agree.

    • #31
  2. Carol Member
    Carol
    @

    blank generation member (View Comment):
    It will be interesting to see if those photos of him frolicking in the sun with Richard Branson will make it to the library. That’s the sort of person he really likes hanging with.

    That may be the funniest part. He has barely been back to the South Side since he left. He probably won’t visit his own library.

    • #32
  3. cirby Inactive
    cirby
    @cirby

    Just to give you a comparison for building sizes and costs, $1.5 billion is about enough to buy the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, all seven million square feet of it.

    Twice.

     

    • #33
  4. Israel P. Inactive
    Israel P.
    @IsraelP

    His papers must be preserved and must be freely accessible. How else will History render the judgement he so richly deserves.

    The Khalidi tape too.

    • #34
  5. Steve C. Member
    Steve C.
    @user_531302

    Israel P. (View Comment):
    The Khalidi tape too.

    You’d  be better off buying shares in the Jones Expedition to find the Holy Grail.

     

    • #35
  6. Ralphie Inactive
    Ralphie
    @Ralphie

    Quinn the Eskimo (View Comment):
    I don’t see why it needs to be a library

    He just needs a website with the ability to download his speeches on our ipods. We’could all get the royal treatment.

    • #36
  7. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    Ralphie (View Comment):

    Quinn the Eskimo (View Comment):
    I don’t see why it needs to be a library

    He just needs a website with the ability to download his speeches on our ipods. We’could all get the royal treatment.

    Hahahahaha!

    • #37
  8. Jan Bear Inactive
    Jan Bear
    @JanBear

    What’s he going to put in a library? His college transcripts? His writings (that he actually wrote)? His correspondence with his publisher who listed him for more than a decade as having been born in Kenya?

    It will probably be mostly empty.

    Like his suits.

    • #38
  9. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    Steve C. (View Comment):
    I’m a better architect than my library architect.

    Stuff Obama Said Out Loud

    You should check out the postmodernism thread, where most of the commenters think they are better architects than virtually every architect working today.

    • #39
  10. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    Barack Obama deliberating with his architect:

    • #40
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