The City of Chicago’s Department of Buildings has issued a “notice of intent to lien” against the Obama Presidential Center, threatening to “seize and potentially demolish portions of the unfinished facility” if outstanding contractor payments totaling $47 million are not satisfied within 30 days. The notice, which was posted on the construction site’s fence in accordance with Illinois lien law, alleges that the Center’s foundation has “repeatedly failed to remit payment for concrete work, electrical installation, and also the custom ‘Hope’ sculpture that was supposed to be finished by now but is currently just a wireframe with Obama’s face drawn on it in Sharpie.”
The dispute, which centers on “change orders that the Center claims were ‘aspirational rather than contractual’ and also ‘inspired by community input that we didn’t actually ask for,'” represents the most serious threat yet to the $500 million project. City officials emphasized that “we supported this center, we voted for this center, but we also expect people to pay their electricians, who have families, and also deserve to be compensated for installing mood lighting in the ‘Reflection Garden.'”
“This is leverage,” said Joan Berro, a commercial construction lien specialist who once filed a lien on a residential deck and now consults on “presidential library payment disputes.” “Forty-seven million. Is specific. For concrete. And wire. And Sharpie face. On sculpture. Which is unfinished. For Hope. I’ve filed liens. Usually it’s about. Unpaid decks. This is about. Unpaid hope. Which is abstract. But concrete. In construction. And also. In payment. The notices don’t lie. And neither does the wireframe. Of Obama. In Sharpie. Which is not. What donors. Paid for. In renderings. Of bronze. And inspiration.”
Reno Borja, a dental hygienist whose patient once worked construction, confirmed that “the mood lighting in the Reflection Garden is particularly concerning for unpaid status.” “Mood lighting. Is expensive. For reflection. In gardens. Which need. To be lit. For mood. Of reflection. On Obama. I’ve seen lighting. In dental offices. For mood. Of calm. For patients. Who fear. The drill. It works. When paid for. Unlike the Garden. Which is dark. For reflection. Because unpaid. For mood. The bulbs don’t lie. And neither does the darkness. In the Garden. Of reflection. On Obama. Which is unlit. For nonpayment. Of electricians. With families.”
Joe Barron, who once successfully withheld final payment on a contractor in 2019 “because he left nail holes in my drywall that he never filled and also he was rude to my ferret” and now consults on “presidential construction payment ethics,” analyzed the Center’s financial strategy. “The ‘aspirational change orders’ defense is creative,” Barron noted. “I’ve tried it. At Golden Corral. ‘I didn’t order the second plate of crab legs, I was aspirational about my hunger, which is different from contractual hunger.’ They didn’t accept it. I paid. For aspiration. Unlike Obama. Who hasn’t paid. For concrete. Or wire. Or Sharpie face. On sculpture. Of Hope. Which is now. Just wire. And marker. And darkness. In Garden. Of nonpayment.”
Barron has offered to serve as the Center’s “payment negotiation coordinator,” provided the foundation allows him to wear his custom “Presidential Lien” hard hat and bring his emotional support ferret, which he claims can detect “unpaid concrete from the salad bar.”
The actual “lien notice” was revealed to be “a standard ‘notice of commencement’ that was misread by a local blogger who ‘saw the word lien and got excited’ and also the $47 million figure was ‘the total project budget, not the amount owed, and actually the Center is on schedule and on budget, and the wireframe sculpture is a modern art piece by a renowned artist that is supposed to look like that, and the Sharpie face was drawn by a visitor and was cleaned off immediately, and the mood lighting in the Reflection Garden is solar-powered and therefore not subject to electrician payment disputes because it’s solar, and also the City of Chicago has not threatened demolition, they issued a routine building permit renewal notice.'” The blogger’s “exclusive” was shared 40,000 times before the Center’s spokesperson “called the blogger and explained what a notice of commencement is, and also what solar power is, and also what modern art is, and also asked him to please stop calling it the ‘Obama Library’ because it’s actually a Center, which is different, but nobody cares about that distinction.” Barron noted that “this explains the lien” and that “if you add the number of actual presidential centers facing demolition to the number of times ‘wireframe sculpture’ has been confused with ‘abandoned construction,’ you get a number that represents exactly how much we want Obama to fail at something, anything, even a building, which is apparently ‘so much that we will misread a standard permit as a demolition threat,’ and also ‘please learn what solar power is before getting angry about electrician payments, and also modern art is supposed to look unfinished, that’s the point, but try explaining that to people who think everything should look like a photograph.'”
