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The coolest building in every US state, from historic estates to futuristic designs

Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida
The Salvador Dalí Art Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, is one of America's coolest buildings.

Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

  • The US has diverse architecture and building designs across the 50 states.
  • History, art, and local aesthetics are all reflected in some of America's most unique buildings.
  • From prehistoric dwellings to kitschy designs, these buildings make for unique tourist attractions.

Throughout its 250-year history, the US has produced some striking and unique architecture that you can't find anywhere else — and lots of it can look wildly different across state lines.

Defining what we consider "coolest" is hard. We evaluated every state on its own terms and found that the architecture across all 50 states and Washington, DC, can be as diverse as the country's population.

In states like California and Massachusetts, picking the most striking building meant finding ones that look futuristic and elegant, like something out of a science-fiction movie. In other states, like Maine and the Carolinas, we found that the coolest buildings are distinctive because of their place in history or their states' cultures.

Whether you're looking for a piece of history or a glimpse into the future, these buildings can show you what different worlds look like.

James Grebey and Jacob Shamsian contributed to an earlier version of this story.

ALABAMA: Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Passenger Terminal
The Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Passenger Terminal in Mobile was built in 1907.

George Dodd/Getty Images

The Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Passenger Terminal in Mobile, Alabama, which has Spanish influences with its cream walls and red clay tiles, was designed by P. Thornton Marye. It was completed in 1907 and has undergone restoration since passenger train service ceased in the 1950s.

ALASKA: The University of Alaska's Museum of the North
University of Alaska Museum of the North

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The University of Alaska Museum of the North is home to numerous exhibits showcasing the native cultures, natural wonders, and wildlife of our nation's largest state. It's also a stylish refuge from the cold.

ARIZONA: Chapel of the Holy Cross
The Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona, Arizona
The Chapel of the Holy Cross sits on a hillside.

ANNA WILCZYNSKA/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona was completed in 1956, and it juts majestically from a red stone butte, some 200 feet above the ground.

ARKANSAS: Thorncrown Chapel
Eureka Springs, Arkansas woodland sanctuary that rises forty-eight feet as it reaches for the Ozark skies; consists of 425 windows, over 6,000 SF of glass

BanyanRanchStudios/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The beautiful Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs looks like an open-air structure, but it's actually a serene, glass-enclosed architectural marvel.

CALIFORNIA: The Chemosphere
Chemosphere House designed by Taylor Lautner in 1960 on April 03, 2017

FG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

It was designed in 1960, but the Chemosphere still looks futuristic. It's a house with 2,200 square feet of space, perched atop a 30-foot concrete pole. And it's survived every major Californian earthquake in the San Fernando Valley since it was built.

COLORADO: Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park
Mesa Verde, New Mexico USA stock photo

Gert Hilbink/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Mesa Verde National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, features some of the best-preserved prehistoric landscapes of the Ancestral Puebloan people. These ancient dwellings, where the Ancestral Puebloans once lived, were constructed on the sides of natural cliffs.

While most dwellings had only one to five rooms, the Cliff Palace, the largest known cliff dwelling in North America, had 150 rooms, 23 sacred meeting spaces, and housed about 100 people, according to the National Park Service.

CONNECTICUT: Grace Farms
Single roof River building of glass, concrete, steel, and wood of Grace Farms center of culture stock photo

SBWorldphotography/Getty Images

The main feature of Grace Farms in New Canaan is a serpentine wooden pavilion that links glass-walled rooms, including a library, stage, tea room, and a gym with a full basketball court. Completed in 2015, it's open to the public for free.

DELAWARE: Wilmington's Grand Opera House
Wilmington, Delaware, USA - November 5, 2023: The Grand Opera House on King St in Wilmington, Delaware, USA. The Grand Opera House is a theater for the performing arts in Wilmington.

JHVEPhoto/Getty Images

The country's oldest state has some classic buildings that stand the test of time. Wilmington's Grand Opera House, built in 1871, is as classic as it gets.

