Chicago Has Done It Again

On Thursday I was fortunate enough to make it downtown to visit Chicago's newest attraction: Millennium Park. The park cost millions to build but to me it seems well worth it. It's not a park in the recreational sense (although one of my pictures may dispute this fact). Instead, it's more of a cultural experience. Located on Michigan Avenue just north of the Art Institute of Chicago, Millennium Park is truly a sight to behold.

The first of my pictures is one of two of the newly built Pritzker Pavilion. It was originally designed to replace the venerable Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park but this venue is decidedly upscale and is currently home to the Grant Park Orchestra. The pavilion was designed by world-famous architect Frank Gehry and is absolutely stunning. The pavilion itself stands 120 feet high, with "ribbons" clad in stainless steel that extend from out of the top of the stage area which connect to an overhead array of crisscrossing steel pipes that define the lawn seating area. These pipes also serve as anchors for the speakers that are suspended throughout the pavilion to provide the sound quality necessary for such an outdoor venue. This can be seen in my second picture of the Pritzker Pavilion. It's certainly a breathtaking sight and I hope to take in a performance there at some point if only to say that I did.

My next picture is of "Cloud Gate," a sculpture by world-famous British artist Anish Kapoor. While the sculpture has become affectionately known to Chicagoans as "The Bean," the stainless steel behemoth (weighing in at 110 tons) is actually inspired by an ingot of liquid mercury. It's highly polished and beautifully reflects both the park and the cityscape of Michigan Avenue behind it. Even better, visitors are encouraged to walk under (and eventually through) the sculpture, which is polished inside and out, and become part of its magic.

Next is a shot of the Lurie Garden which is a sort of nature preserve smack in the middle of the city. Since everything has just been planted it's going to take a while to reach its full potential but its beauty is already evident.

Finally, and probably my favorite part of Millennium Park, is the giant Crown Fountain designed by Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa. It's framed by two 50 foot high glass block towers. Water continuously cascades down all four sides of each tower. On the sides of the towers facing each other, a video screen depicts faces of regular Chicagoans. In fact, 1000 random Chicagoans were chosen to be filmed for this artistic wonder. The faces move, smile, etc., and change randomly. However, before each face disappears, its lips pucker and water shoots out of its mouth (caught in my picture). It is obvious that this is the most "fun" part of Millennium Park, especially on a hot day as this one was. For those interested or familiar with famous Chicago skyscrapers, that's One Prudential Plaza in the background with Two Prudential Plaza looming just to its right.

I had a great time visiting Millennium Park and encourage any visitors to Chicago to check it out. It's a great new world-class attraction to add to our list (including the Art Institute, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Museum of Science and Industry, the "Magnificent Mile," the Sears Tower, and many others).

In other news.... My car will not be with me this week. They got the wrong part again so it's probably going to be another week. Doh!