Four years from the end of Obama’s presidency, Chicago and Honolulu are ramping up major campaigns to build the center that will house the 44th president’s records.

Universities and community groups in Hawaii and Illinois are drafting plans and staking out locations. Obama won’t likely announce a decision soon, but the site he chooses will house the monument to his historic presidency and become an instrument to continue his legacy.

At the University of Chicago, where Obama once taught, top officials with close ties to the White House traveled to President George W. Bush’s library in Dallas in February and met with government archivists. And Hawaii’s government is setting aside a $75 million plot of prime oceanfront land, just in case.