FLORIDA: The Salvador Dalí Museum
Salvador Dali Museum in St. Pete, Florida stock photo

Sean Pavone/Getty Images

The Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg is a fittingly unique tribute to the beloved master of surrealism. The museum boasts the largest collection of Dalí's work outside Europe.

GEORGIA: The Earth Lodge on Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park
Ocmulgee National Monument

Jeffrey M. Frank/Shutterstock

This might not look much like other buildings in this list, but the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park's Earth Lodge dates back to the year 1015, per the National Park Service.

The lodge is a reconstructed council chamber of the native Mississippian culture. While the walls and ceiling were reconstructed in the late 1930s, the clay floor remains the same as the original, dating back over a thousand years.

HAWAII: ʻIolani Palace
ʻIolani Palace was the residence of the rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi until 1893.

DaSza64/Getty Images/iStockphoto

ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu is the only royal palace on United States soil. David Kalākaua, the last reigning king of Hawaiʻi and the first monarch to travel around the world, was inspired by the European palaces he saw during his 1881 voyage.

IDAHO: The Dog Bark Park Inn
dog bark park inn cottonwood

Martyn Skorkin/Shutterstock

The Dog Bark Park Inn in Cottonwood is a delightful piece of American kitsch. The bed and breakfast is shaped like two charming beagles.

ILLINOIS: Bahá'í House of Worship
Bahá'í House of Worship
Bahá'í House of Worship in Illinois

SpVVK/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Although there are between 5 and 6 million adherents to the Bahá'í Faith, there are only eight continental houses of worship worldwide. The one in Wilmette, Illinois, is the oldest still standing, and the only one in the United States.

INDIANA: West Baden Springs Hotel
West Baden Springs Hotel

IN Dancing Light/Shutterstock

When the West Baden Springs Hotel opened in 1902, it was billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World. While enjoying the view from inside the massive domed atrium — at one point the largest in the world — it's easy to see why.

IOWA: Grotto of the Redemption
Grotto of the Redemption
The Grotto of the Redemption is the size of a football field.

Hotaik Sung/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Father Paul Dobberstein promised to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary as she helped cure his grave case of pneumonia. His resulting Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend is made of rocks, shells, fossils, and gems pressed into concrete. It's the size of a football field.

KANSAS: Big Well in Greensburg
Big Well in Greensburg

Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images

The Big Well in Greensburg is a museum that rests atop its titular main attraction: the largest hand-dug well in the world, spanning 32 feet in diameter and reaching a depth of 109 feet.

KENTUCKY: Churchill Downs
Horizontal photo of the Grand Entrance to the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville Kentucky. Shown is a sculpture of the thoroughbred, Barbaro.

CharlesEberson/Getty Images

Churchill Downs, most famously the host of the Kentucky Derby, can hold 120,000 excited, sometimes rowdy, racing fans at max capacity.

LOUISIANA: The Pontalba Buildings
Architecture of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Pontalba Buildings are emblematic of the French Quarter in New Orleans.

Photo Italia LLC/Getty Images

The Pontalba Buildings, which make up two sides of New Orleans' Jackson Square, are emblematic of the French Quarter. Some of the residences on the upper floors are believed to be the oldest continuously rented apartments in the country.

MAINE: The Portland Head Light
Portland Head light in Maine

SeanPavonePhoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Portland Head Light — one of the state's many lighthouses — has been around since 1791. It was built under the directive of George Washington himself.

MARYLAND: The American Visionary Art Museum
American Visionary Art Museum
American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.

Amy Sparwasser/Getty Images

The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore showcases outsider art. All the works within its wonky exterior were made by inspired, self-taught creators.

MASSACHUSETTS: Simmons Hall at MIT
Simmons Hall at MIT
Simmons Hall at MIT is one of the coolest-looking dorm buildings in the US.

