Millennium Park
Encyclopedia
Millennium Park is a public park
located in the Loop
community area
of Chicago
in Illinois, USA and originally intended to celebrate the millennium. It is a prominent civic center
near the city's Lake Michigan
shoreline that covers a 24.5 acres (99,148.1 m²) section of northwestern Grant Park
. The area was previously occupied by parkland, Illinois Central rail yards, and parking lots. The park, which is bounded by Michigan Avenue
, Randolph Street, Columbus Drive and East Monroe Drive, features a variety of public art
. As of 2009, Millennium Park trailed only Navy Pier
as a Chicago tourist attraction.
Planning of the park began in October 1997. Construction began in October 1998, and Millennium Park was opened in a ceremony on July 16, 2004, four years behind schedule. The three-day opening celebrations were attended by some 300,000 people and included an inaugural concert by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. The park has received awards for its accessibility
and green design. Millennium Park has free admission, and features the Jay Pritzker Pavilion
, Cloud Gate
, the Crown Fountain
, the Lurie Garden
, and various other attractions. The park is connected by the BP Pedestrian Bridge
and the Nichols Bridgeway
to other parts of Grant Park. Because the park sits atop a parking garage and the commuter rail Millennium Station, it is considered the world's largest rooftop garden.
Some observers consider Millennium Park to be the city's most important project since the World's Columbian Exposition
of 1893. It far exceeded its originally proposed budget of $150 million. The final cost of $475 million was borne by Chicago taxpayers and private donors. The city paid $270 million; private donors paid the rest, and assumed roughly half of the financial responsibility for the cost overrun
s. The construction delays and cost overruns were attributed to poor planning, many design changes, and cronyism
. Many critics have praised the completed park.
owned a right of way between downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan
, in the area that became Grant Park
and used it for railroad tracks. In 1871, Union Base-Ball Grounds
was built on part of the site that became Millennium Park; the Chicago White Stockings
played home games there until the grounds were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire
. Lake Front Park, the White Stockings' new ball grounds, was built in 1878 with a short right field due to the railroad tracks. The grounds were improved and the seating capacity was doubled in 1883, but the team had to move after the season ended the next year, as the federal government had given the city the land "with the stipulation that no commercial venture could use it". Daniel Burnham
planned Grant Park around the Illinois Central Railroad property in his 1909 Plan of Chicago. In 1997, when the city gained airspace rights
over the tracks, it decided to build a parking facility over them in the northwestern corner of Grant Park. Eventually, the city realized that a grand civic amenity might lure private dollars in a way that a municipal improvement would not, and thus began the effort to create Millennium Park. The park was originally planned under the name Lakefront Millennium Park.
The park was conceived as a 16 acres (64,749.8 m²) landscape-covered bridge over an underground parking structure to be built on top of the Metra
/Illinois Central Railroad tracks in Grant Park. Originally, the park was to be designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, but gradually additional architects and artists such as Frank Gehry
and Thomas Beeby were incorporated into the plan. Sponsors were sought by invitation only.
In February 1999, the city announced it was negotiating with Frank Gehry to design a proscenium
arch and orchestra enclosure for a bandshell, as well as a pedestrian bridge crossing Columbus Drive, and that it was seeking donors to cover his work. At the time, the Chicago Tribune
dubbed Gehry "the hottest architect in the universe" in reference to the acclaim for his Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
, and they noted the designs would not include Mayor Richard M. Daley
's trademarks, such as wrought iron
and seasonal flower boxes. Millennium Park project manager Edward Uhlir said "Frank is just the cutting edge of the next century of architecture," and noted that no other architect was being sought. Gehry was approached several times by Skidmore architect Adrian Smith
on behalf of the city. His hesitance and refusal to accept the commission was overcome by Cindy Pritzker, the philanthropist, who had developed a relationship with the architect when he won the Pritzker Prize
in 1991. According to John H. Bryan
, who led fund-raising for the park, Pritzker enticed Gehry in face-to-face discussions, using a $15 million funding commitment toward the bandshell's creation. Having Gehry get involved helped the city realize its vision of having modern themes in the park; upon rumors of his involvement the Chicago Sun-Times
proclaimed "Perhaps the future has arrived", while the Chicago Tribune noted that "The most celebrated architect in the world may soon have a chance to bring Chicago into the 21st Century".
File:Millennium Park Map labels.png|Image map
of Millennium Park with each feature or label linked |alt=Rectangular map of a park about 1.5 times as wide as it is tall. The top half is dominated by the Pritzker Pavilion and Great Lawn. The lower half is divided into three roughly equal sections: (left to right) Wrigley Square, McCormick Tribune Plaza, and Crown Fountain. North is to the left.|400px|thumb|left
rect 51 18 145 80 McDonald's Cycle Center
rect 338 2 496 94BP Pedestrian Bridge
rect 497 62 536 101BP Pedestrian Bridge
rect 497 6 631 34 Columbus Drive
rect 10 88 154 104 Exelon Pavilion NE
rect 47 108 79 131 Exelon Pavilion NE
rect 619 95 754 112 Exelon Pavilion SE
rect 728 113 759 135 Exelon Pavilion SE
rect 10 246 166 263 Exelon Pavilion NW
rect 47 265 78 288 Exelon Pavilion NW
rect 613 243 762 258 Exelon Pavilion SW
rect 736 260 757 275 Exelon Pavilion SW
rect 44 149 174 229 Harris Theater
rect 175 103 572 288 Jay Pritzker Pavilion
rect 573 134 757 238 Lurie Garden
rect 572 311 718 329 Nichols Bridgeway
rect 516 298 777 306 Nichols Bridgeway
rect 58 350 207 396 Chase Promenade North
rect 291 350 453 396 Chase Promenade Central
rect 537 350 687 396 Chase Promenade South
rect 313 397 431 424 AT&T Plaza
rect 37 434 227 473 Boeing Gallery North
rect 516 433 757 469 Boeing Gallery South
rect 337 426 416 470 Cloud Gate
rect 60 486 216 546 Wrigley Square
rect 287 477 457 543 McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
rect 557 488 727 543 Crown Fountain
rect 308 567 439 583 Michigan Avenue
rect 1 316 23 442 Randolph Street
desc bottom-left
Plans for the park were officially announced in March 1998 and construction began in September of that year. Initial construction was under the auspices of the Chicago Department of Transportation, because the project bridges the railroad tracks. However, as the project grew and expanded, its broad variety of features and amenities outside the scope of the field of transportation placed it under the jurisdiction of the city's Public Buildings Commission.
In April 1999, the city announced that the Pritzker family
had donated $15 million to fund Gehry's bandshell and an additional nine donors committed $10 million. The day of this announcement, Gehry agreed to the design request. In November, when his design was unveiled, Gehry said the bridge design was preliminary and not well-conceived because funding for it was not committed. The need to fund a bridge to span the eight-lane Columbus Drive was evident, but some planning for the park was delayed in anticipation of details on the redesign of Soldier Field
. In January 2000, the city announced plans to expand the park to include features that became Cloud Gate, the Crown Fountain, the McDonalds Cycle Center, and the BP Pedestrian Bridge. Later that month, Gehry unveiled his new winding design for the bridge.
Mayor Daley's influence was key in getting corporate and individual sponsors to pay for much of the park. Bryan, the former chief executive officer
(CEO) of Sara Lee Corporation who spearheaded the fundraising, says that sponsorship was by invitation and no one refused the opportunity to be a sponsor. One Time
magazine writer describes the park as the crowning achievement for Mayor Daley, while another suggests the park's cost and time overages were examples of the city's mismanagement. The July 16–18, 2004, opening gala was sponsored by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
The community surrounding Millennium Park has become one of the most fashionable residential addresses in Chicago. In 2006, Forbes named the park's 60602 zip code
as the hottest in terms of price appreciation in the country, with upscale buildings such as The Heritage at Millennium Park
(130 N. Garland) leading the way for other buildings, such as Waterview Tower
, The Legacy and Joffrey Tower
. The median sale price for residential real estate was $710,000 in 2005 according to Forbes, also ranking it on the list of most expensive zip codes. The park has been credited with increasing residential real estate values by $100 per square foot ($1,076 per m2).
Millennium Park is a portion of the 319 acres (1.3 km²)) Grant Park, known as the "front lawn" of downtown Chicago, and has four major artistic highlights: the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Cloud Gate, the Crown Fountain, and the Lurie Garden. Millennium Park is successful as a public art venue in part due to the grand scale of each piece and the open spaces for display. A showcase for postmodern architecture
, it also features the McCormick Tribune Ice Skating Rink, the BP Pedestrian Bridge, the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance
, Wrigley Square
, the McDonald's Cycle Center
, the Exelon Pavilions
, the AT&T Plaza
, the Boeing Galleries
, the Chase Promenade
, and the Nichols Bridgeway
.
Millennium Park is considered one of the largest green roof
s in the world, having been constructed on top of a railroad yard and large parking garages. The park, which is known for being user friendly, has a very rigorous cleaning schedule with many areas being swept, wiped down or cleaned multiple times a day. Although the park was unveiled in July 2004, some features opened earlier, and upgrades continued for some time afterwards. Along with the cultural features above ground (described below) the park has its own 2218-space parking garage.
, whose family is known for owning Hyatt Hotels and was a major donor. The Pritzker Pavilion is Grant Park's outdoor performing arts venue for small events, and complements Petrillo Music Shell
, the park's older and larger bandshell. The pavilion is built partially atop the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, the park's indoor performing arts venue, with which it shares a loading dock and backstage facilities. The pavilion is seen as a major upgrade from the Petrillo Music Shell for those events it hosts. Initially, the pavilion's lawn seats were free for all concerts, but this changed when Tori Amos
performed the first rock concert there on August 31, 2005.
The Pritzker Pavilion is the home of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Grant Park Music Festival
, the nation's only remaining free, municipally supported, outdoor, classical music series. The Festival is presented by the Chicago Park District
and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The Pavilion hosts a wide range of other music series and annual performing arts events. Performers ranging from mainstream rock bands to classical musicians and opera singers have appeared at the pavilion, which also hosts physical fitness activities such as yoga. All rehearsals at the pavilion are open to the public; trained guides are available for the music festival rehearsals, which are well-attended.
The construction of the pavilion created a legal controversy, given that there are historic limitations on the height of buildings in Grant Park. To avoid these legal restrictions, the city classifies the bandshell as a work of art rather than a building. With several design and assembly problems, the construction plans were revised over time, with features eliminated and others added as successful fundraising allowed the budget to grow. In the end, the performance venue was designed with a large fixed seating area, a Great Lawn, a trellis network to support the sound system, and a headdress fashioned from signature Gehry stainless steel. It features a sound system with an acoustic design that replicates an indoor concert hall sound experience. The pavilion and Millennium Park have received favorable recognition by critics, especially for their accessibility; an accessibility award ceremony held at the pavilion in 2005 described it as "one of the most accessible parks—not just in the United States but possibly the world".
The AT&T Plaza is a public space that hosts the Cloud Gate sculpture. The plaza opened in July 2004 with the unveiling of the sculpture during the grand opening weekend of the park. Ameritech
donated $3 million for the naming right for the plaza, but it was SBC Plaza when the park opened, as a merger had changed the company name to SBC Communications. The 2005 merger of SBC and AT&T
led to the present name. The sculpture and the AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill
, between the Chase Promenade and McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. The plaza has become a place to view the McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. During the holiday season, the plaza hosts Christmas caroling.
Cloud Gate is a three-story steel sculpture that has been dubbed "The Bean" by Chicagoans, because of its legume-like shape. The sculpture is the first public artwork in the United States by world-renowned artist Anish Kapoor
. The privately funded piece cost $23 million, considerably more than the original estimate of $6 million. Composed of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 x and weighs 110 ST (100 t; 98 LT).
After Kapoor's design for the sculpture was selected during a design competition, numerous technological concerns regarding the design's construction and assembly arose, in addition to concerns regarding the sculpture's upkeep and maintenance. Experts were consulted, some of whom believed the design could not be implemented. Eventually, a feasible method was found, but the sculpture's construction fell behind schedule. Cloud Gate was unveiled in an incomplete form during the Millennium Park grand opening celebration, as the grid of welds around each metal panel was still visible. The sculpture was concealed again while it was completed; in early 2005, workers polished out the seams. Cloud Gate was formally dedicated on May 15, 2006, and it has since gained considerable popularity, both domestically and internationally.
