Former President Barack Obama’s presidential center is being criticized for being “headache-inducing.”
The facility’s architectural design has left people scratching their heads, with a professor of Temple University saying that trying to read the speech on the building was “one of the most headache-inducing reading experiences I’ve ever had.”
Look:
I’s indistinguishable from L’s and T’s. E’s indistinguishable from F’s. Multiple words get disjointed–not just on one plane but two.
Truly, one of the most headache-inducing reading experiences I’ve ever had. pic.twitter.com/hohr6Whusy— Jacob Shell (@JacobAShell) February 17, 2026
A Chicago photojournalist agreed, saying it’s “not an ideal design.”
I noticed when I was in the air that the sentences wrap around the west and south sides of the building, and looks decent in a very specific spot on the ground or very good from the air…but like that’s not an ideal design in my opinion. pic.twitter.com/pjtUxRUCM9
— Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere (@TylerLaRiviere) February 16, 2026
The design was taken from Obama’s 2015 speech in Selma, Alabama, which marked the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.
“You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there is new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed. America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘We.’ ‘We The People.’ ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ‘Yes We Can.’ That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours,” it reads.
X users weighed in on the design:
I think it was supposed to be an “African-revival” brise soleil similar to the new Smithsonian facade where the letters of the speech were just there to make the pattern
And then at some point they decided to make the font “legible” and it didn’t work pic.twitter.com/b9DTp8GX61
— (@bowelsinspector) February 16, 2026
The building looks like one from a Star Wars movie. At least it was a rebel hq
— catedunlap (@catedunlap) February 17, 2026
I’m sorry, but it’s an ugly disappointment from the outside.
— Lovey, Princess Puffy Pants ✶ ✶ ✶ ✶ (@LoveyPuffyPants) February 16, 2026
The word salad is word salad even in the form it’s intended to be conveyed. He probably just should’ve open up a small basketball arena with a library attached as he’d have been more universally cheered and understood
— Patrick Madden (@TheSportsJD) February 17, 2026
Unconstrain
Ed pic.twitter.com/hG4vsKK9k9— Gncaptain Gnemo (@scheneighnay) February 17, 2026
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Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to write. Marlee also contributes to BizPac Review.
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