Former President Barack Obama’s presidential library is hocking pricey merch shaped like the unsightly Chicago tower — as the project’s architects revealed the former commander-in-chief himself was behind the “Death Star” design that’s been widely mocked since construction began.
Ungainly lapel pins that “capture the silhouette” of the ungainly Obama Presidential Center are going for $30 in the online store.
“The pin represents the intersection of bold design and global leadership,” the website reads, noting the proceeds go to the Obama Foundation “to inspire, empower and connect people to change their world.”
Each pin is “handcrafted from unfired paper clay,” and is an 1.6 inches tall by 1 inch wide — about as oversized as the center itself, which lords 225 feet over Chicago’s Jackson Park in a monolith of concrete and granite.
The $850 million center is slated to open in June after 10 years of development — and criticism of its domineering design — but its online store recently went live in the build-up to the grand opening.
Many weren’t impressed with the pricey pins — with some comparing them to chewing gum, pregnancy tests and blobs of toothpaste.
“It looks like chewed gum or an eraser that a third grader has been mutilating,” one user on X wrote.
“How is that even uglier than the actual building?” said another.
“I thought the building was ugly, then I see the pin,” wrote a third.
The comments echoed people’s reactions to the center itself — which has been called an “obamanation” by some and compared to trash cans, Jenga towers, the Death Star and litterboxes, along with prisons, the Eye of Sauron and Easter Island heads.
It was designed for Obama by Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, who recently revealed the design “very much a product of his vision as well as ours” after the former president repeatedly pressed them to make the design as “bold” as possible.
“He was saying we should up our ante,” Williams told the New Yorker. “He drew on one of my drawings, made a strong mark, which indicated that he didn’t think I was being bold enough.”
At one point the ex-president urged the architects to emulate the work of Constantin Brancusi, a Romanian modernist sculptor known for his simple yet mind-bending creations.
Williams said that direction made him realize Obama wanted the building “to be seen as an art piece and not just as architecture.”
“He wanted us to do something that we had not done before, and that is hard,” Williams said. “He didn’t let it rest.”
The library has been dogged with controversy since before ground was broken in 2021, with local critics decrying it as an eyesore that would blight Jackson Park.
Its budget also nearly doubled during construction — with the expected cost in 2021 sitting around $500 million.
Tickets for its June 18 opening go on sale Wednesday.