Enzo Figueres/Getty Images

Simmons Hall at MIT is the coolest dorm building in the US. It looks like a monstrous Tetris piece combined with underground caverns.

MICHIGAN: Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History

Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images for Elley Orem

The museum, one of the oldest and largest dedicated to African American history, is a three-story building designed with influences of African and local Detroit architecture. The building features a stunning 55-foot-tall glass dome ceiling.

MINNESOTA: The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA - September 2, 2017: Marjorie McNeely Conservatory at the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. Built in 1915. U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Cynthia Shirk/Getty Images

The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory at Saint Paul's Como Park was opened to the public in 1915 and features Japanese, Bonsai, and butterfly gardens, among others.

MISSISSIPPI: Gehry's Pods at the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art
Biloxi, Mississippi, USA - May 22, 2021: The Ohr OKeefe Museum of Art is pictured in Biloxi, Mississippi. The museum was established in 1989 and moved to its current location on Highway 90 in 2010. The five-building campus is dedicated to the ceramics of George E. Ohr, also known as the Mad Potter of Biloxi.

Carmen K Sisson/Getty Images

Designed by Frank Gehry — whose striking work also includes the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain — the curved metal pods, which house pottery at Biloxi's Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art, are meant to look as if they were "dancing with the trees," per the museum's website.

MISSOURI: The Community Bookshelf
Community Bookshelf in Kansas City
The Community Bookshelf in Kansas City displays giant book spines.

Matthew Fowler/Getty Images

The parking garage at the Kansas City Library is called the Community Bookshelf. It displays the giant spines of 22 classic books that were suggested by Kansas City readers.

MONTANA: Montana State Capitol building
Montana State Capitol
The Montana State Capitol began construction in 1896.

Ultima_Gaina/Getty Images

Construction started on the Montana State Capitol in 1896. The inside of the rotunda salutes four types of people central to the state's early history: a native American, an explorer, a gold miner, and a cowboy.

NEBRASKA: Nebraska State Capitol Building
Nebraska State Capitol Building

Faina Gurevich/Getty Images

The Nebraska Capitol in Lincoln is one of the greatest state capitol buildings in the US. Built between 1922 and 1932, the building features artworks representing the development of law and the state of Nebraska.

NEVADA: Ward Charcoal Ovens
Ward Charcoal Ovens
The Ward Charcoal Ovens in Ely were built in the 1870s for silver mining.

Scotters/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Ward Charcoal Ovens in Ely were built in the 1870s for silver mining.

The distinctive beehive-shaped Ward Charcoal Ovens in Ely were built for silver mining back in the 1870s, and they still look like nothing else on the landscape.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Mount Washington Hotel
Bretton Woods: famous Mount Washington Hotel in Jefferson in the mount washington area.

travelview/Getty Images

Built in 1902, the Mount Washington Hotel — today operating as the Omni Mount Washington Resort — is one of the last remaining grand hotels in the state, and is rumored to be haunted.

NEW JERSEY: Nassau Hall at Princeton University
Famous Nassau Hall of Princeton university at sunset golden hour. This location (Princeton University Campus) is open to public and does not require any tickets or permissions to shoot.

GummyBone/Getty Images

Nassau Hall is the oldest building at Princeton University, dating back to the 1750s. While it now houses the school's administrative offices, during the Revolutionary War it was occupied by both British and American forces and suffered damage during the battles.

NEW MEXICO: Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo
This October 2012 photo shows adobe dwellings at the Taos Pueblo in Taos, N.M., a UNESCO World Heritage site where the Taos native people have lived for 1,000 years. Tours of the pueblo describe the community’s survival and challenges across the centuries. The picture-perfect dwellings are multi-level, often with ladders to reach upper floors and round ovens outside.

AP Photo/Beth Harpaz

Hundreds of years old, the Taos Pueblo is a multi-story complex built by Native Americans from the region. It looks like one big, molded piece, and it's still used as a residence.

NEW YORK: The Chrysler Building
Aerial view of New York City skyline featuring the Chrysler Building and East River under a clear blue sky.