Cloud Gate is a reflective steel sculpture that is inspired by liquid mercury; the sculpture's surface reflects and distorts the city's skyline. The curved, mirror-like surface of the sculpture provides striking reflections of visitors, the city skyline (particularly the historic Michigan Avenue "streetwall"
) and the sky. Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gates 12 feet (3.7 m) high arch. On the underside is the "omphalos" (Greek for "navel"), a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections. The sculpture builds upon many of Kapoor's artistic themes and is popular with tourists as a photo-taking opportunity for its unique reflective properties.
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The Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture
, named in honor of Chicago's Crown family
and designed by Catalan
conceptual artist Jaume Plensa
; it opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a black granite reflecting pool placed between a pair of transparent glass brick
towers. The towers are 50 feet (15.2 m) tall, and use light-emitting diode
s behind the bricks to display digital videos on their inward faces. Construction and design of the Crown Fountain cost $17 million.
Weather permitting, the water operates from May to October, intermittently cascading down the two towers and spouting through a nozzle on each tower's front face. To achieve the effect in which water appears to be flowing from subjects' mouths, each video has a segment where the subject's lips are puckered, which is then timed to correspond to the spouting water, reminiscent of gargoyle
fountains; this happens roughly every five minutes. The park and fountain are open to the public daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Residents and critics have praised the fountain for its artistic and entertainment features. It highlights Plensa's themes of dualism, light, and water, extending the use of video technology from his prior works. The fountain promotes physical interaction between the public and the water in an artistic setting. Both the fountain and Millennium Park are highly accessible because of their universal design.
The Crown Fountain has been the most controversial of all the Millennium Park features. Before it was built, some were concerned that the sculpture's height violated the aesthetic tradition of the park. After construction, surveillance cameras were installed atop the fountain, which led to a public outcry (and their quick removal). However, the fountain has survived its somewhat contentious beginnings to find its way into Chicago pop culture. It is a popular subject for photographers and a common gathering place. While some of the videos displayed are of scenery, most attention has focused on its video clips of local residents, in which almost a thousand Chicagoans randomly appear on two screens. The fountain is a public play area and offers people an escape from summer heat, allowing children to frolic in the fountain's water.
, Piet Oudolf
, and Robert Israel, it opened on July 16, 2004. The garden is a combination of perennials, bulbs, grasses, shrubs and trees. It is the featured nature component of the world's largest green roof
. The garden cost $13.2 million and has a $10 million financial endowment
for maintenance and upkeep. It was named after philanthropist Ann Lurie, who donated the $10 million endowment. The garden is a tribute to the city, whose motto is "Urbs in Horto", Latin for "City in a Garden". The Lurie Garden is composed of two "plates". The dark plate depicts Chicago's history by presenting shade-loving plants, and has a combination of trees that will provide a shade canopy for these plants when they fill in. The light plate, which has no trees, represents the city's future with sun-loving perennials that thrive in heat and light.
The McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink is a multipurpose venue located along the western edge of Millennium Park opposite the streetwall of the Historic Michigan Boulevard District
. On December 20, 2001, it became the first attraction in Millennium Park to open, a few weeks ahead of the Millennium Park underground parking garage. The $3.2 million plaza was funded by a donation from the McCormick Tribune Foundation. For four months a year, it operates as McCormick Tribune Ice Rink, a free public outdoor ice skating rink. It is generally open for skating from mid-November until mid-March and hosts over 100,000 skaters annually. It is known as one of Chicago's better outdoor people watching
locations during the winter months. The rink is operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs rather than the Chicago Park District
, which operates most major public ice skating rinks in Chicago.
For the rest of the year, it serves as The Plaza at Park Grill or Park Grill Plaza, Chicago's largest al fresco dining
facility. The 150-seat outdoor restaurant offers scenic views of the park, and hosts various culinary events and musical performances during its months of operation. From June 21 to September 15, 2002, the plaza served as an open-air exhibition space and hosted the inaugural exhibit in Millennium Park, Exelon
Presents Earth From Above by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
, a French aerial photographer
.
The Park Grill Plaza is affiliated with the 300-seat indoor Park Grill
restaurant, located beneath the AT&T Plaza and Cloud Gate. The Park Grill is the only full-service restaurant in Millennium Park and opened on November 24, 2003. It regularly places among the leaders in citywide best-of competitions for best burger, and it is widely praised for its views. The restaurant has been the focus of controversies about the numerous associates of Mayor Daley who are investors, its exclusive location and lucrative contract terms. One of the most financially successful restaurants in Chicago, the Park Grill remains exempt from property taxes after a multi-year litigation which reached the appellate courts in Illinois.
The BP Pedestrian Bridge is a girder
footbridge
over Columbus Drive that connects Millennium Park with Daley Bicentennial Plaza, both parts of the larger Grant Park. The pedestrian bridge is the first bridge Gehry designed to be built, and was named for BP plc
, which donated $5 million to the construction of the park. It opened on July 16, 2004, along with the rest of Millennium Park. Gehry had been courted by the city to design the bridge and the neighboring Jay Pritzker Pavilion, and eventually agreed to do so after the Pritzker family
funded the Pavilion. The bridge is known for its aesthetics, and Gehry's style is seen in its biomorphic
allusions and extensive sculptural use of stainless steel plates to express abstraction. The bridge is referred to as snakelike in character due to its curving form. The bridge's design, which meets highway standards to accommodate rushes of pedestrian traffic simultaneously exiting Pritzker Pavilion events, enables it to bear a heavy load.
The pedestrian bridge serves as a noise barrier
for the pavilion, blocking traffic sounds from Columbus Drive. It is a connecting link between Millennium Park and destinations to the east, such as the nearby lakefront, other parts of Grant Park and a parking garage. The BP Bridge uses a concealed box girder
design with a concrete base, and its deck is covered by hardwood floor boards. It is designed without handrails, using stainless steel parapet
s instead. The total length is 935 feet (285 m), with a five percent slope on its inclined surfaces that makes it barrier-free and accessible. It has won awards for its use of sheet metal. Although the bridge is closed in winter because ice cannot be safely removed from its wooden walkway, it has received favorable reviews for its design and aesthetics.
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1525-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park. Constructed in 2002–03, it is the city's premier performance venue for small- and medium-sized performance groups, which had previously been without a permanent home and were underserved by the city's performing venue options. The theater, which is largely underground due to Grant Park-related height restrictions, was named for its primary benefactors, Joan and Irving Harris
.
It serves as the park's indoor performing venue, a compliment to Jay Pritzker Pavilion, which hosts the park's outdoor performances. Among the regularly featured local groups are the Joffrey Ballet
, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
and Chicago Opera Theater
. It provides subsidized rental, technical expertise, and marketing support for the companies using it, and turned a profit in its fourth fiscal year.
The Harris Theater has hosted notable national and international performers, such as the New York City Ballet
, which made its first visit to Chicago in over 25 years (in 2006). The theater began offering subscription series of traveling performers in its 2008–09 fifth anniversary season. Performances through this series have included the San Francisco Ballet
, Mikhail Baryshnikov
, and Stephen Sondheim
.
The theater has been credited as contributing to the performing arts renaissance in Chicago, and it has been favorably reviewed for its acoustics
, sightline
s, proscenium
and for providing a home base for numerous performing organizations. Although it is seen as a high-caliber venue for its music audiences, the theater is regarded as less than ideal for jazz groups, because it is more expensive and larger than most places where jazz is performed. The design has been criticized for traffic flow problems, with an elevator bottleneck. However, the theater's prominent location and its underground design to preserve Millennium Park have been praised. Although there were complaints about high-priced events in its early years, discounted ticket programs were introduced in the 2009–10 season.
and North Michigan
, across from the Historic Michigan Boulevard District
. It contains the Millennium Monument, a nearly full-sized replica of the semicircle of paired Greek Doric
-style columns (called a peristyle
) that originally sat in this area of Grant Park between 1917 and 1953. The square also contains a large lawn and a public fountain. The William Wrigley, Jr. Foundation contributed $5 million for the monument and square, which was named in its honor. The pedestal of the Millennium Monument's peristyle is inscribed with the names of the 115 financial donors who made the 91 contributions of at least $1 million each to help pay for Millennium Park.
The McDonald's Cycle Center is a 300-space heated and air conditioned indoor bike station
located in the northeast corner of Millennium Park. The facility provides lockers, showers, a snack bar with outdoor summer seating, bike repair, bike rental and other amenities for downtown bicycle commuters
and utility cyclists
. The bike station also accommodates runners and in-line skaters, and provides space for a Chicago Police Department
Bike Patrol Group. The city-built center opened in July 2004 as the Millennium Park Bike Station; since June 2006, it has been sponsored by McDonald's
and several other partners, including city departments and bicycle advocacy organizations. Suburban Chicago-based McDonald's sponsorship of the Cycle Center fit in well with its efforts to help its customers become more healthy by encouraging "balanced, active lifestyles". The Cycle Center is accessible by membership and day pass.
Planning for the Cycle Center was part of the larger "Bike 2010 Plan", in which the city aimed to make itself more accommodating to bicycle commuters. This plan (since replaced by the "Bike 2015 Plan") included provisions for front-mounted two-bike carriers on Chicago Transit Authority
(CTA) buses, permitting bikes to be carried on Chicago 'L'
trains, installing numerous bike racks and creating bicycle lanes in streets throughout the city. Additionally, the Chicago metropolitan area's other mass transit providers, Metra and Pace
, have developed increased bike accessibility. Mayor Daley was an advocate of the plan, noting it is also an environmentally friendly effort to cut down on traffic. Environmentalists, urban planner
s and cycling enthusiasts around the world have expressed interest in the Cycle Center, and want to emulate what they see as a success story in urban planning and transit-oriented development. Pro-cycling and environmentalist journalists in publications well beyond Chicago have described the Cycle Center as exemplary, impressive, unique and ground-breaking. The Toronto Star
notes that it is revered as "as a kind of Shangri-La
", and describes it as "a jewel-like glass building on the Chicago waterfront,[that] has many of the amenities of an upscale health club [...] close to the heart of the city," with the additional statement that "It's not heaven, but it's close". A Vancouver official told The Oregonian
that it was "the ultimate in bicycle stations", and would be natural for bicycle friendly cities to emulate.
The Exelon Pavilions are a set of four solar energy-generating structures in Millennium Park. The pavilions provide sufficient energy to power the equivalent of 14 Energy star
-rated energy-efficient houses in Chicago. The pavilions were designed in January 2001 and construction began in January 2004. The Southeast and Southwest Exelon Pavilions (jointly the South Exelon Pavilions) along Madison Street were completed and opened in July 2004, and flank the Lurie Garden. The Northeast and Northwest Exelon Pavilions (jointly the North Exelon Pavilions) flank the Harris Theater along Randolph Street and were completed in November 2004, with a grand opening on April 30, 2005. Besides producing energy, three of the four pavilions provide access to the park's underground parking garages and the fourth serves as the park's welcome center. Exelon
, a company that generates the electricity transmitted by its subsidiary Commonwealth Edison
, donated approximately $6 million for the pavilions.
The Boeing Galleries are a pair of outdoor exhibition spaces within Millennium Park; they are located along the south and north mid-level terraces, above and east of Wrigley Square and the Crown Fountain. They were added after the park opened; in March 2005, Boeing
President and Chief Executive Officer
James Bell
announced the firm would make a $5 million grant to fund construction of the spaces, and for an endowment to "help fund visual arts exhibitions" in them. The galleries, which were built between March and June 2005, have hosted grand-scale art exhibits, some of which have run for two full summers.
The Chase Promenade is an open-air tree-lined pedestrian walkway in Millennium Park that opened July 16, 2004. The promenade was made possible by a gift from the Bank One Foundation
; Bank One merged with JPMorgan Chase in 2004, and the name became Chase Promenade. The 8 acres (32,374.9 m²) walkway accommodates exhibitions, festivals and other family events. It also serves as a private-event rental venue. The Chase Promenade hosted the 2009 Burnham Pavilions, which were the cornerstone of the citywide Burnham Plan
centennial celebration.
The Nichols Bridgeway, a pedestrian bridge that opened on May 16, 2009, connects the south end of Millennium Park with the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago
. The bridge begins at the southwest end of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion's Great Lawn and extends across Monroe Street, where it connects to the third floor of the Art Institute's West Pavilion. The bridge design by Renzo Piano
, the architect of the Modern Wing, was inspired by the hull
of a boat.
The Nichols Bridgeway is approximately 620 ft (189 m) long and 15 ft (4.6 m) wide. The bottom of the bridge is made of white, painted structural steel, the floor is made of aluminum planking and the 42 inches (1.1 m) tall railings are steel set atop stainless steel mesh. The bridge features anti-slip walkways and heating elements to prevent the formation of ice. It meets standards for universal accessibility, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
(ADA). The bridge is named after museum donors Alexandra and John Nichols.
