Online Encyclopedia
Millennium Park
- For other uses of the name Millennium Park, go to the disambiguation page.
Millennium Park is considered the premier cultural center of the City of Chicago in Illinois and the centerpiece of the the city's lakefront. A redeveloped section of Grant Park, the 25-acre landmark is bounded by Michigan Avenue, East Randolph Street, Columbus Drive and East Monroe Drive. It was Mayor of Chicago Richard M. Daley's ambitious idea to realize that which was originally designed as part of Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago, a plan for the future of Chicago created in 1909.
Planning began in October 1996, construction began in June 1999 and it was finally completed in July 2004. Millennium Park was opened in a ceremony on July 16, 2004 as part of a three-day celebration that included an inaugural concert by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. 300,000 people took part in the grand opening festivities surpassing the 50,000 expected.
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Features
Millennium Park is one of the largest public parks in metropolitan Chicago. It features the McCormick Tribune Ice Skating Rink, Peristyle at Wrigley Square, Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance, SBC Plaza, Lurie Garden, Bank One Promenade and Trees in Millennium Park. There are three major artistic highlights: Cloud Gate, Crown Fountain and the Jay Pritzker Pavillion.
Pritzker Pavilion
The principal signature of Millennium Plaza is the Pritzker Pavilion, a band shell designed by world-renown artist Frank Gehry. A Pritzker Architecture Prize honoree and National Medal of Arts winner, Gehry designed such landmarks as the Guggenheim Museum at Bilbao, Der Neue Zollhoff in Düsseldorf and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Anaheim. Characteristic of Gehry, the Pritzker Pavilion consists of massive panels of steel resembling the graceful blooming of a flower or the unfurling sails of a massive ship.
Cloud Gate
SBC Plaza is home to Cloud Gate, a 3-story, 110-ton steel sculpture that has been dubbed by residents as The Bean. The sculpture is the work of world-renown artist Anish Kapoor and is the first of his art in the United States.
Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain, designed by Catalan conceptual artist Jaume Plensa, is the first of its kind in the world. Transparent glass bricks are used to build two 50-foot towers standing in the midst of a black granite plaza submerged under an eighth of an inch layer of water. Behind the glass bricks are high-tech LED video screens that when illuminated, scrolls through photographs of the faces of individual Chicagoans and showcases the vast diversity of the city while a stream of water cascades over the images. People are invited to walk on the water-covered granite plaza, creating the illusion of walking on water.
Budget
The project was known for its notorious delays (it was originally intended to open in 2000 instead of 2004) and tripled costs. This park, as stated by fundraiser John Bryan, would "be a monument to the very essence of the city of Chicago." It contains notable structures and gardens built by some of the best architects and designers available, and has a Frank Gehry-designed bandshell.
Many structures in the park were added, redesigned or modified. This resulted in budget increase. For example, the band shell's proposed budget was $10.8 million. When elaborate, cantilevered Gehry design required extra piling be driven into the bedrock to support the added weight, the cost spiraled to $60.3 million in the end.
| Project | Proposed Cost | Final Cost | % |
| Garage | $87.5 million | $105.6 million | 121% |
| Metra superstructure | $43.0 million | $60.6 million | 141% |
| Band shell | $10.8 million | $60.3 million | 558% |
| Music and Dance Theater | $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 | $15.0 million | $17.0 million | 113% |
| BP Pedestrian Bridge | $8.0 million | $14.5 million | 181% |
| Lurie Garden | $4.0-8.0 million | $13.2 million | 330%-165% |
| SBC sculpture | $6.0 million | $11.5 million | 192% |
| Exelon Pavilions | N/A | $7.0 million | - |
| Peristyle/Wrigley Square | $5.0 million | $5.0 million | 100% |
| Bank One Promenade | $6.0 million | $4.0 million | 67% |
| McCormick Tribune ice rink | $5.0 million | $3.2 million | 64% |
| Misc. (fencing, terraces, graphics) | N/A | $1.6 million | - |