Wirestock/Getty Images

The Empire State Building gets all the hype, but it's the Chrysler Building that's really the most magnificent skyscraper in New York City. The Art Deco-style building was the tallest in the world when it was built, but it was beaten out by — you guessed it — the Empire State Building just 11 months later.

NORTH CAROLINA: The Executive Mansion
North Carolina's Executive Mansion in Raleigh
North Carolina's Executive Mansion in Raleigh is the home of the governor.

Dee/Getty Images

North Carolina's Executive Mansion in Raleigh is the home of the governor.

Give it to North Carolina for having its most beautiful building designated as a civil landmark. The state's Executive Mansion in Raleigh is the home of the governor and a high-profile event venue that's open to public tours.

NORTH DAKOTA: The North Dakota Heritage Center
North Dakota Heritage Center

gnagel/Getty Images

At the center of the North Dakota Heritage Center in Bismarck is a great glass cube flanked by two copper-colored wings. It's the home of the state's greatest treasures, including Native American historical artifacts and lots of dinosaur fossils.

OHIO: The Longaberger Company building
Basket Shaped Longaberger Company Home Office stock photo

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The Longaberger Company, which makes baskets, made a building in Newark that perfectly matches its brand. The building was closed in 2016, and it has largely sat idle since.

Plans for the property have included a hotel, a coworking space, and, most recently, a mixed-use development, but it still has an unclear path for the future.

OKLAHOMA: First Americans Museum
First Americans Museum

Kit Leong/Shutterstock

The First Americans Museum's 175,000-square-foot building in Oklahoma pays homage to the state's indigenous populations and their history. The design is inspired by the importance placed on the rising and setting sun by Native populations, with the Remembrance Walls being aligned with the sunrise.

The central half-dome is supported by 10 pillars of various stones, each representing a 10-mile stretch traveled by Native people during forced removal from their original homelands, according to the museum's website.

OREGON: The Portland Building
The Portland Building

EQRoy/Shutterstock

In 2009, Travel + Leisure famously called The Portland Building "one of the most hated buildings in America," and its reputation is split among architecture critics. But its shapes, strange geometric clashes of glass and stone, make it the weird building that Portland most deserves.

PENNSYLVANIA: Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater
Frank Lloyd Wright - Fallingwater, view from the woods and stream from below towards the house with lush foliage and two waterfalls

Gerald Zaffuts/Getty Images

Frank Lloyd Wright's 1935 masterpiece Fallingwater remains Pennsylvania's greatest work of architecture. Water falls from each level of the building into the one below, perfectly integrating with the landscape.

RHODE ISLAND: The Breakers
The Vanderbillt The Breakers mansion ornate facade in Newport, Rhode Island, USA

AlexandreFagundes/Getty Images

Built as a summer residence for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, The Breakers mansion in Newport has 70 rooms across 138,300 square feet, making it one of the largest houses in the US and an icon of Gilded Age architecture.

SOUTH CAROLINA: The International African American Museum
the international african american museum south carolina

Sean Rayford/Getty Images

In South Carolina, the International African American Museum stands on top of 18 13-foot pillars that keep the museum from touching the sacred ground on which it was built.

The museum is situated on the historic site of Gadsden's Wharf in Charleston's Cooper River, which was the last and most significant disembarkation point in North America for enslaved Africans during the transatlantic slave trade, per the US Civil Rights Trail website.

SOUTH DAKOTA: The Corn Palace
Exterior view of the iconic Corn Palace in Mitchell South Dakota decorated with distinctive agricultural murals

GummyBone/Getty Images

The walls of the Corn Palace in Mitchell are adorned with complex murals and art that's all been made out of, you guessed it, corn. The design changes every year.