Mayor Daley at first placed much of the blame for the delay and cost overrun on Frank Gehry, who designed the pavilion and its connecting bridge; Daley's office later apologized to the architect. A 2001 investigative report by the Chicago Tribune described the park then under construction and its budget overruns as an "expensive public-works debacle that can be traced to haphazard planning, design snafus and cronyism". According to Lois Weisberg, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and James Law, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events, once the full scope of the project was finalized the project was completed within the revised budget.
's 1909 Plan of Chicago. Millennium Park has also been featured in several films and television shows.
concert series, which features the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra
and the Grant Park Chorus as well as guest performers and conductors. Since 2004, the festival has been housed in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. On occasion, the festival has been held at the Harris Theater instead of the Pritzker Pavilion.
The festival has earned non-profit organization
status, and claims to be the nation's only free, outdoor classical music series.
The Grant Park Music Festival has been a Chicago tradition since 1931, when Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak
suggested free concerts to lift spirits of Chicagoans during the Great Depression
. The tradition of symphonic Grant Park Music Festival concerts began in 1935. The 2004 season, during which the festival moved to the Pritzker Pavilion, was the event's 70th season. Formerly, the Grant Park Music Festival was held at the Petrillo Music Shell
in Grant Park
.
Over time the festival has had various financial supporters, three primary locations and one name change. At times it has been broadcast nationally on the National Broadcasting Corporation
(NBC) and Columbia Broadcasting Service
(CBS) radio networks, and many of the world's leading classical musicians have performed there. In 2000, the festival organizers agreed to release some of the concerts to the public via compact disc
recordings.
In 2009, architects Zaha Hadid
and Ben van Berkel
were invited to design and build two pavilions on the Chase Promenade South, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. The pavilions were privately funded and were designed to be temporary structures. They served as the focal point of Chicago's year-long celebration of Burnham's Plan, and were meant to symbolize the city's continued pursuit of the plan's architectural vision.
The van Berkel Pavilion was composed of two parallel rectangular planes joined by curving scoops, all built on a steel frame covered with glossy white plywood. It was situated on a raised platform, which was sliced by a ramp entrance, making it ADA accessible. The Hadid Pavilion was a tensioned fabric shell fitted over a curving aluminum framework made of more than 7,000 pieces. A centennial-themed video presentation was projected on its interior fabric walls after dark.
Both pavilions were scheduled to be unveiled on June 19, 2009. However, Hadid's pavilion was not ready in time; it had construction delays and a construction team change, which led to coverage of the delay in The New York Times
and The Wall Street Journal
. Only its aluminum skeleton was available for public viewing on the scheduled date; the work was completed and unveiled on August 4, 2009. The van Berkel pavilion was temporarily closed for repairs August 10–14, due to unanticipated wear and tear. Both pavilions were dismantled after November 1, 2009; the materials from van Berkel's were recycled, while Hadid's was stored for possible exhibition elsewhere.
claims that I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
was the first Hollywood movie to incorporate Millennium Park. The film was not released until 2006, after the release of several other movies. These include the 2005 film The Weather Man
, which starred Nicolas Cage
and was filmed in part at the park's McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. The 2006 romantic comedy The Break-Up
shot scenes in the park, then had to reshoot some of them because Cloud Gate was under cover in some of the initial shots. Other movies which include scenes filmed in Millennium Park include the 2005 thriller Derailed, the 2006 romance The Lake House
, and the 2007 thriller Butterfly on a Wheel
. At least two television series have filmed in the park, including Leverage
and Prison Break
, which featured shots of the Crown Fountain in the first few episodes of its first season (2005). In the ending scene of Source Code
, Jake Gyllenhaal
's and Michelle Monaghan
's characters are seen walking through Millennium Park, and make their way to the Cloud Gate.
Joel Roberts Poinsett
upon decommissioning the Fort Dearborn
reserve, declared the land between Randolph Street and Madison Street east of Michigan Avenue "Public Ground forever to remain vacant of buildings".
Aaron Montgomery Ward
, who is known both as the inventor of mail order
and the protector of Grant Park, twice sued the city of Chicago to force it to remove buildings and structures from Grant Park and to keep it from building new ones. In 1890, arguing that Michigan Avenue property owners held easement
s on the park land, Ward commenced legal actions to keep the park free of new buildings. In 1900, the Illinois Supreme Court concluded that all landfill east of Michigan Avenue was subject to dedications and easements. In 1909, when Ward sought to prevent the construction of the Field Museum of Natural History
in the center of the park, the courts affirmed his arguments.
As a result, the city has what are termed Montgomery Ward height restrictions on buildings and structures in Grant Park. However, the Crown Fountain and the 139 feet (42.4 m) Pritzker Pavilion were exempt from the height restrictions, because they were classified as works of art and not buildings or structures. According to The Economist
, the pavilion is described as a work of art to dodge the protections established by Ward, who is said to continue to rule and protect Grant Park from his grave. The Harris Theater, which is adjacent to Pritzker Pavilion, was built almost entirely underground to avoid the height restrictions. The height of the Crown Fountain, which is also exempted as a work of art, has been described as stemming from a "pissing contest" with other park feature artists.
Concerns have also been raised over the mixed use of taxpayer and corporate funding and associated naming rights for sections of the park. While a monument in Wrigley Square honors the park's many private and corporate donors, many park features are also named for their corporate underwriters, with the sponsors' names prominently indicated with stone markers (The Boeing Gallery, The Exelon Pavilion, The AT&T Plaza, The Wrigley Square). Some critics have deemed this to be inappropriate for a public space. Julie Deardorff, Chicago Tribune health and fitness reporter, described the naming of the McDonald's Cycle Center as a continuation of the " 'McDonaldization' of America" and as somewhat "insidious" because the company is making itself more prominent as the social sentiment is to move away from fast food
. Timothy Gilfoyle, author of Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark, notes that a controversy surrounds the "tasteless" corporate naming of several of the Park's features, including the BP Bridge, named for an oil company. Naming rights were sold for high fees, and Gilfoyle was not the only one who chastised park officials for selling naming rights to the highest bidder. Public interest groups have crusaded against commercialization of Chicago parks. However, many of the donors have a long history of local philanthropy and their funds were essential to provide necessary financing for several park features.
Ticket prices for both the Harris Theater and the Pritzker Pavilion have been controversial. John von Rhein, classical music critic for the Chicago Tribune, notes that the theater's size poses a challenge to performers attempting to fill its seats, and feels that it overemphasizes high-priced events. In 2009–2010, the theater introduced two discounted ticket programs: a $5 lunchtime series of 45-minute dance performances, and a $10 ticket program for in-person, cash-only purchases in the last 90 minutes before performances. Once the pavilion was built, the initial plan was that the lawn seating would be free for all events. An early brochure for the Grant Park Music Festival said "You never need a ticket to attend a concert! The lawn and the general seating section are always admission free." However, when parking garage revenue fell short of estimates during the first year, the city charged $10 for lawn seating at the August 31, 2005, concert by Tori Amos. Amos, a classically trained musician who chose only piano and organ accompaniment for her concert, earned positive reviews as the inaugural rock and roll
performer in a venue that regularly hosts classical music. The city justified the charge by contending that since the pavilion is an open air venue, there were many places in Millennium Park where people could have enjoyed the music or the atmosphere of the park without having to pay.
journalism
student working on a photography project, and confiscated his film because of fears of terrorism. In 2005, Cloud Gate attracted some controversy when a professional photographer without a paid permit was denied access to the piece. As is the case for all works of art currently covered by United States copyright
law, the artist holds the copyright for the sculpture. The public may freely photograph Cloud Gate, but permission from Kapoor or the City of Chicago (which has licensed the art) is required for any commercial reproductions of the photographs. Initially the city charged photographers permit fees of $350 per day for professional still photographers, $1,200 per day for professional videographer
s and $50 per hour for wedding photographers. The policy has been changed so permits are only required for large-scale film, video and photography requiring 10-person crews.
Almost all of Millennium Park was closed for a day for corporate events in 2005 and 2006. Closing a public park partly paid for with taxpayer money was controversial, as was the exclusion of commuters who walk through the park and tourists lured by its attractions. On September 8, 2005, Toyota Motor Sales USA paid $800,000 to rent all park venues from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m, except Wrigley Square, the Lurie Garden, the McDonald's Cycle Center and the Crown Fountain. The city said the money was used to fund day-to-day operations, and for free events in the park, including the Lurie Garden Festival, a Steppenwolf Theater
production, musical performers along the Chase Promenade all summer long, a jazz series, and children's concerts. The name of Toyota, one of the sponsors, was included on Millennium Park brochures, web site, and advertising signage. The closure provided a public relations opportunity for General Motors
, which shuttled 1,500 tourists from the park to see other Chicago attractions. Toyota said it considered $300,000 a rental expense and $500,000 a sponsoring donation. On August 7, 2006, Allstate
, which paid $200,000 as a rental expense and $500,000 as a sponsoring donation, acquired the visitation rights to a different set of park features (including Lurie Garden), and only had exclusive access to certain features after 4 p.m.
The park is closed from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily. Chicago is a dog-friendly city with a half dozen dog beaches, however the city does not permit dogs in the park. Only on-duty service dog
s for the disabled or visually impaired are permitted.
describes Millennium Park as "an extraordinary public park that is set to create new iconic images of the city", and further notes that it is "a genuinely 21st-century interactive park [that] could trigger a new way of thinking about public outdoor spaces". Time magazine views both Cloud Gate and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion as part of a well-planned visit to Chicago. Frommer's
lists exploring Millennium Park as one of the four best free things to do in the city, and it commends the park for its various artistic offerings. Lonely Planet
recommends an hour-long stroll to see the park's playful art. The park is praised as a "showcase of art and urban design" by the San Francisco Chronicle
, while Time refers to it as an "artfully re-arranged [...] civic phantasmagoria like Antonio Gaudi's Park Güell
in Barcelona, with the difference that this one is the product of an ensemble of creative spirits". The book 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die describes Millennium Park as a renowned attraction.
The park was designed to be accessible; it only needs a single wheelchair lift
and its accessibility won its project director the 2005 Barrier-Free America Award. The McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion both provide accessible restrooms. The park opened with 78 women's toilet fixtures and 45 for men, with heated facilities on the east side of the Pritzker Pavilion. It also had about six dozen park benches designed by Kathryn Gustafson, the landscape architect
responsible for the Lurie Garden. In 2005, the park won the Green Roof Award of Excellence in the Intensive Industrial/Commercial category from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC). GRHC considers the park to be one of the largest green roof
s in the world; it covers "a structural deck supported by two reinforced concrete cast-in-place garages and steel structures that span over the remaining railroad tracks". In 2005 the park also received Travel + Leisure
s Design Award for "Best Public Space", and the American Public Works Association's "Project of the Year" Award. In its first year, the park, its features and associated people received over 30 awards.
Some mayors from other cities have admired the park as an example of successful urban planning
. The mayor of Shanghai
enjoyed his visit to the park, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
wished his city could create a similar type of civic amenity. Closer to home, Blair Kamin
, the Pulitzer Prize
-winning architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, concluded his 2004 review of Millennium Park with the following: "...a park provides a respite from the city, yet it also reflects the city. In that sense, all of Millennium Park mirrors the rebirth of Chicago ... the ambition of its patrons, the creativity of its artists and architects, and the ongoing miracle of its ability to transform a no place into a someplace that's extraordinary."
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
located in the Loop
Chicago Loop
The Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...
community area
Community areas of Chicago
Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...
of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in Illinois, USA and originally intended to celebrate the millennium. It is a prominent civic center
Civic center
A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building...
near the city's Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
shoreline that covers a 24.5 acres (99,148.1 m²) section of northwestern Grant Park
Grant Park (Chicago)
Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...
. The area was previously occupied by parkland, Illinois Central rail yards, and parking lots. The park, which is bounded by Michigan Avenue
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
, Randolph Street, Columbus Drive and East Monroe Drive, features a variety of public art
Public art
The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...
. As of 2009, Millennium Park trailed only Navy Pier
Navy Pier
Navy Pier is a long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. It is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million, equivalent to $ today. It was a part of the Plan of Chicago developed by architect and...
as a Chicago tourist attraction.
Planning of the park began in October 1997. Construction began in October 1998, and Millennium Park was opened in a ceremony on July 16, 2004, four years behind schedule. The three-day opening celebrations were attended by some 300,000 people and included an inaugural concert by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. The park has received awards for its accessibility
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
and green design. Millennium Park has free admission, and features the Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Jay Pritzker Pavilion, also known as Pritzker Pavilion or Pritzker Music Pavilion, is a bandshell in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located on the south side of Randolph Street and east of the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan...
, Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and...
, the Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area. Designed by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects, it opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a...
, the Lurie Garden
Lurie Garden
Lurie Garden is a garden located at the southern end of Millennium Park in the Loop area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Designed by Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf, and Robert Israel, it opened on July 16, 2004. The garden is a combination of perennials, bulbs, grasses,...
, and various other attractions. The park is connected by the BP Pedestrian Bridge
BP Pedestrian Bridge
The BP Pedestrian Bridge, or simply BP Bridge, is a girder footbridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Daley Bicentennial Plaza with Millennium Park, both parts of the larger Grant Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect...
and the Nichols Bridgeway
Nichols Bridgeway
The Nichols Bridgeway is a pedestrian bridge located in Chicago, Illinois. The bridge begins at the Great Lawn of Millennium Park, crosses over Monroe Street and connects to the third floor of the West Pavilion of the Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago's newest wing...
to other parts of Grant Park. Because the park sits atop a parking garage and the commuter rail Millennium Station, it is considered the world's largest rooftop garden.
Some observers consider Millennium Park to be the city's most important project since the World's Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
of 1893. It far exceeded its originally proposed budget of $150 million. The final cost of $475 million was borne by Chicago taxpayers and private donors. The city paid $270 million; private donors paid the rest, and assumed roughly half of the financial responsibility for the cost overrun
Cost overrun
A cost overrun, also known as a cost increase or budget overrun, is an unexpected cost incurred in excess of a budgeted amount due to an under-estimation of the actual cost during budgeting...
s. The construction delays and cost overruns were attributed to poor planning, many design changes, and cronyism
Cronyism
Cronyism is partiality to long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications. Hence, cronyism is contrary in practice and principle to meritocracy....
. Many critics have praised the completed park.
Background
From 1852 until 1997, the Illinois Central RailroadIllinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...
owned a right of way between downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
, in the area that became Grant Park
Grant Park (Chicago)
Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...
and used it for railroad tracks. In 1871, Union Base-Ball Grounds
Union Base-Ball Grounds
Union Base-Ball Grounds was a baseball park located in Chicago, Illinois. It was also called White-Stocking Park, as it was the home field of the Chicago White Stockings of the National Association in 1871, after spending the 1870 season as an independent professional club playing home games...
was built on part of the site that became Millennium Park; the Chicago White Stockings
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
played home games there until the grounds were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...
. Lake Front Park, the White Stockings' new ball grounds, was built in 1878 with a short right field due to the railroad tracks. The grounds were improved and the seating capacity was doubled in 1883, but the team had to move after the season ended the next year, as the federal government had given the city the land "with the stipulation that no commercial venture could use it". Daniel Burnham
Daniel Burnham
Daniel Hudson Burnham, FAIA was an American architect and urban planner. He was the Director of Works for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He took a leading role in the creation of master plans for the development of a number of cities, including Chicago and downtown Washington DC...
planned Grant Park around the Illinois Central Railroad property in his 1909 Plan of Chicago. In 1997, when the city gained airspace rights
Air rights
Air rights are a type of development right in real estate, referring to the empty space above a property. Generally speaking, owning or renting land or a building gives one the right to use and develop the air rights....
over the tracks, it decided to build a parking facility over them in the northwestern corner of Grant Park. Eventually, the city realized that a grand civic amenity might lure private dollars in a way that a municipal improvement would not, and thus began the effort to create Millennium Park. The park was originally planned under the name Lakefront Millennium Park.
The park was conceived as a 16 acres (64,749.8 m²) landscape-covered bridge over an underground parking structure to be built on top of the Metra
Metra
Metra is the commuter rail division of the Illinois Regional Transportation Authority. The system serves Chicago and its metropolitan area through 240 stations on 11 different rail lines. Throughout the 21st century, Metra has been the second busiest commuter rail system in the United States by...
/Illinois Central Railroad tracks in Grant Park. Originally, the park was to be designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, but gradually additional architects and artists such as Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
and Thomas Beeby were incorporated into the plan. Sponsors were sought by invitation only.
In February 1999, the city announced it was negotiating with Frank Gehry to design a proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
arch and orchestra enclosure for a bandshell, as well as a pedestrian bridge crossing Columbus Drive, and that it was seeking donors to cover his work. At the time, the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
dubbed Gehry "the hottest architect in the universe" in reference to the acclaim for his Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, built by Ferrovial, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The...
, and they noted the designs would not include Mayor Richard M. Daley
Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party, and former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his...
's trademarks, such as wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
and seasonal flower boxes. Millennium Park project manager Edward Uhlir said "Frank is just the cutting edge of the next century of architecture," and noted that no other architect was being sought. Gehry was approached several times by Skidmore architect Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith (architect)
Adrian D. Smith is an American architect who has designed skyscrapers including the Burj Khalifa, Jin Mao Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower, as well as the proposed Kingdom Tower for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.-Education:...
on behalf of the city. His hesitance and refusal to accept the commission was overcome by Cindy Pritzker, the philanthropist, who had developed a relationship with the architect when he won the Pritzker Prize
Pritzker Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
in 1991. According to John H. Bryan
John H. Bryan
John Henry Bryan, Jr. is the former CEO of the Sara Lee Corporation.A graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee and Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, he is also affiliated with the French Legion of Honor, the World Economic Forum, and was a Member of the Board for Sara Lee,...
, who led fund-raising for the park, Pritzker enticed Gehry in face-to-face discussions, using a $15 million funding commitment toward the bandshell's creation. Having Gehry get involved helped the city realize its vision of having modern themes in the park; upon rumors of his involvement the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
proclaimed "Perhaps the future has arrived", while the Chicago Tribune noted that "The most celebrated architect in the world may soon have a chance to bring Chicago into the 21st Century".
Image map
In HTML and XHTML , an image map is a list of coordinates relating to a specific image, created in order to hyperlink areas of the image to various destinations . For example, a map of the world may have each country hyperlinked to further information about that country...
of Millennium Park with each feature or label linked
rect 51 18 145 80 McDonald's Cycle Center
McDonald's Cycle Center
McDonald's Cycle Center is an indoor bike station in the northeast corner of Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city of Chicago built the center at the intersection of East Randolph Street and Columbus Drive, and opened it July 2004...
rect 338 2 496 94BP Pedestrian Bridge
BP Pedestrian Bridge
The BP Pedestrian Bridge, or simply BP Bridge, is a girder footbridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Daley Bicentennial Plaza with Millennium Park, both parts of the larger Grant Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect...
rect 497 62 536 101BP Pedestrian Bridge
BP Pedestrian Bridge
The BP Pedestrian Bridge, or simply BP Bridge, is a girder footbridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Daley Bicentennial Plaza with Millennium Park, both parts of the larger Grant Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect...
rect 497 6 631 34 Columbus Drive
Columbus Drive (Chicago)
Columbus Drive is a north-south street in Chicago, Illinois which bisects Grant Park. It is 254 E in Chicago's street numbering system. Its south end is an interchange with Lake Shore Drive at Soldier Field...
rect 10 88 154 104 Exelon Pavilion NE
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 47 108 79 131 Exelon Pavilion NE
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 619 95 754 112 Exelon Pavilion SE
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 728 113 759 135 Exelon Pavilion SE
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 10 246 166 263 Exelon Pavilion NW
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 47 265 78 288 Exelon Pavilion NW
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 613 243 762 258 Exelon Pavilion SW
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 736 260 757 275 Exelon Pavilion SW
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 44 149 174 229 Harris Theater
Harris Theater (Chicago)
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1,525-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park on Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, US...
rect 175 103 572 288 Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Jay Pritzker Pavilion, also known as Pritzker Pavilion or Pritzker Music Pavilion, is a bandshell in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located on the south side of Randolph Street and east of the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan...
rect 573 134 757 238 Lurie Garden
Lurie Garden
Lurie Garden is a garden located at the southern end of Millennium Park in the Loop area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Designed by Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf, and Robert Israel, it opened on July 16, 2004. The garden is a combination of perennials, bulbs, grasses,...
rect 572 311 718 329 Nichols Bridgeway
Nichols Bridgeway
The Nichols Bridgeway is a pedestrian bridge located in Chicago, Illinois. The bridge begins at the Great Lawn of Millennium Park, crosses over Monroe Street and connects to the third floor of the West Pavilion of the Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago's newest wing...
rect 516 298 777 306 Nichols Bridgeway
Nichols Bridgeway
The Nichols Bridgeway is a pedestrian bridge located in Chicago, Illinois. The bridge begins at the Great Lawn of Millennium Park, crosses over Monroe Street and connects to the third floor of the West Pavilion of the Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago's newest wing...
rect 58 350 207 396 Chase Promenade North
Chase Promenade
Chase Promenade is an open-air, tree-lined pedestrian walkway that opened July 16, 2004. It is part of Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The Promenade was made possible by a gift from the Bank One Foundation...
rect 291 350 453 396 Chase Promenade Central
Chase Promenade
Chase Promenade is an open-air, tree-lined pedestrian walkway that opened July 16, 2004. It is part of Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The Promenade was made possible by a gift from the Bank One Foundation...
rect 537 350 687 396 Chase Promenade South
Chase Promenade
Chase Promenade is an open-air, tree-lined pedestrian walkway that opened July 16, 2004. It is part of Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The Promenade was made possible by a gift from the Bank One Foundation...
rect 313 397 431 424 AT&T Plaza
AT&T Plaza
AT&T Plaza is a public space that hosts the Cloud Gate sculpture. It is located in Millennium Park, which is a park built to celebrate the third millennium and which is located within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States...
rect 37 434 227 473 Boeing Gallery North
Boeing Galleries
- Past exhibitions :2005The first exhibition in the renamed Galleries was Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait, which was displayed on the Central Chase Promenade and South Boeing Gallery, appeared from June 10–October 10, 2005...
rect 516 433 757 469 Boeing Gallery South
Boeing Galleries
- Past exhibitions :2005The first exhibition in the renamed Galleries was Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait, which was displayed on the Central Chase Promenade and South Boeing Gallery, appeared from June 10–October 10, 2005...
rect 337 426 416 470 Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and...
rect 60 486 216 546 Wrigley Square
Wrigley Square
Wrigley Square is a public square located in the northwest section of Millennium Park in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District of the Loop area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, USA. The square is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of East Randolph Street and North Michigan...
rect 287 477 457 543 McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink or McCormick Tribune Plaza is a multi-purpose venue within Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, USA. On December 20, 2001, it became the first attraction in Millennium Park to open. The $3.2 million plaza was funded by a donation from...
rect 557 488 727 543 Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area. Designed by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects, it opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a...
rect 308 567 439 583 Michigan Avenue
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
rect 1 316 23 442 Randolph Street
Randolph Street (Chicago)
Randolph Street is a street in Chicago. It runs east-west through the Chicago Loop, carrying westbound traffic west from Michigan Avenue across the Chicago River on the Randolph Street Bridge, interchanging with the Kennedy Expressway , and continuing west. It serves as the northern boundary of...
desc bottom-left
Plans for the park were officially announced in March 1998 and construction began in September of that year. Initial construction was under the auspices of the Chicago Department of Transportation, because the project bridges the railroad tracks. However, as the project grew and expanded, its broad variety of features and amenities outside the scope of the field of transportation placed it under the jurisdiction of the city's Public Buildings Commission.
In April 1999, the city announced that the Pritzker family
Pritzker family
The Pritzker family is one of America's wealthiest families, and has been near the top of Forbes magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since the magazine began in 1982....
had donated $15 million to fund Gehry's bandshell and an additional nine donors committed $10 million. The day of this announcement, Gehry agreed to the design request. In November, when his design was unveiled, Gehry said the bridge design was preliminary and not well-conceived because funding for it was not committed. The need to fund a bridge to span the eight-lane Columbus Drive was evident, but some planning for the park was delayed in anticipation of details on the redesign of Soldier Field
Soldier Field
Soldier Field is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in the Near South Side. It is home to the NFL's Chicago Bears...
. In January 2000, the city announced plans to expand the park to include features that became Cloud Gate, the Crown Fountain, the McDonalds Cycle Center, and the BP Pedestrian Bridge. Later that month, Gehry unveiled his new winding design for the bridge.
