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Millennium Park is newest playground |
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Written by and photos by LUKAS SZYMANEK
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Sunday, 15 August 2004 |
Chicago has no shortage of attractions. There’s Navy Pier. There’s the Sears Tower. And now, there is Millennium Park. Opened after a four-year delay and with a help of a lot of money, Chicago now has a new attraction – an enormous, interactive 24-acre playground bound to wow visitors with a state-of-the-art music pavilion, an innovative fountain, and one gigantic surreal bean.
Bordered by Randolph Street, Michigan Avenue, Monroe Street, and Columbus Drive, the tree-filled park finally opened to the public with a three-day celebration beginning July 16. During the incredibly sunny weekend, hundreds of people flocked downtown to admire the achievement. The waiting period for a table at Park Grill, the park’s sole restaurant, was 45 minutes, but since you’re downtown you can eat pretty much anywhere. In the meantime, there are quite a few things to look forward to when crossing Michigan Avenue into the park.
Described by Mayor Daley as "a showcase for world-class art, music, architecture and landscape design," Millennium Park was initially intended to open in 2000. However, as the plans for the park grew more ambitious and artistic during construction, the deadline kept moving further away.
Famous architect Frank Gehry was hired to design the music pavilion honoring the Pritzker family foundation, one of the park’s biggest sponsors. London artist Anish Kapoor was commissioned to design a sculpture, and Jaume Plensa a fountain attraction. The city, along with local business and private donors, coughed up $475 million, and an old rail yard on the northwest corner of Grant Park was transformed into a spectacular center for art, culture and relaxation.
Where to begin exploring this pricey-yet-beautiful wonder? You can start by stopping by at the Crown Fountain. Located on the southwest corner of the park, it is a fountain like none you’ve seen before. Barcelona-based sculptor Plensa used special effects to combine the traditional idea of a public water fountain with the more modern entertainment concept. The final effect consists of two 50-foot towers made of glass brick and separated by a granite plaza. The two walls facing each other are huge monitors displaying prerecorded images of Chicagoans’ faces. There is water cascading down the towers and creating a paddling pool in between for everyone to cool the feet. Every 15 minutes the face on the screen changes, but before it does, it purses its lips and "spits" out water unto the people below, mostly children.
North of the fountain, you won’t miss the above-mentioned surreal looking giant bean, or as designer Kapoor has officially declared it, the Cloud Gate. The 33-foot tall and 66-foot wide ultramodern sculpture is surfaced with polished stainless steel plates. Although resembling - and already dreadfully dubbed - "the jellybean" by admirers, it is actually a walk-in piece of art. Up close you can easily see your reflection, and once inside, you can get dizzy trying to discern one looking up into the whirlpool of reflected images.
Moving east, you will find the park’s main attribute, the astonishing Jay Pritzker Pavilion, which consists of a performance stage "opening up" right in front of you through the use of massive metal sheets as the main part of the design. The pavilion’s designer Frank Gehry is famous for his work on the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The artist, who advocates optimism in architecture, envisioned the pavilion design as "joyful." In front of the stage are open-air seating sections and a gigantic 95,000-square-foot lawn area behind, all under a steel trellis used to hang lighting and speakers on. The lawn is guaranteed to be dry 15 minutes after a rainfall thanks to a sand layer beneath.
South of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, you can stroll right into the Lurie Garden, where you can admire the shade trees and lush vegetation of the Dark Plate of the garden and selections of perennials of the Light Plate. North of the Pavilion, with the entrance right on Randolph Street, is the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, an ultra modern performance venue, which is located completely underground - apart from the ground floor lobby. East of the pavilion is another Gehry-designed structure, the BP Pedestrian Bridge, stretching over Columbus Drive and providing a pathway from the park to the Daley Bicentennial Plaza.
Millennium Park provides restrooms, concession carts, parking for cars and bicycles, and is accessible to people with disabilities. Enjoy it while the summer is here, the trees are green, the water of the fountain keeps pouring down and music from the pavilion fills the air. Come winter time, you’ll probably prefer to stay home next to the heating vent. Powered by AkoComment 2.0! |
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