TENNESSEE: Parthenon in Centennial Park
Nashville, Tennessee USA - May 10, 2023: Popular Centennial Park with the Parthenon replica located in the west end district

RAUL RODRIGUEZ/Getty Images

Built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition — and then reconstructed between 1921 and 1930 — the Parthenon in Centennial Park is a full-sized replica of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Today, it's open to the public as an art museum.

TEXAS: James Turrell's Twilight Epiphany skyspace
James Turrell Skyspace

The Washington Post/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Designed by renowned artist James Turrell, the "Twilight Epiphany" Skyspace in Houston is a performance space that makes you feel as though you've entered another dimension.

UTAH: Natural History Museum of Utah
Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, June 22, 2023.

JHVEPhoto/Getty Images

The Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City looks like it could have been carved out of the landscape. It was designed by Todd Schliemann of Ennead Architects.

VERMONT: The Old Round Church
An aerial view of the old round church in Richmond, Vermont, surrounded by a breathtaking view of a green forest at sunset

Wirestock/Getty Images

The Old Round Church in Richmond is technically a 16-sided polygon, but it's still enough of a circle to lend credence to a rumor that it was built in that shape so that the Devil had no corners to hide in.

VIRGINIA: Dulles International Airport
Main Terminal of Washington Dulles International Airport at dusk in Virginia, USA.

joeravi/Getty Images

If they're done wrong, airports can be the most insufferable place to spend a few hours. But we have to admire Virginia's Dulles International Airport, which almost looks like a futuristic aircraft itself.

WASHINGTON: Seattle Central Library
Seattle Central Library
SEATTLE - MAY 19: An exterior view of Seattle's new Central LIbrary on May 19, 2004 in Seattle, Washington. The glass and steel structure was designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture of the Netherlands and Seattle-based LMN Architects and cost $165.5 million to build. It is set to open to the public May 23.

Photo by Ron Wurzer/Getty Images

Forget the idea of a dusty old home for books nobody reads. The Seattle Central Library is a miracle of modern architecture.

WASHINGTON, DC: The United States Capitol
United States Capitol Building in Washington DC public building

eric1513/Getty Images

The United States Capitol is such a mainstay of nightly news and political pop culture that it's easy to take for granted. It's nice to step back once in a while and take in the grandeur and historical significance of this government building that reflects on America's complicated past.

Construction on the Capitol began in September 1793, and much of the structure was built by enslaved workers working alongside free Black and white laborers, per the White House Historical Association. In 2012, a marker was added to the Capitol Visitor Center commemorating the unpaid labor of enslaved people who built the nation's Capitol.

WEST VIRGINIA: The Palace of Gold
NEW VRINDABAN COMMUNITY, WVA - OCTOBER 10: Tourists visiting from India pose for photographs in front of the Palace of Gold on Oct. 10.

Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The Palace of Gold is a majestic memorial shrine located in the Hare Krishna community of New Vrindaban.

WISCONSIN: The Burke Brise Soleil
A family outside the Milwaukee Art Museum.

: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The most striking feature of the Milwaukee Art Museum is the Burke Brise Soleil, a towering sunscreen with a 217-foot wingspan. It folds and unfolds twice a day.

WYOMING: Smith Mansion
smith mansion wyoming

Grossinger/Shutterstock

This wacky-looking building is in the middle of the remote Wapiti Valley. In 1971, architect Francis Lee Smith started building the structure by hand as his and his family's home. After completing the first floor in 1973, he could not stop building. He died after falling from one of the balconies in 1992.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Does Congress Need to Approve the Arch? Trump Says It Did 100 Years Ago.

The administration says the arch fulfills the “historic design intent” of a proposal from the 1920s. But does it honor history or flout it?

© Collection of The New York Historical

A photograph circa 1931 of Arlington Memorial Bridge with proposed columns by the architect William Mitchell Kendall drawn to scale.
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Why Have Modern Architects Forgotten How to Design Windows?

Why do modern architects insist on designing such ugly, soul-crushing buildings, asks Joanna Gray. Because they win awards for doing so. And worst of all is the generic hollow-eyed modern window.