Mayor Daley's influence was key in getting corporate and individual sponsors to pay for much of the park. Bryan, the former chief executive officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
(CEO) of Sara Lee Corporation who spearheaded the fundraising, says that sponsorship was by invitation and no one refused the opportunity to be a sponsor. One Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine writer describes the park as the crowning achievement for Mayor Daley, while another suggests the park's cost and time overages were examples of the city's mismanagement. The July 16–18, 2004, opening gala was sponsored by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
The community surrounding Millennium Park has become one of the most fashionable residential addresses in Chicago. In 2006, Forbes named the park's 60602 zip code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
as the hottest in terms of price appreciation in the country, with upscale buildings such as The Heritage at Millennium Park
The Heritage at Millennium Park
The Heritage at Millennium Park located at 130 N. Garland Court is a relatively new mixed use tower in Chicago. Completed in 2005 with a height of 631 feet and 57 floors, the building was designed by the architectural firm Solomon Cordwell Buenz .The tower's success lies mainly with its location;...
(130 N. Garland) leading the way for other buildings, such as Waterview Tower
Waterview Tower
Waterview Tower is a partially constructed residential skyscraper in downtown Chicago, Illinois, United States. The original plan called for it to be tall. The plan as of July 2011 is to build a 65-story, 500-unit luxury apartment building....
, The Legacy and Joffrey Tower
Joffrey Tower
The Joffrey Tower is a high-rise commercial real estate development on the northeast corner of North State Street and East Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States that is the permanent home of the Joffrey Ballet...
. The median sale price for residential real estate was $710,000 in 2005 according to Forbes, also ranking it on the list of most expensive zip codes. The park has been credited with increasing residential real estate values by $100 per square foot ($1,076 per m2).
Features
Postmodern architecture
Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day architecture...
, it also features the McCormick Tribune Ice Skating Rink, the BP Pedestrian Bridge, the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance
Harris Theater (Chicago)
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1,525-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park on Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, US...
, Wrigley Square
Wrigley Square
Wrigley Square is a public square located in the northwest section of Millennium Park in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District of the Loop area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, USA. The square is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of East Randolph Street and North Michigan...
, the McDonald's Cycle Center
McDonald's Cycle Center
McDonald's Cycle Center is an indoor bike station in the northeast corner of Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city of Chicago built the center at the intersection of East Randolph Street and Columbus Drive, and opened it July 2004...
, the Exelon Pavilions
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
, the AT&T Plaza
AT&T Plaza
AT&T Plaza is a public space that hosts the Cloud Gate sculpture. It is located in Millennium Park, which is a park built to celebrate the third millennium and which is located within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States...
, the Boeing Galleries
Boeing Galleries
- Past exhibitions :2005The first exhibition in the renamed Galleries was Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait, which was displayed on the Central Chase Promenade and South Boeing Gallery, appeared from June 10–October 10, 2005...
, the Chase Promenade
Chase Promenade
Chase Promenade is an open-air, tree-lined pedestrian walkway that opened July 16, 2004. It is part of Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The Promenade was made possible by a gift from the Bank One Foundation...
, and the Nichols Bridgeway
Nichols Bridgeway
The Nichols Bridgeway is a pedestrian bridge located in Chicago, Illinois. The bridge begins at the Great Lawn of Millennium Park, crosses over Monroe Street and connects to the third floor of the West Pavilion of the Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago's newest wing...
.
Millennium Park is considered one of the largest green roof
Green roof
A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems...
s in the world, having been constructed on top of a railroad yard and large parking garages. The park, which is known for being user friendly, has a very rigorous cleaning schedule with many areas being swept, wiped down or cleaned multiple times a day. Although the park was unveiled in July 2004, some features opened earlier, and upgrades continued for some time afterwards. Along with the cultural features above ground (described below) the park has its own 2218-space parking garage.
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
The centerpiece of Millennium Park is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a bandshell designed by Frank Gehry. The pavilion has 4,000 fixed seats, plus additional lawn seating for 7,000; the stage is framed by curving plates of stainless steel, characteristic of Gehry. It was named after Jay PritzkerJay Pritzker
Jay Arthur Pritzker was an American entrepreneur and conglomerate organizer.-Biography:Pritzker was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Fanny and A. N. Pritzker. His brother was Robert Pritzker...
, whose family is known for owning Hyatt Hotels and was a major donor. The Pritzker Pavilion is Grant Park's outdoor performing arts venue for small events, and complements Petrillo Music Shell
Petrillo Music Shell
James C. Petrillo Music Shell or simply Petrillo Music Shell or Petrillo Bandshell as it is more commonly known, is an outdoor amphitheater/bandstand in Grant Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
, the park's older and larger bandshell. The pavilion is built partially atop the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, the park's indoor performing arts venue, with which it shares a loading dock and backstage facilities. The pavilion is seen as a major upgrade from the Petrillo Music Shell for those events it hosts. Initially, the pavilion's lawn seats were free for all concerts, but this changed when Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
performed the first rock concert there on August 31, 2005.
The Pritzker Pavilion is the home of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Grant Park Music Festival
Grant Park Music Festival
Grant Park Music Festival is an annual ten-week classical music concert series held in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It features the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Grant Park Chorus along with featured guest performers and conductors. The Festival has earned non-profit organization status...
, the nation's only remaining free, municipally supported, outdoor, classical music series. The Festival is presented by the Chicago Park District
Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...
and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The Pavilion hosts a wide range of other music series and annual performing arts events. Performers ranging from mainstream rock bands to classical musicians and opera singers have appeared at the pavilion, which also hosts physical fitness activities such as yoga. All rehearsals at the pavilion are open to the public; trained guides are available for the music festival rehearsals, which are well-attended.
The construction of the pavilion created a legal controversy, given that there are historic limitations on the height of buildings in Grant Park. To avoid these legal restrictions, the city classifies the bandshell as a work of art rather than a building. With several design and assembly problems, the construction plans were revised over time, with features eliminated and others added as successful fundraising allowed the budget to grow. In the end, the performance venue was designed with a large fixed seating area, a Great Lawn, a trellis network to support the sound system, and a headdress fashioned from signature Gehry stainless steel. It features a sound system with an acoustic design that replicates an indoor concert hall sound experience. The pavilion and Millennium Park have received favorable recognition by critics, especially for their accessibility; an accessibility award ceremony held at the pavilion in 2005 described it as "one of the most accessible parks—not just in the United States but possibly the world".
AT&T Plaza and Cloud Gate
Ameritech
AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation , was a U.S. telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies that was created following the breakup of the Bell System...
donated $3 million for the naming right for the plaza, but it was SBC Plaza when the park opened, as a merger had changed the company name to SBC Communications. The 2005 merger of SBC and AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
led to the present name. The sculpture and the AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill
Park Grill
The Park Grill is the only full-service restaurant included in the multi-billion dollar Millennium Park project in Chicago, Illinois. Its outdoor seating area is the largest al fresco dining area in Chicago...
, between the Chase Promenade and McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. The plaza has become a place to view the McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. During the holiday season, the plaza hosts Christmas caroling.
Cloud Gate is a three-story steel sculpture that has been dubbed "The Bean" by Chicagoans, because of its legume-like shape. The sculpture is the first public artwork in the United States by world-renowned artist Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor CBE RA is a British sculptor of Indian birth. Born in Mumbai , Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice...
. The privately funded piece cost $23 million, considerably more than the original estimate of $6 million. Composed of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 x and weighs 110 ST (100 t; 98 LT).
After Kapoor's design for the sculpture was selected during a design competition, numerous technological concerns regarding the design's construction and assembly arose, in addition to concerns regarding the sculpture's upkeep and maintenance. Experts were consulted, some of whom believed the design could not be implemented. Eventually, a feasible method was found, but the sculpture's construction fell behind schedule. Cloud Gate was unveiled in an incomplete form during the Millennium Park grand opening celebration, as the grid of welds around each metal panel was still visible. The sculpture was concealed again while it was completed; in early 2005, workers polished out the seams. Cloud Gate was formally dedicated on May 15, 2006, and it has since gained considerable popularity, both domestically and internationally.
Cloud Gate is a reflective steel sculpture that is inspired by liquid mercury; the sculpture's surface reflects and distorts the city's skyline. The curved, mirror-like surface of the sculpture provides striking reflections of visitors, the city skyline (particularly the historic Michigan Avenue "streetwall"
Historic Michigan Boulevard District
The Historic Michigan Boulevard District is a historic district in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States encompassing Michigan Avenue between 11th or Roosevelt Road , depending on the source, and Randolph Streets and named after the nearby Great Lake...
) and the sky. Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gates 12 feet (3.7 m) high arch. On the underside is the "omphalos" (Greek for "navel"), a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections. The sculpture builds upon many of Kapoor's artistic themes and is popular with tourists as a photo-taking opportunity for its unique reflective properties.
Crown Fountain
Video sculpture
Video sculptures, a type of video installation, involve one or more video screens that spectators move among or stand in front of. Video sculptures formed of more than one screen may broadcast a single program or may simultaneously broadcast different interconnected sequences on several channels....
, named in honor of Chicago's Crown family
Lester Crown
Lester Crown is the son of Chicago financier Henry Crown , who created Material Service with two brothers in 1919, which merged with General Dynamics in 1959. He has been a perennial member of the Forbes 400 list since 1982...
and designed by Catalan
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
conceptual artist Jaume Plensa
Jaume Plensa
Jaime Plensa is an Spanish artist and sculptor.-Biography:Plensa was born at Barcelona. Plensa studied art in his home city, in the "Llotja" School and in the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de San Jorge....
; it opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a black granite reflecting pool placed between a pair of transparent glass brick
Glass brick
Glass brick, also known as glass block, is an architectural element made from glass. Glass bricks provide visual obscuration while admitting light...
towers. The towers are 50 feet (15.2 m) tall, and use light-emitting diode
Light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...
s behind the bricks to display digital videos on their inward faces. Construction and design of the Crown Fountain cost $17 million.
Weather permitting, the water operates from May to October, intermittently cascading down the two towers and spouting through a nozzle on each tower's front face. To achieve the effect in which water appears to be flowing from subjects' mouths, each video has a segment where the subject's lips are puckered, which is then timed to correspond to the spouting water, reminiscent of gargoyle
Gargoyle
In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between...
fountains; this happens roughly every five minutes. The park and fountain are open to the public daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Residents and critics have praised the fountain for its artistic and entertainment features. It highlights Plensa's themes of dualism, light, and water, extending the use of video technology from his prior works. The fountain promotes physical interaction between the public and the water in an artistic setting. Both the fountain and Millennium Park are highly accessible because of their universal design.
The Crown Fountain has been the most controversial of all the Millennium Park features. Before it was built, some were concerned that the sculpture's height violated the aesthetic tradition of the park. After construction, surveillance cameras were installed atop the fountain, which led to a public outcry (and their quick removal). However, the fountain has survived its somewhat contentious beginnings to find its way into Chicago pop culture. It is a popular subject for photographers and a common gathering place. While some of the videos displayed are of scenery, most attention has focused on its video clips of local residents, in which almost a thousand Chicagoans randomly appear on two screens. The fountain is a public play area and offers people an escape from summer heat, allowing children to frolic in the fountain's water.
Lurie Garden
The Lurie Garden is a 2.5 acres (10,117.2 m²) public garden located at the southern end of Millennium Park; designed by Kathryn GustafsonKathryn Gustafson
Kathryn Gustafson is an American landscape architect and artist. Her work includes the Gardens of the Imagination in Terrasson, France; a city square in Évry France; and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park, London. She has won awards and prizes including the Millennium...
, Piet Oudolf
Piet Oudolf
Piet Oudolf is an influential Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author. He is a leading figure of the "New Perennial" or "New Wave Planting" movement, using bold drifts of herbaceous perennial plants and grasses which are chosen for their structure as much as for their flower colour .His books...
, and Robert Israel, it opened on July 16, 2004. The garden is a combination of perennials, bulbs, grasses, shrubs and trees. It is the featured nature component of the world's largest green roof
Green roof
A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems...
. The garden cost $13.2 million and has a $10 million financial endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
for maintenance and upkeep. It was named after philanthropist Ann Lurie, who donated the $10 million endowment. The garden is a tribute to the city, whose motto is "Urbs in Horto", Latin for "City in a Garden". The Lurie Garden is composed of two "plates". The dark plate depicts Chicago's history by presenting shade-loving plants, and has a combination of trees that will provide a shade canopy for these plants when they fill in. The light plate, which has no trees, represents the city's future with sun-loving perennials that thrive in heat and light.
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink and Park Grill
Historic Michigan Boulevard District
The Historic Michigan Boulevard District is a historic district in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States encompassing Michigan Avenue between 11th or Roosevelt Road , depending on the source, and Randolph Streets and named after the nearby Great Lake...
