Parks Legacy

From 1952 to 1997 the Illinois Central Railroad owned the site which currently has Millennium Park. In 1871 the Chicago White Stockings played home games at this location in what was then Union Base-Ball Grounds.In 1997, the city gained control of the land in the form of airspace rights; it decided to build a parking facility there. Eventually the effort to create new parkland in Grant Park was decided in 1998 to transform the unsightly railroad tracks and parking lots that had long dotted the lakefront; it was originally planned under the name Lakefront Millennium Park. The park was to be designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, but gradually additional architects and artists were incorporated into the plan such as Frank Gehry and Thomas Beeby.

The Millennium Park was unveiled in July 2004 and it is a portion of the larger Grant Park. This park also has one of the largest roof garden in the world, constructed on top of a railroad yard and large parking garages. Millennium Park has 24.5 acre of land of which only 12.04 acres (4.87 ha) is of permeable area. It has its own 2218-space parking garage.

There are four major artistic highlights: Cloud Gate, Crown Fountain, Lurie Garden and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a bandshell designed by architect Frank Gehry with 4,000 fixed seats plus additional lawn seating for 7,000. It has a spectacular design and its sound system is state-of-the-art. Different genres of concerts and other events are held at the Pritzker Pavilion at least once-a-week. Cloud gate is a three-story, 110-ton steel sculpture designed by artist Anish Kapoor. Residents call it as “The Bean”. It was sculptured to resemble a drop of mercury; it is the most popular sculpture in the city. Visitors can see their reflection in Cloud gate. Crown Fountain named in honor of Chicago's Crown family. The Fountain consists of two 50-foot glass block towers at each end of a shallow, sparkling reflecting pool. Behind the glass bricks are high-tech LED video screens. When the screens are illuminated they show the faces of nearly a thousand individual Chicagoans, which showcases the vast diversity of the city. Roughly after every five minutes water spouts from a point in the display, such that it appears as if the person is spitting the water out. Lurie Garden is a 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) public garden located at the southern end of Millennium Park designed by Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf, and Robert Israel. The garden has a good combination of perennials, bulbs, grasses, shrubs and trees. It was named after Ann Lurie.

The Millennium Park is an excellent location for a visit. It can serve as a day-long adventure for the whole family that has not only beautified the city but also bring visitors of all ages.