The post Why Have Modern Architects Forgotten How to Design Windows? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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Tout le changement du monde

JPEG - 107.6 kio
Conor Harrington. – « The Blind Patriot » (Le patriote aveugle), 2017
© Conor Harrington - photographie MK Bruix

Aux États-Unis, la construction des bibliothèques présidentielles modernes obéit à deux grands principes. Le premier, esthétique, est de rivaliser de splendeur avec ses devancières. De l'immense bâtisse à angles droits de M. George W. Bush, à Dallas (Texas), au rectangle de verre surélevé de M. William Clinton à Little Rock, dans l'Arkansas, chaque nouvelle réalisation est tenue de surpasser les précédentes en coût, en majesté et en prouesse architecturale. Le second principe, presque aussi important, est que la fonction ostentatoire prend désormais le pas sur la fonction pédagogique. Théoriquement, ces institutions semi-publiques ont pour mission d'organiser les archives de l'exécutif et de les ouvrir aux chercheurs. Dans les faits, elles ressemblent de plus en plus à des pseudo-mémoriaux de Lincoln conçus par les pseudo-Lincoln eux-mêmes. Toutes incluent un musée sur les années passées à la Maison Blanche par l'intéressé et proposent une version de l'histoire que seuls peuvent valider ses partisans les plus dévoués.

Sans surprise, l'Obama Presidential Center, inauguré en juin dernier à Chicago, va plus loin encore que ses prédécesseurs (et sera probablement dépassé à son tour par la structure que M. Donald Trump prévoit d'édifier à Miami). Avec une facture à 850 millions de dollars, il a coûté environ le double de la bibliothèque de M. Bush, près de trois fois celle de M. Clinton et plus de quarante fois celle de Harry S. Truman — un modeste bâtiment de plain-pied achevé en 1957. Sa tour de soixante-neuf mètres, un bloc sculpté dans le granit, se dresse au milieu d'un superbe parc paysager qui fut le site de l'Exposition universelle de 1893. Au sommet, ciselé en lettres de béton de part et d'autre d'une des arêtes, un extrait du discours prononcé par M. Barack Obama en 2015 pour le cinquantième anniversaire de la marche de Selma. Pas une ou deux phrases mémorables, non — un paragraphe entier de dix-neuf lignes aussi haut qu'un immeuble de huit étages.

Mais qu'on ne s'y trompe pas : malgré le poids de l'écrit dans cette architecture, on ne trouvera ici nulle bibliothèque de recherche. En lieu et place des archives présidentielles — conservées par les archives nationales dans quelque banlieue du Maryland près de Washington —, le Centre Obama comprend un restaurant, un bar, des équipements sportifs et, tout en haut de la tour, un musée à la gloire de son sujet.

L'objectif du projet est aussi noble que didactique : nous inculquer la science du changement, une notion revendiquée par les élites d'aujourd'hui, de même que l'honnête homme fin-de-siècle se réclamait du progrès industriel et des beaux-arts. Et le mot « élites » ne se veut pas injurieux ; il est tout simplement le seul qui convienne pour décrire l'éblouissante liste de noms inscrits sur le mur des donateurs, un pot-pourri de multimilliardaires de la « tech » et de la finance, de fortunes dynastiques, de grandes fondations et de géants industriels. Dans la catégorie des 50 millions de dollars et plus figurent M. Jeff Bezos, propriétaire d'Amazon et du Washington Post ; Mme Connie Ballmer, épouse d'un ancien président-directeur général (PDG) de Microsoft ; M. Brian Chesky, PDG d'Airbnb ; la holding TWG Global, très active dans l'intelligence artificielle (IA) ; une fondation liée au capital-investisseur Glenn H. Hutchins ; et un mystérieux mécène identifié comme « Anonyme ». Parmi les donateurs un peu moins prodigues (mais tout de même à plus de 1 million), on trouve MM. Eric Schmidt, ex-patron de Google, et Sean Parker, cocréateur de Napster, ainsi que Microsoft et la Fondation Bill et Melinda Gates. M. Kenneth Griffin, financier aux sympathies nettement républicaines, est également présent, aux côtés de l'empire Walmart. S'ajoutent à cela une flopée de philanthropes, de sportifs, de célébrités, et un bel échantillon du classement « Fortune 500 ». Trente ans en arrière, il y a fort à parier que M. Trump aurait été du nombre.

