The library’s grounds are likely to be a singular green space in a city with a world-class park system. But there’s already some quintessentially Chicago precedent for a landscape that boosts patrons up a few dozen feet so they can crane their necks at architectural marvels (as the Obama Foundation surely hopes its museum will be). That would be the city’s El trains (or similarly, MVVA’s own 606 elevated rail park). The view of the city from the El train window is an iconic perspective on Chicago that’s influenced its visual history and culture. If the Obama library green roof can generate the same sense of above-but-not-quite-beyond-the-city linear experience, it will go a long way toward handing Jackson Park a new amenity. And the library will be able to offer one view the El can’t: No CTA train gets this close to Lake Michigan.

So this new landscape has the potential to improve upon the already very good. But for whom? Will these grounds remain public and accessible for all South Siders and Chicagoans, free of charge? (The Obama Foundation website states: “The campus will be open to the public, and the Center will include indoor and outdoor spaces for events, trainings, and other gatherings.”) Surrounding the Obama Presidential Center are South Siders who are worried about new development’s pricing them out, people wary of the ever-expanding cultural footprint of the University of Chicago (which backed the winning bid), and those who cheer it on. Most on the South Side and beyond welcome the museum and library. But unless all of the above have access to this landscape all the time, the Obama Foundation will be compounding a past wrong.