Designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA), the centerpiece of the 19-acre Obama Presidential Center is its 225-foot, eight-story Presidential Museum. Inspired by the form of hands coming together, the tower houses exhibition galleries and a Sky Room observatory with panoramic views across Chicago. Pentagram collaborated closely with TWBTA and the Obama Foundation on the design of the inscription that wraps the tower’s upper south- and west-facing corners. Cast in concrete to match the tower’s New Hampshire granite, the text is an excerpt from President Barack Obama’s 2015 speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, delivered at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights marchers were attacked by police in 1965.

Early architectural concepts by TWBTA showed a perforated upper section with an abstract pattern which would introduce an element of transparency to the building’s crown. Pentagram was asked to explore language as an alternative. This raised questions. What words? How many? How legible? And how could they function not as an applied sign but as an integral part of the architecture itself? The Pentagram team tested a range of options, including excerpts from President Obama’s inaugural addresses and the poems delivered at the inauguration ceremonies. The Selma speech, filled with words, phrases and themes so characteristic of the Obama presidency, was the ultimate selection. The result can be read both as a complete passage and as an impressionistic collage.

Entitled Words of Hope, the installation is composed of 103 words made up of 458 four-foot-four-inch letters, each the typographic equivalent of 5,350 point Gotham Bold. The complex connections between the letters — technically referred to as ligatures — enable an integrated design that supports significant weight while working within strict constraints on letter size, spacing, and proportion. The letters were cast in 39 unique one-foot-deep panels, the largest weighing up to 20,000 pounds.

For the Obamas, the inscription is intended to invite moments of reflection and inspiration. It also serves as a prelude to the more than two dozen commissioned artworks within the Museum, including large-scale pieces by Julie Mehretu, Mark Bradford and Nick Cave. Inside, the letters frame the viewing experience in the Sky Room at the top of the museum, where visitors are surrounded by the words as they look out across Chicago’s South and West Sides. The installation glows from within at night, with silhouetted text becoming visible from the outside.

“This quote is the central narrative theme etched into the exterior and museum exhibits of the Obama Presidential Center,” said Dr. Louise Bernard, Director of the Museum of the Obama Presidential Center. “It emphasizes that the Obama administration's story is rooted in a broader civil rights context, where pivotal events like the 1965 Selma marches directly laid the groundwork for the election of America’s first Black President.”