Tous ces oligarques, héritiers et monopolistes partagent une même volonté de promouvoir une lecture de l'histoire dans laquelle, comme le proclame le musée, les « gens ordinaires » peuvent impulser des « changements extraordinaires ». Cette glorification du pouvoir populaire est au cœur du message que le complexe présidentiel entend délivrer. Plusieurs installations interactives vous invitent à « imaginer votre impact », par exemple lorsque vous participez à la vie de votre quartier, tandis qu'au quatrième étage vous êtes accueilli par une célèbre citation de M. Obama composée en énormes lettres métalliques : « Je vous demande de croire. Non pas dans ma capacité à changer les choses, mais dans la vôtre. »

Il y a quinze ans, les conservateurs se saisissaient de phrases lénifiantes comme celle-ci pour crier à la « socialisation » imminente de l'Amérique. Pour d'autres, elles sonnaient déjà creux. Ils avaient compris que M. Obama n'était pas un progressiste, mais un « ultramodéré » auquel le respect pour les usages, les jurisprudences et les progrès à petits pas finissait par lier les mains. Un homme qui ne jurait que par l'éditorialiste-vedette du New York Times Thomas L. Friedman, qui avait choisi M. Lawrence Summers comme principal conseiller économique et qui voulait conclure un « grand marché » avec les républicains au Congrès (sabrer dans le budget des retraites et de l'assurance-maladie en échange d'augmentations d'impôts, pour ceux qui auraient oublié).

Aujourd'hui, le musée Obama nous ferait presque croire que la droite avait vu juste. M. Summers et le « grand marché » ont disparu du récit officiel. Le segment consacré à la crise financière de 2007-2008 n'explique pas pourquoi le président a si peu fait pour sanctionner les criminels en col blanc ou empêcher les saisies immobilières. Rien n'est dit non plus de sa mollesse chronique face aux républicains au Congrès, ni de son incroyable naïveté quant aux prétendus bienfaits du commerce international ou aux bonnes intentions de la Silicon Valley.

En revanche, le manuel de radicalisme du militant socialiste Saul Alinsky est en vente à la boutique de souvenirs, et les expositions retracent avec force détails l'histoire de la contestation de gauche en Amérique. Le visiteur ne peut qu'en déduire que, tout compte fait, M. Obama fut le porteur du flambeau sacré de la réforme, l'héritier de l'« ère progressiste » (1890-1920), du combat pour le suffrage des femmes, du New Deal, du mouvement pour les droits civiques, de la contre-culture des années 1960 et de toutes les autres insurrections populaires imaginables, ou peu s'en faut.

Qu'une puissance institutionnelle se pare d'atours révolutionnaires n'est pas nouveau, mais ici le stratagème prend une autre dimension. La présidence Obama avait commencé sur une note triomphale, avec une large majorité dans les urnes et un prix Nobel de la paix. Elle s'est achevée sur l'impensable : la victoire de M. Trump et un Parti démocrate en lambeaux. Que s'est-il donc passé ?

