Obama presidential library site chosen

CHICAGO — President Barack Obama’s presidential library will be built in a park on Chicago’s South Side along the shores of Lake Michigan and a short walk from the university where Obama once taught, a person familiar with the selection process told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Barack Obama Foundation decided to build the library at Jackson Park near the University of Chicago, according to a person briefed on the selection.

The library is expected to be a boon to the city’s South Side, providing jobs to communities that have long struggled with gang violence and high unemployment. The park was selected over nearby Washington Park, which also was proposed by the University of Chicago, where Obama taught constitutional law as he was embarking on a political career that led him to the Illinois Senate, the U.S. Senate and ultimately the White House.

The university has said the library and presidential center are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, bringing jobs and millions of dollars to the area.

Jackson Park was the site of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, while Washington Park is a national historic site. Both parks have hundreds of acres and were designed by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.