Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Millennium Park continued

Adjacent to the Pritzger Pavilion, by Frank Gehry,are 2 other interesting pieces of sculpture that really capture 2 different styles of monuments.The first is a very classical structure, the Millennium Monument in Wrigley Square. It is a slightly smaller version of a Greek (doric) styled monument, designed by Edward Bennett, (who also designed the famous Buckingham Fountain nearby) which stood nearby from 1917 till 1953. I love classical structures like these, but sadly it was the emptiest part of the whole park.The Cloud-gate, lovingly nicknamed the bean for obvious reasons, was immensly more popular. I could see why: totally interactive, people loved to look at their own reflections 'carnival style' and walk in, around and under it. The sculpture sits in the AT&T plaza section: built of polished steel, it weighs in at 110 TONS! The heavy work was the first installation by artist Anish Kapoor in the United States and cost upwards of $23 million -about 5 times more than the classical Millenium monument! It is meant to depict a drop of mercury right before impact with the ground. The sculpture was hand polished on site after delivery to hide the weld-lines. They did a good job because it is amazingly PERFECT (although it could do with a good washing with windex!). You can easily see why this is the most popular piece in the park! If you plan a trip to Chicago (and you must!) plan to visit the Millennium Park!

5 comments:

Renée Finberg said...

elsa peretti move (way) over....
i think it is the coolest bean ever!!

xx

ArchitectDesign™ said...

It really is, Renee!!

Beth Connolly said...

Stefan-Renee beat me-I was going to say it looks like the iconic Elsa Peretti bean. Drop of mercury my you know what!

magnaverde said...

My favorite thing about the Kapoor sculpture is exactly what you were sorry to see, Stefan--the way it's drawn the throngs of noisy tourists away from the older, more elgant areas of Grant Park's original Beaux Arts layout. The plaza around Buckingham Fountain is again the calm & orderly oasis it was intended to be, and the rebuilt Peristyle has regained the calm romance it had in old photographs. On foggy or rainy days, the area is even more beautiful than it was on the sunny day you were there. Here's the Peristyle on a 192os poster by the little-known artist Ervine Metzl.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a286/MAGNAVERDE/METZL--PeristylePoster.jpg?t=1247497771

ArchitectDesign™ said...

Good point, magneverde -I guess I should be glad I can enjoy the more beautiful areas of the park without the crowds. I just can't help but feel like they're concentrating on the wrong things though! LOL