En invoquant à tout bout de champ le pouvoir du peuple, le musée Obama répond indirectement à la question : contrairement à ce que l'on croit, le président est loin d'être omnipotent. « Le changement dont nous avons besoin ne vient pas de Washington ; il vient à Washington », affirmait celui qui n'était encore que candidat lors de la convention nationale démocrate de 2008. En 2015, à Selma, le président Obama enfonçait le clou : « La démocratie n'est pas le travail du seul Congrès. Ni des seuls tribunaux. Ni même du seul président. (…) Le mot le plus fort de notre démocratie, c'est “nous”. “Nous, le peuple”. “Nous vaincrons”. “Oui, nous le pouvons”. »

Derrière ces beaux sentiments, on ne peut s'empêcher de discerner une forme de dérobade. Ce serait donc à nous, le peuple, de nous retrousser les manches pour faire bouger les choses. À nous de rester perpétuellement mobilisés pour mériter le changement. À nous de l'« obliger à le faire » (make him do it), comme disait l'un des slogans de gauche en vogue en 2009. Quand des organisations progressistes brandissent cette formule pour rallier des soutiens, c'est une maxime ; quand des responsables de l'exécutif la reprennent, c'est une excuse.

« Je ne crois pas à la nostalgie », a déclaré M. Obama à la veille de l'ouverture publique de son centre. C'est pourtant exactement l'émotion que cherche à susciter le musée en faisant la part belle aux toutes premières années de sa saga : la campagne électrisante de 2008, l'incroyable exploit d'être devenu le premier président noir des États-Unis, la glorieuse épopée des réformes. Rappelez-vous cet âge d'or où tout paraissait possible, où l'homme brillant, élégant et dynamique qui dirigeait la nation galvanisait les foules en leur parlant de changement et d'espoir. L'époque d'avant le plongeon dans la haine et la bêtise.

Pendant ce temps, à Washington, un autre président projette des édifices grandioses en réinterprétant à sa manière hallucinée le style néoclassique, fricote avec des stars du porno, déverse de la merde sur ses contempteurs dans des clips générés par l'intelligence artificielle et organise des combats d'arts martiaux sur la pelouse de la Maison Blanche. Pour les bien-pensants, ce qui a pu convaincre les Américains d'élire ce bouffon sectaire plutôt que les successeurs triés sur le volet de l'auguste Obama est un mystère qui dépasse l'entendement.

En apparence, MM. Obama et Trump sont de parfaits contraires : d'un côté le bon goût, de l'autre le vulgaire ; d'un côté le respect des règles, de l'autre le piétinement des précédents ; d'un côté le président malgré lui, de l'autre l'aspirant dictateur qui ne recule devant rien. Pourtant, certains traits les rapprochent. Tous deux sont des hommes d'image, celle-ci se résumant dans un cas comme dans l'autre à un populisme de façade. Tous deux ont habilement gouverné pour perpétuer les inégalités, renflouant les banques par-ci, diminuant les impôts par-là. Et tous deux ont choisi d'orner de mots leur signature architecturale. À cette différence près que, pour le second, ce mot est toujours le même : son nom. Et l'on se demande ce que peut encore faire le citoyen ordinaire, hormis peut-être se prendre en photo, majeur dressé devant l'énorme TRUMP en lettres argentées qui barre un des gratte-ciel de Chicago.

(Traduit de l'anglais [États-Unis] par Élise Roy.)

Voir en ligne : /2026/10/FRANK/70065
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The Diver Who Held Up a Cathedral With His Bare Hands — for Six Years, in Total Darkness

Winchester Cathedral covers roughly 53,800 square feet (about 5,000 square meters) of floor space, making it one of the largest cathedrals in Northern Europe. At 558 feet (170 meters) long, it’s also the longest medieval cathedral in the world. Neither the congregation nor the more than 365,000 tourists who visit each year to admire its […]

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When I moved out of my mom’s house and into my first apartment with a roommate at 23, I brought with me a black rug my dad bought in Morocco. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon, he joined the Peace Corps and spent time in Ouarzazate designing government buildings. In a room full of cheap Ikea furniture, it was the only thing that truly felt like a reflection of me. Well, that and a rigid, plastic, yellow outdoor chair I for some reason bought to go with my desk. Looking back at photos now, I see that the choice makes more sense: The chair my dad got me for my room in the Big House was almost the exact same hue.

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