. On December 20, 2001, it became the first attraction in Millennium Park to open, a few weeks ahead of the Millennium Park underground parking garage. The $3.2 million plaza was funded by a donation from the McCormick Tribune Foundation. For four months a year, it operates as McCormick Tribune Ice Rink, a free public outdoor ice skating rink. It is generally open for skating from mid-November until mid-March and hosts over 100,000 skaters annually. It is known as one of Chicago's better outdoor people watching
People watching
People watching or crowd watching is the act of observing people and their interactions, usually without their knowledge. This differs from voyeurism in that it does not relate to sex or sexual gratification...
locations during the winter months. The rink is operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs rather than the Chicago Park District
Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...
, which operates most major public ice skating rinks in Chicago.
For the rest of the year, it serves as The Plaza at Park Grill or Park Grill Plaza, Chicago's largest al fresco dining
Al fresco dining
Al Fresco dining is eating outside . In temperate climates it is especially popular in the summer months when temperatures and weather are most favorable. It is a style of dining that is casual and often party-like in its atmosphere...
facility. The 150-seat outdoor restaurant offers scenic views of the park, and hosts various culinary events and musical performances during its months of operation. From June 21 to September 15, 2002, the plaza served as an open-air exhibition space and hosted the inaugural exhibit in Millennium Park, Exelon
Exelon
Exelon Corporation is an electricity generating and distributing company headquartered in the Chase Tower in the Chicago Loop area of Chicago. It was created in October, 2000 by the merger of PECO Energy Company and Unicom, of Philadelphia and Chicago respectively. Unicom owned Commonwealth Edison...
Presents Earth From Above by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a French photographer, journalist, reporter and environmentalist.- Early life :Yann Arthus-Bertrand was born in Paris on March 13, 1946 in a renowned jewellers' family founded in 1803 by Claude Arthus-Bertrand and Michel-Ange Marion. His sister Catherine is one of his...
, a French aerial photographer
Aerial photography
Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...
.
The Park Grill Plaza is affiliated with the 300-seat indoor Park Grill
Park Grill
The Park Grill is the only full-service restaurant included in the multi-billion dollar Millennium Park project in Chicago, Illinois. Its outdoor seating area is the largest al fresco dining area in Chicago...
restaurant, located beneath the AT&T Plaza and Cloud Gate. The Park Grill is the only full-service restaurant in Millennium Park and opened on November 24, 2003. It regularly places among the leaders in citywide best-of competitions for best burger, and it is widely praised for its views. The restaurant has been the focus of controversies about the numerous associates of Mayor Daley who are investors, its exclusive location and lucrative contract terms. One of the most financially successful restaurants in Chicago, the Park Grill remains exempt from property taxes after a multi-year litigation which reached the appellate courts in Illinois.
BP Pedestrian Bridge
Girder bridge
A girder bridge, in general, is a bridge built of girders placed on bridge abutments and foundation piers. In turn, a bridge deck is built on top of the girders in order to carry traffic. There are several different subtypes of girder bridges:...
footbridge
Footbridge
A footbridge or pedestrian bridge is a bridge designed for pedestrians and in some cases cyclists, animal traffic and horse riders, rather than vehicular traffic. Footbridges complement the landscape and can be used decoratively to visually link two distinct areas or to signal a transaction...
over Columbus Drive that connects Millennium Park with Daley Bicentennial Plaza, both parts of the larger Grant Park. The pedestrian bridge is the first bridge Gehry designed to be built, and was named for BP plc
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
, which donated $5 million to the construction of the park. It opened on July 16, 2004, along with the rest of Millennium Park. Gehry had been courted by the city to design the bridge and the neighboring Jay Pritzker Pavilion, and eventually agreed to do so after the Pritzker family
Pritzker family
The Pritzker family is one of America's wealthiest families, and has been near the top of Forbes magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since the magazine began in 1982....
funded the Pavilion. The bridge is known for its aesthetics, and Gehry's style is seen in its biomorphic
Biomorphism
Biomorphism is an art movement that began in the 20th century. It patterns artistic design elements on naturally occurring patterns or shapes reminiscent of nature. Taken to its extreme it attempts to force naturally occurring shapes onto functional devices, often with mixed results.-History:The...
allusions and extensive sculptural use of stainless steel plates to express abstraction. The bridge is referred to as snakelike in character due to its curving form. The bridge's design, which meets highway standards to accommodate rushes of pedestrian traffic simultaneously exiting Pritzker Pavilion events, enables it to bear a heavy load.
The pedestrian bridge serves as a noise barrier
Noise barrier
A noise barrier is an exterior structure designed to protect sensitive land uses from noise pollution...
for the pavilion, blocking traffic sounds from Columbus Drive. It is a connecting link between Millennium Park and destinations to the east, such as the nearby lakefront, other parts of Grant Park and a parking garage. The BP Bridge uses a concealed box girder
Box girder
A box or tubular girder is a girder that forms an enclosed tube with multiple walls, rather than an or H-beam. Originally constructed of riveted wrought iron, they are now found in rolled or welded steel, aluminium extrusions or pre-stressed concrete....
design with a concrete base, and its deck is covered by hardwood floor boards. It is designed without handrails, using stainless steel parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
s instead. The total length is 935 feet (285 m), with a five percent slope on its inclined surfaces that makes it barrier-free and accessible. It has won awards for its use of sheet metal. Although the bridge is closed in winter because ice cannot be safely removed from its wooden walkway, it has received favorable reviews for its design and aesthetics.
Harris Theater
Irving Harris
Irving B. Harris was an American businessman and philanthropist. With his brother, he co-founded the Toni Home Permanent Company, which was sold to the Gillette Safety Razor Co...
.
It serves as the park's indoor performing venue, a compliment to Jay Pritzker Pavilion, which hosts the park's outdoor performances. Among the regularly featured local groups are the Joffrey Ballet
Joffrey Ballet
The Joffrey Ballet is a dance company in Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1956. From 1995 to 2004, the company was known as The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. The company regularly performs classical ballets including Romeo & Juliet and The Nutcracker, while balancing those classics with pioneering modern...
, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago is an American dance company based in Chicago. HSDC performs in downtown Chicago and its metropolitan area and tours nationally and internationally throughout the year....
and Chicago Opera Theater
Chicago Opera Theater
The Chicago Opera Theater is an opera company that was founded as the Chicago Opera Studio in 1974 by Alan Stone to give vocal students performance experience, although it has grown into a professional opera company...
. It provides subsidized rental, technical expertise, and marketing support for the companies using it, and turned a profit in its fourth fiscal year.
The Harris Theater has hosted notable national and international performers, such as the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
, which made its first visit to Chicago in over 25 years (in 2006). The theater began offering subscription series of traveling performers in its 2008–09 fifth anniversary season. Performances through this series have included the San Francisco Ballet
San Francisco Ballet
The San Francisco Ballet is a ballet company, founded in 1933 as the San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, under the direction of Helgi Tomasson. SFB is the first professional ballet company in the United States...
, Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
, and Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
.
The theater has been credited as contributing to the performing arts renaissance in Chicago, and it has been favorably reviewed for its acoustics
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
, sightline
Sightline
A sightline, or sight line, is a normally unobstructed line-of-sight between an intended observer and a stage, arena, or monument, for example. Sightlines are a particularly important consideration in theatre and stadium design, road junction layout and urban planning...
s, proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
and for providing a home base for numerous performing organizations. Although it is seen as a high-caliber venue for its music audiences, the theater is regarded as less than ideal for jazz groups, because it is more expensive and larger than most places where jazz is performed. The design has been criticized for traffic flow problems, with an elevator bottleneck. However, the theater's prominent location and its underground design to preserve Millennium Park have been praised. Although there were complaints about high-priced events in its early years, discounted ticket programs were introduced in the 2009–10 season.
Wrigley Square
Wrigley Square is a public square located in the northwest corner of Millennium Park near the intersection of East Randolph StreetRandolph Street (Chicago)
Randolph Street is a street in Chicago. It runs east-west through the Chicago Loop, carrying westbound traffic west from Michigan Avenue across the Chicago River on the Randolph Street Bridge, interchanging with the Kennedy Expressway , and continuing west. It serves as the northern boundary of...
and North Michigan
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
, across from the Historic Michigan Boulevard District
Historic Michigan Boulevard District
The Historic Michigan Boulevard District is a historic district in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States encompassing Michigan Avenue between 11th or Roosevelt Road , depending on the source, and Randolph Streets and named after the nearby Great Lake...
. It contains the Millennium Monument, a nearly full-sized replica of the semicircle of paired Greek Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
-style columns (called a peristyle
Peristyle
In Hellenistic Greek and Roman architecture a peristyle is a columned porch or open colonnade in a building surrounding a court that may contain an internal garden. Tetrastoon is another name for this feature...
) that originally sat in this area of Grant Park between 1917 and 1953. The square also contains a large lawn and a public fountain. The William Wrigley, Jr. Foundation contributed $5 million for the monument and square, which was named in its honor. The pedestal of the Millennium Monument's peristyle is inscribed with the names of the 115 financial donors who made the 91 contributions of at least $1 million each to help pay for Millennium Park.
McDonald's Cycle Center
Bike station
A bike station, bicycle center or cycle center is a building or structure designed for bicycle commuters that typically requires users to join as members in order to use secure bicycle parking, and sometimes showers or lockers...
located in the northeast corner of Millennium Park. The facility provides lockers, showers, a snack bar with outdoor summer seating, bike repair, bike rental and other amenities for downtown bicycle commuters
Bicycle commuting
Bicycle commuting is the use of a bicycle to travel from home to a place of work or study — in contrast to the use of a bicycle for sport, recreation or touring....
and utility cyclists
Utility cycling
Utility cycling encompasses any cycling not done primarily for fitness, recreation such as cycle touring, or sport such as cycle racing, but simply as a means of transport...
. The bike station also accommodates runners and in-line skaters, and provides space for a Chicago Police Department
Chicago Police Department
The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...
Bike Patrol Group. The city-built center opened in July 2004 as the Millennium Park Bike Station; since June 2006, it has been sponsored by McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
and several other partners, including city departments and bicycle advocacy organizations. Suburban Chicago-based McDonald's sponsorship of the Cycle Center fit in well with its efforts to help its customers become more healthy by encouraging "balanced, active lifestyles". The Cycle Center is accessible by membership and day pass.
Planning for the Cycle Center was part of the larger "Bike 2010 Plan", in which the city aimed to make itself more accommodating to bicycle commuters. This plan (since replaced by the "Bike 2015 Plan") included provisions for front-mounted two-bike carriers on Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority, also known as CTA, is the operator of mass transit within the City of Chicago, Illinois and some of its surrounding suburbs....
(CTA) buses, permitting bikes to be carried on Chicago 'L'
Chicago 'L'
The L is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority...
trains, installing numerous bike racks and creating bicycle lanes in streets throughout the city. Additionally, the Chicago metropolitan area's other mass transit providers, Metra and Pace
Pace (transit)
Pace is the suburban bus division of the Regional Transportation Authority in the Chicago metropolitan area. It was created in 1983 by the RTA Act, which established the formula that provides funding to CTA, Metra and Pace. In 2010, Pace had 35.077 million riders. Pace's headquarters are in...
, have developed increased bike accessibility. Mayor Daley was an advocate of the plan, noting it is also an environmentally friendly effort to cut down on traffic. Environmentalists, urban planner
Urban planner
An urban planner or city planner is a professional who works in the field of urban planning/land use planning for the purpose of optimizing the effectiveness of a community's land use and infrastructure. They formulate plans for the development and management of urban and suburban areas, typically...
s and cycling enthusiasts around the world have expressed interest in the Cycle Center, and want to emulate what they see as a success story in urban planning and transit-oriented development. Pro-cycling and environmentalist journalists in publications well beyond Chicago have described the Cycle Center as exemplary, impressive, unique and ground-breaking. The Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
notes that it is revered as "as a kind of Shangri-La
Shangri-La
Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains...
", and describes it as "a jewel-like glass building on the Chicago waterfront,
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...
that it was "the ultimate in bicycle stations", and would be natural for bicycle friendly cities to emulate.
Exelon Pavilions
Energy Star
Energy Star is an international standard for energy efficient consumer products originated in the United States of America. It was first created as a United States government program during the early 1990s, but Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan and the European Union have also adopted...
-rated energy-efficient houses in Chicago. The pavilions were designed in January 2001 and construction began in January 2004. The Southeast and Southwest Exelon Pavilions (jointly the South Exelon Pavilions) along Madison Street were completed and opened in July 2004, and flank the Lurie Garden. The Northeast and Northwest Exelon Pavilions (jointly the North Exelon Pavilions) flank the Harris Theater along Randolph Street and were completed in November 2004, with a grand opening on April 30, 2005. Besides producing energy, three of the four pavilions provide access to the park's underground parking garages and the fourth serves as the park's welcome center. Exelon
Exelon
Exelon Corporation is an electricity generating and distributing company headquartered in the Chase Tower in the Chicago Loop area of Chicago. It was created in October, 2000 by the merger of PECO Energy Company and Unicom, of Philadelphia and Chicago respectively. Unicom owned Commonwealth Edison...
