The Obama Presidential Center is more than its granite tower

The imposing granite tower of the new Obama Presidential Center that’s risen from a public park on Chicago’s South Side is, depending on one’s aesthetic and political views, either jarring or monumental. But for all the hand-wringing that has come and will follow about the $850 million tower, it’s not the most important, or even the most interesting, thing about the project. In addition to being a significant piece of architecture representing the work and legacy of a president, the...