This tour will take you around Millennium Park, Chicago's newest waterfront park, located downtown, adjacent to Grant Park, and the Daley Bicentennial Plaza on the waterfront. The park features world class art, landscaping and architecture. Most of the sites that I'd like to show you are in a compact area so you won't have too much walking to do. After you finish this tour, you may want to try a tour of Grant Park to the south.
Crown Fountain - N 41 52.729 W 87 37.783
Designed by Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa, the Crown Fountain features two 50-foot high glass block towers at each end of a shallow reflecting pool. The towers are activated with changing video images and lights, and water cascades from the top of each. Anchoring the southwest corner of Millennium Park at Michigan Avenue and Monroe Streets, the Crown Fountain is a major addition to the city’s world-renowned public art collection.
Inspired by the people of Chicago, the sculpture features citizens faces, which appear on the glass towers’ changing video images. Utilizing water, light, and glass, Plensa has created an amazing piece to welcome visitors to Millennium Park.
Boeing Galleries - N 41° 53.045 W 087° 37.360
Boeing granted the city of Chicago $5,000,000 to create an outdoor sculpture park in the city's new Millennium Park. The sculpture garden, called Boeing Galleries, is divided into two sections. It is located on the Park's south and north mid-level terraces, above Wrigley Square and the Crown Fountain respectively.
The galleries will rotate the display, changing annually or bi-annually. This waymark will be a great spot for visitors to upload pictures of the current exhibits.
Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor - N 41° 52.956 W 087° 37.380
This is one of the city's newest pieces, but it is probably it's most well known and loved piece. It is British artist Anish Kapoor's first outdoor public work in the United States. The piece is constructed of highly polished stainless steel plates, welded together in a bean shape. The shiny surface reflects the city skyline on one side and Lake Michigan on the other. The gate portion is the 12 foot high arch formed in the curve of the bean. Cloud Gate was inspired by liquid mercury and measures 66-feet long by 33-feet high.
Jay Pritzker Pavilion - N 41° 52.992 W 087° 37.339
The Pritzker Pavilion, designed by architect Frank Gehry, opened in 2004 with a price tag of 475 million dollars. The pavilion stands 120-feet high, with a billowing "headdress" of stainless steel ribbons that frame the proscenium opening. The pavilion connects to an overhead trellis of crisscrossing steel pipes that define the lawn seating area. The Pavilion has 4,000 fixed seats and capacity for an additional 7,000 people on the lawn. With its open-air acoustical canopy, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion is among the most technologically advanced outdoor concert venues in the world, with digital innovations and enhanced sound.
The Pavilion is the permanent home of the Grammy-Nominated Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. The Grant Park Music Festival is the nations only free classical music festival and it takes place here each Summer.
Lurie Gardens - N 41° 52.992 W 087° 37.339
Chicago's motto is "Urbs in Horto", City in a Garden, and this 2.5 acre garden, designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel, pays homage to that. Highlights of the garden include the dramatically lit, 15-foot-high "shoulder" hedge, representing poet Carl Sandburg's description of the city as the "City of Big Shoulders." The hedge surround the garden on two sides, protecting a prairie like perennial garden. Through the center of the garden there's a hardwood bridge edged by a "stream" where on hot days you'll find people lining the edge, cooling their feet in the water. This bridge divides the garden diagonally.
BP Bridge - N 41° 52.992 W 087° 37.339
As you've probably noticed, these are the same coordinates given for the Lurie Gardens because are adjacent to each other.
The BP Bridge is the first bridge that Gehry designed. It is a sinuous 925 feet long and connects Millennium Park to Daley Bicentennial Plaza, east of the park. The structure provides incredible views of the Chicago skyline, Grant Park and Lake Michigan.
The bridge is clad in stainless steel, complimenting the adjacent Pritzker Pavilion, also designed by Gehry. Functionally, the bridge is also used as a sound barrier to protect concerts from noise from the traffic below.
After you've winded your way across the BP Bridge take some time to kick back in the Daley Bicentennial Plaza and enjoy the views of the lake. If you're not tired, head south and get started on a tour of Grant Park.