, a company that generates the electricity transmitted by its subsidiary Commonwealth Edison
Commonwealth Edison
Commonwealth Edison is the largest electric utility in Illinois, serving the Chicago and Northern Illinois area...
, donated approximately $6 million for the pavilions.
Boeing Galleries
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
President and Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
James Bell
James A. Bell
James A. Bell is currently the Corporate President, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Boeing Company. He served as interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the Boeing on March, 2005, following the resignation of Harry Stonecipher...
announced the firm would make a $5 million grant to fund construction of the spaces, and for an endowment to "help fund visual arts exhibitions" in them. The galleries, which were built between March and June 2005, have hosted grand-scale art exhibits, some of which have run for two full summers.
Chase Promenade
Bank One Corporation
Some of the banks that were merged into these banks include:*Bank One**Security National Bank & Trust **Affiliated Bankshares of Colorado **American Fletcher Corp. **City National Bank and Trust Co...
; Bank One merged with JPMorgan Chase in 2004, and the name became Chase Promenade. The 8 acres (32,374.9 m²) walkway accommodates exhibitions, festivals and other family events. It also serves as a private-event rental venue. The Chase Promenade hosted the 2009 Burnham Pavilions, which were the cornerstone of the citywide Burnham Plan
Burnham Plan
The Burnham Plan is a popular name for the 1909 Plan of Chicago, co-authored by Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett. It recommended an integrated series of projects including new and widened streets, parks, new railroad and harbor facilities, and civic buildings...
centennial celebration.
Nichols Bridgeway
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
. The bridge begins at the southwest end of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion's Great Lawn and extends across Monroe Street, where it connects to the third floor of the Art Institute's West Pavilion. The bridge design by Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. He is the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize...
, the architect of the Modern Wing, was inspired by the hull
Hull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
of a boat.
The Nichols Bridgeway is approximately 620 ft (189 m) long and 15 ft (4.6 m) wide. The bottom of the bridge is made of white, painted structural steel, the floor is made of aluminum planking and the 42 inches (1.1 m) tall railings are steel set atop stainless steel mesh. The bridge features anti-slip walkways and heating elements to prevent the formation of ice. It meets standards for universal accessibility, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, and later amended with changes effective January 1, 2009....
(ADA). The bridge is named after museum donors Alexandra and John Nichols.
Budget
During development and construction of the park, many structures were added, redesigned or modified. These changes often resulted in budget increases. For example, the bandshell's proposed budget was $10.8 million. When the elaborate, cantilevered Gehry design required extra pilings to be driven into the bedrock to support the added weight, the cost of the bandshell eventually spiraled to $60.3 million. The cost of the park, as itemized in the following table, amounted to almost $500 million.Mayor Daley at first placed much of the blame for the delay and cost overrun on Frank Gehry, who designed the pavilion and its connecting bridge; Daley's office later apologized to the architect. A 2001 investigative report by the Chicago Tribune described the park then under construction and its budget overruns as an "expensive public-works debacle that can be traced to haphazard planning, design snafus and cronyism". According to Lois Weisberg, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and James Law, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events, once the full scope of the project was finalized the project was completed within the revised budget.
| Project | Proposed cost | Final cost | % of proposed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garage | $87.5 million | $105.6 million | 121% |
| Metra superstructure | $43.0 million | $60.6 million | 141% |
| Jay Pritzker Pavilion Jay Pritzker Pavilion Jay Pritzker Pavilion, also known as Pritzker Pavilion or Pritzker Music Pavilion, is a bandshell in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located on the south side of Randolph Street and east of the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan... |
$10.8 million | $60.3 million | 558% |
| Harris Theater Harris Theater (Chicago) The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1,525-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park on Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, US... |
$20.0 million | $60.0 million | 300% |
| Park finishes/landscaping | N/A | $42.9 million | |
| Design and management costs | N/A | $39.5 million | |
| Endowment | $10.0 million | $25.0 million | 250% |
| Crown Fountain Crown Fountain Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area. Designed by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects, it opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a... |
$15.0 million | $17.0 million | 113% |
| BP Pedestrian Bridge BP Pedestrian Bridge The BP Pedestrian Bridge, or simply BP Bridge, is a girder footbridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Daley Bicentennial Plaza with Millennium Park, both parts of the larger Grant Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect... |
$8.0 million | $14.5 million | 181% |
| Lurie Garden Lurie Garden Lurie Garden is a garden located at the southern end of Millennium Park in the Loop area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Designed by Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf, and Robert Israel, it opened on July 16, 2004. The garden is a combination of perennials, bulbs, grasses,... |
$4.0–8.0 million | $13.2 million | 330%–165% |
| Cloud Gate Cloud Gate Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and... sculpture |
$6.0 million | $23.0 million | 383% |
| Exelon Pavilions Exelon Pavilions The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States... |
N/A | $7.0 million | |
| Peristyle/Wrigley Square Wrigley Square Wrigley Square is a public square located in the northwest section of Millennium Park in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District of the Loop area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, USA. The square is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of East Randolph Street and North Michigan... |
$5.0 million | $5.0 million | 100% |
| Chase Promenade Chase Promenade Chase Promenade is an open-air, tree-lined pedestrian walkway that opened July 16, 2004. It is part of Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The Promenade was made possible by a gift from the Bank One Foundation... |
$6.0 million | $4.0 million | 67% |
| McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink or McCormick Tribune Plaza is a multi-purpose venue within Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, USA. On December 20, 2001, it became the first attraction in Millennium Park to open. The $3.2 million plaza was funded by a donation from... |
$5.0 million | $3.2 million | 64% |
| Misc. (fencing, terraces, graphics) | N/A | $1.6 million | |
| Total (uses higher Lurie Garden figure) | $224.3 million | $482.4 million | 215% |
| Boeing Galleries Boeing Galleries - Past exhibitions :2005The first exhibition in the renamed Galleries was Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait, which was displayed on the Central Chase Promenade and South Boeing Gallery, appeared from June 10–October 10, 2005... or Nichols Bridgeway Nichols Bridgeway The Nichols Bridgeway is a pedestrian bridge located in Chicago, Illinois. The bridge begins at the Great Lawn of Millennium Park, crosses over Monroe Street and connects to the third floor of the West Pavilion of the Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago's newest wing... . |
|||
Use
Millennium Park had 3 million visitors in its first year; annual attendance was projected to grow to between 3.31 and 3.65 million by 2010. According to Crain's Chicago Business, however, the park had about 4 million visitors in 2009. In addition to the different uses detailed for each of the permanent features (above), the park has hosted some other notable events, including the annual Grant Park Music Festival, and two temporary pavilions to mark the centennial of Daniel BurnhamDaniel Burnham
Daniel Hudson Burnham, FAIA was an American architect and urban planner. He was the Director of Works for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He took a leading role in the creation of master plans for the development of a number of cities, including Chicago and downtown Washington DC...
's 1909 Plan of Chicago. Millennium Park has also been featured in several films and television shows.
Grant Park Music Festival
The Grant Park Music Festival (formerly Grant Park Concerts) is an annual 10-week classical musicClassical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
concert series, which features the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra
Grant Park Symphony Orchestra
The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra or simply the Grant Park Orchestra is a publicly sponsored symphony orchestra that provides free performances in the Grant Park Music Festival during the summer months in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. Its sister organization is the Grant Park Chorus; the...
and the Grant Park Chorus as well as guest performers and conductors. Since 2004, the festival has been housed in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. On occasion, the festival has been held at the Harris Theater instead of the Pritzker Pavilion.
The festival has earned non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
status, and claims to be the nation's only free, outdoor classical music series.
The Grant Park Music Festival has been a Chicago tradition since 1931, when Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak
Anton Cermak
Anton Joseph Cermak was the mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1931 until his assassination by Giuseppe Zangara in 1933.-Early life and career:...
suggested free concerts to lift spirits of Chicagoans during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. The tradition of symphonic Grant Park Music Festival concerts began in 1935. The 2004 season, during which the festival moved to the Pritzker Pavilion, was the event's 70th season. Formerly, the Grant Park Music Festival was held at the Petrillo Music Shell
Petrillo Music Shell
James C. Petrillo Music Shell or simply Petrillo Music Shell or Petrillo Bandshell as it is more commonly known, is an outdoor amphitheater/bandstand in Grant Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
in Grant Park
Grant Park (Chicago)
Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...
.
Over time the festival has had various financial supporters, three primary locations and one name change. At times it has been broadcast nationally on the National Broadcasting Corporation
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
(NBC) and Columbia Broadcasting Service
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
(CBS) radio networks, and many of the world's leading classical musicians have performed there. In 2000, the festival organizers agreed to release some of the concerts to the public via compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
recordings.
2009 Burnham Pavilions
Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid, CBE is an Iraqi-British architect.-Life and career:Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.After graduating she worked...
and Ben van Berkel
Ben van Berkel
Ben van Berkel is a Dutch architect. He studied architecture at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, and at the Architectural Association in London, receiving the AA Diploma with Honours in 1987....
were invited to design and build two pavilions on the Chase Promenade South, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. The pavilions were privately funded and were designed to be temporary structures. They served as the focal point of Chicago's year-long celebration of Burnham's Plan, and were meant to symbolize the city's continued pursuit of the plan's architectural vision.
The van Berkel Pavilion was composed of two parallel rectangular planes joined by curving scoops, all built on a steel frame covered with glossy white plywood. It was situated on a raised platform, which was sliced by a ramp entrance, making it ADA accessible. The Hadid Pavilion was a tensioned fabric shell fitted over a curving aluminum framework made of more than 7,000 pieces. A centennial-themed video presentation was projected on its interior fabric walls after dark.
Both pavilions were scheduled to be unveiled on June 19, 2009. However, Hadid's pavilion was not ready in time; it had construction delays and a construction team change, which led to coverage of the delay in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
. Only its aluminum skeleton was available for public viewing on the scheduled date; the work was completed and unveiled on August 4, 2009. The van Berkel pavilion was temporarily closed for repairs August 10–14, due to unanticipated wear and tear. Both pavilions were dismantled after November 1, 2009; the materials from van Berkel's were recycled, while Hadid's was stored for possible exhibition elsewhere.
In popular culture
Jeff GarlinJeff Garlin
Jeffrey "Jeff" Garlin is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, voice artist, director, writer and author, best known for his role as Jeff Greene on the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm...
claims that I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With is a 2006 independent film released by IFC Films and The Weinstein Company. Written, produced and directed by, and starring Jeff Garlin , it features Garlin, Sarah Silverman and Bonnie Hunt...
was the first Hollywood movie to incorporate Millennium Park. The film was not released until 2006, after the release of several other movies. These include the 2005 film The Weather Man
The Weather Man
The Weather Man is a 2005 American comedy-drama film, directed by Gore Verbinski. Written by Steve Conrad, it stars Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine and Hope Davis and tells the story of a weatherman in the midst of a mid-life crisis....
, which starred Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
and was filmed in part at the park's McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. The 2006 romantic comedy The Break-Up
The Break-Up
The Break-Up is a 2006 American comedy-drama romance film directed by Peyton Reed, starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. It was written by Jay Lavender and Jeremy Garelick and produced by Universal Pictures.-Plot:...
shot scenes in the park, then had to reshoot some of them because Cloud Gate was under cover in some of the initial shots. Other movies which include scenes filmed in Millennium Park include the 2005 thriller Derailed, the 2006 romance The Lake House
The Lake House (film)
The Lake House: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released in 2006.# "This Never Happened Before" - Paul McCartney# " Make You Mine" - The Clientele# "Time Has Told Me" - Nick Drake# "Ant Farm" - Eels...
, and the 2007 thriller Butterfly on a Wheel
Butterfly on a Wheel
Butterfly on a Wheel is a 2007 Canadian thriller film directed by Mike Barker, co-produced and written by William Morrissey, and starring Pierce Brosnan, Gerard Butler, and Maria Bello...
. At least two television series have filmed in the park, including Leverage
Leverage (TV series)
Leverage is an American television drama series on TNT that premiered in December 2008. The series is produced by director/executive producer Dean Devlin's production company Electric Television...
and Prison Break
Prison Break
Prison Break is an American television serial drama created by Paul Scheuring, that was broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company for four seasons, from 2005 until 2009. The series revolves around two brothers; one has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other devises an...
, which featured shots of the Crown Fountain in the first few episodes of its first season (2005). In the ending scene of Source Code
Source Code (film)
Source Code is a 2011 American science fiction-techno-thriller film directed by Duncan Jones, written by Ben Ripley, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Russell Peters and Jeffrey Wright...
, Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
's and Michelle Monaghan
Michelle Monaghan
Michelle Lynn Monaghan is an American actress known for her roles in Mission: Impossible III, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Gone Baby Gone, Made of Honor, The Heartbreak Kid, Eagle Eye, and Source Code.-Early life:...
's characters are seen walking through Millennium Park, and make their way to the Cloud Gate.
Height restrictions
In 1836, a year before Chicago was incorporated, the Board of Canal Commissioners held public auctions for the city's first lots. Foresighted citizens, who wanted the lakefront kept as public open space, convinced the commissioners to designate the land east of Michigan Avenue between Randolph Street and Park Row (11th Street) "Public Ground—A Common to Remain Forever Open, Clear and Free of Any Buildings, or Other Obstruction, whatever." Grant Park has been "forever open, clear and free" since, protected by legislation that has been affirmed by four previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings. In 1839, United States Secretary of WarUnited States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
Joel Roberts Poinsett
Joel Roberts Poinsett
Joel Roberts Poinsett was a physician, botanist and American statesman. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives, the first United States Minister to Mexico , a U.S...
upon decommissioning the Fort Dearborn
Fort Dearborn
Fort Dearborn was a United States fort built in 1803 beside the Chicago River in what is now Chicago, Illinois. It was constructed by troops under Captain John Whistler and named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. The original fort was destroyed following the Battle of...
reserve, declared the land between Randolph Street and Madison Street east of Michigan Avenue "Public Ground forever to remain vacant of buildings".
Aaron Montgomery Ward
Aaron Montgomery Ward
Aaron Montgomery Ward was an American businessman notable for the invention of mail order.The mail-order industry was started by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872 in Chicago...
, who is known both as the inventor of mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
and the protector of Grant Park, twice sued the city of Chicago to force it to remove buildings and structures from Grant Park and to keep it from building new ones. In 1890, arguing that Michigan Avenue property owners held easement
Easement
An easement is a certain right to use the real property of another without possessing it.Easements are helpful for providing pathways across two or more pieces of property or allowing an individual to fish in a privately owned pond...
s on the park land, Ward commenced legal actions to keep the park free of new buildings. In 1900, the Illinois Supreme Court concluded that all landfill east of Michigan Avenue was subject to dedications and easements. In 1909, when Ward sought to prevent the construction of the Field Museum of Natural History
Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...
in the center of the park, the courts affirmed his arguments.
As a result, the city has what are termed Montgomery Ward height restrictions on buildings and structures in Grant Park. However, the Crown Fountain and the 139 feet (42.4 m) Pritzker Pavilion were exempt from the height restrictions, because they were classified as works of art and not buildings or structures. According to The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, the pavilion is described as a work of art to dodge the protections established by Ward, who is said to continue to rule and protect Grant Park from his grave. The Harris Theater, which is adjacent to Pritzker Pavilion, was built almost entirely underground to avoid the height restrictions. The height of the Crown Fountain, which is also exempted as a work of art, has been described as stemming from a "pissing contest" with other park feature artists.
Financial issues
The Millennium Park project has been the subject of some criticism since its inception. In addition to concerns about cost overruns, individuals and organizations have complained that the money spent on the park might have gone to other worthy causes, citing poverty in Chicago and problems in the city's schools. Although the park's design and architectural elements have won wide praise, there has been some criticism of its aesthetics. Other criticism has revolved around the larger issue of corruption and political favoritism in the city; The New York Times reported in July 2004 that an inflated contract for park cleanup had gone to a company that made large contributions to Mayor Daley's election campaign. The park's only full service restaurant, Park Grill, has been criticized for its connection to numerous friends and associates of the mayor.Fast food
Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...
. Timothy Gilfoyle, author of Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark, notes that a controversy surrounds the "tasteless" corporate naming of several of the Park's features, including the BP Bridge, named for an oil company. Naming rights were sold for high fees, and Gilfoyle was not the only one who chastised park officials for selling naming rights to the highest bidder. Public interest groups have crusaded against commercialization of Chicago parks. However, many of the donors have a long history of local philanthropy and their funds were essential to provide necessary financing for several park features.
Ticket prices for both the Harris Theater and the Pritzker Pavilion have been controversial. John von Rhein, classical music critic for the Chicago Tribune, notes that the theater's size poses a challenge to performers attempting to fill its seats, and feels that it overemphasizes high-priced events. In 2009–2010, the theater introduced two discounted ticket programs: a $5 lunchtime series of 45-minute dance performances, and a $10 ticket program for in-person, cash-only purchases in the last 90 minutes before performances. Once the pavilion was built, the initial plan was that the lawn seating would be free for all events. An early brochure for the Grant Park Music Festival said "You never need a ticket to attend a concert! The lawn and the general seating section are always admission free." However, when parking garage revenue fell short of estimates during the first year, the city charged $10 for lawn seating at the August 31, 2005, concert by Tori Amos. Amos, a classically trained musician who chose only piano and organ accompaniment for her concert, earned positive reviews as the inaugural rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
performer in a venue that regularly hosts classical music. The city justified the charge by contending that since the pavilion is an open air venue, there were many places in Millennium Park where people could have enjoyed the music or the atmosphere of the park without having to pay.
Use restrictions
When Millennium Park first opened in 2004, Metra police stopped a Columbia College ChicagoColumbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
student working on a photography project, and confiscated his film because of fears of terrorism. In 2005, Cloud Gate attracted some controversy when a professional photographer without a paid permit was denied access to the piece. As is the case for all works of art currently covered by United States copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
law, the artist holds the copyright for the sculpture. The public may freely photograph Cloud Gate, but permission from Kapoor or the City of Chicago (which has licensed the art) is required for any commercial reproductions of the photographs. Initially the city charged photographers permit fees of $350 per day for professional still photographers, $1,200 per day for professional videographer
Videographer
Strictly speaking, a videographer is a person who works in the field of videography, video production — recording moving images and sound on video tape, disk, other electro-mechanical device. News broadcasting relies heavily on live television where videographers engage in electronic news...
s and $50 per hour for wedding photographers. The policy has been changed so permits are only required for large-scale film, video and photography requiring 10-person crews.
Almost all of Millennium Park was closed for a day for corporate events in 2005 and 2006. Closing a public park partly paid for with taxpayer money was controversial, as was the exclusion of commuters who walk through the park and tourists lured by its attractions. On September 8, 2005, Toyota Motor Sales USA paid $800,000 to rent all park venues from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m, except Wrigley Square, the Lurie Garden, the McDonald's Cycle Center and the Crown Fountain. The city said the money was used to fund day-to-day operations, and for free events in the park, including the Lurie Garden Festival, a Steppenwolf Theater
Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Tony Award-winning Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Jeff Perry in the basement of a church in Highland Park, Illinois. It has since relocated to Chicago's Halsted Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Its name comes from...
production, musical performers along the Chase Promenade all summer long, a jazz series, and children's concerts. The name of Toyota, one of the sponsors, was included on Millennium Park brochures, web site, and advertising signage. The closure provided a public relations opportunity for General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
, which shuttled 1,500 tourists from the park to see other Chicago attractions. Toyota said it considered $300,000 a rental expense and $500,000 a sponsoring donation. On August 7, 2006, Allstate
Allstate
The Allstate Corporation is the second-largest personal lines insurer in the United States and the largest that is publicly held. The company also has personal lines insurance operations in Canada. Allstate was founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., and was spun off in 1993...
, which paid $200,000 as a rental expense and $500,000 as a sponsoring donation, acquired the visitation rights to a different set of park features (including Lurie Garden), and only had exclusive access to certain features after 4 p.m.
The park is closed from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily. Chicago is a dog-friendly city with a half dozen dog beaches, however the city does not permit dogs in the park. Only on-duty service dog
Service dog
A service dog is a type of assistance dog specifically trained to help people who have disabilities including visual or hearing impairment, and also to help people with mental disabilities including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and severe depression...
s for the disabled or visually impaired are permitted.
Surveillance cameras
In November 2006, the Crown Fountain became the focus of a public controversy when the city added surveillance cameras atop each tower. Purchased with a $52 million Department of Homeland Security grant, the cameras augmented eight others covering all of Millennium Park. City officials had consulted the architects who collaborated with Plensa on the tower designs, but not Plensa himself. Public reaction was negative, as bloggers and the artistic community decried the cameras as inappropriate and a blight on the towers. The city said that the cameras would be replaced with permanent, less intrusive models in several months; it contended that the cameras, similar to those used throughout Chicago in high-crime areas and at traffic intersections, had been added largely for security reasons but also partly to help park officials monitor burnt-out LED lights on the fountain. The Chicago Tribune published an article on the cameras and the public reaction; the cameras were removed the next day, with Plensa's support.Reception and recognition
The Financial TimesFinancial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
describes Millennium Park as "an extraordinary public park that is set to create new iconic images of the city", and further notes that it is "a genuinely 21st-century interactive park [that] could trigger a new way of thinking about public outdoor spaces". Time magazine views both Cloud Gate and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion as part of a well-planned visit to Chicago. Frommer's
Frommer's
Frommer's is a travel guidebook series and one of the bestselling travel guides in America. The series began in 1957 with the publication of Arthur Frommer's book, Europe on $5 a Day. Frommer's has expanded to include over 350 guidebooks across 14 series, as well as other media including the award...
lists exploring Millennium Park as one of the four best free things to do in the city, and it commends the park for its various artistic offerings. Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...
recommends an hour-long stroll to see the park's playful art. The park is praised as a "showcase of art and urban design" by the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, while Time refers to it as an "artfully re-arranged [...] civic phantasmagoria like Antonio Gaudi's Park Güell
Park Güell
Park Güell is a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of El Carmel in the Gràcia district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and built in the years 1900 to 1914...
in Barcelona, with the difference that this one is the product of an ensemble of creative spirits". The book 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die describes Millennium Park as a renowned attraction.
The park was designed to be accessible; it only needs a single wheelchair lift
Wheelchair lift
A wheelchair lift, also known as a platform lift, is a powered device designed to raise a wheelchair and its occupant in order to overcome a step or similar vertical barrier....
and its accessibility won its project director the 2005 Barrier-Free America Award. The McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion both provide accessible restrooms. The park opened with 78 women's toilet fixtures and 45 for men, with heated facilities on the east side of the Pritzker Pavilion. It also had about six dozen park benches designed by Kathryn Gustafson, the landscape architect
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
responsible for the Lurie Garden. In 2005, the park won the Green Roof Award of Excellence in the Intensive Industrial/Commercial category from Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC). GRHC considers the park to be one of the largest green roof
Green roof
A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems...
s in the world; it covers "a structural deck supported by two reinforced concrete cast-in-place garages and steel structures that span over the remaining railroad tracks". In 2005 the park also received Travel + Leisure
Travel + Leisure
Travel + Leisure is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is put out by American Express Publishing Corporation, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Express Company led by...
s Design Award for "Best Public Space", and the American Public Works Association's "Project of the Year" Award. In its first year, the park, its features and associated people received over 30 awards.
Some mayors from other cities have admired the park as an example of successful urban planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
. The mayor of Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
enjoyed his visit to the park, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...
wished his city could create a similar type of civic amenity. Closer to home, Blair Kamin
Blair Kamin
Blair Kamin is the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic of the Chicago Tribune, a post he has held since 1992. Kamin has held other jobs at the Tribune and previously worked for The Des Moines Register. He also serves as a contributing editor of Architectural Record...
, the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, concluded his 2004 review of Millennium Park with the following: "...a park provides a respite from the city, yet it also reflects the city. In that sense, all of Millennium Park mirrors the rebirth of Chicago ... the ambition of its patrons, the creativity of its artists and architects, and the ongoing miracle of its ability to transform a no place into a someplace that's extraordinary."
See also
- Chicago architectureChicago architectureThe architecture of Chicago has influenced and reflected the history of American architecture. The city of Chicago, Illinois features prominent buildings in a variety of styles by many important architects...
- List of concert halls
- List of contemporary amphitheatres
External links
- Millennium Park map
- City of Chicago Loop Community Map
- Official Millennium Park Brochure
- City of Chicago Millennium Park
- Archive at Chicago TribuneChicago TribuneThe Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
- Archive at Chicago Reader
- Millennium Park digital photographs at Chicago Public Library