The Millennium Park of Chicago is a huge park with unique
artwork and has green, flowered gardens. It is the Park having a huge area of
24.5 acre and is seen as the crowning glory among the city’s public.
Skyscraper Around Millennium Park Chicago Looking More Gorgeous
The Park is so famous among the tourists too and it is true
that your tour to Chicago cannot be completed without visiting to Millennium
Park. It is a modern park and its location on Lakefront raises its popularity. The park was controlled by Illinois Central
Railroad for almost 150 years from 1850 to late 20th century. According
to history, it was feel that the area around the railroad track had no
attraction, considered by Daniel Burnham (a Chicago’s develop planner), so the
planners developed Grant Park around the area but much of the area remained
untouchable than Chicago’s other beautiful spots for many years.
Panoramic View of Millennium Park
Panoramic View of Millennium Park
In 1977 a Civic groups proposed government to build a new
park with a modern pavilion here but due to less interest of government the
plan remained incomplete till 1997 when Mayor Richard M. Daly proposed the
Millennium Park. Mayor Daly’s dream was to build new parkland in Grant Park and
converts the unattractive railroad tracks and parking lots along the lakefront
(edge of lake). He also decided to create a plan for a new music venue there.
People Sitting in the Ground
According to name the first plan was to open the park in
2000 but due to many problems and hurdles the project went delayed and finally
the park was opened on 16 July 2004 with a grand opening ceremony attended by
over 300,000 people with three days celebration. The attendance of visitors at
opening festival was much higher than expectations.
Attractions for
Tourists:
Today, without any doubt the 24 acre large Millennium Park
has an award winning beauty and center of art, music, architecture, and
landscape design. It has many absolute magnificent features tourists can found
in the park. Some of them are discussed bellow.
Jay Pritzker
Pavillion:
Jay Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park
The most popular
feature of Millennium Park in Chicago is the Jay Pritzker Pavillion, beautifully
designed by popular architecture Frank Gehry. This ultra modern concert venue
has 4000 seats with rooms along with an additional seating place for 7000 in a bigger
lawn. It is the home of musical and different types of concerts and events held
at Pritzker Pavillion.
Cloud Gate:
Tourists who have no interest attending a festival or
concert in Millennium Park Chicago, there are still a number of worth seeing attractions
for them such as the Cloud Gate designed by Indian born British artist Anish
Kapoor. This 33 feet high and 110 ton steel sculpture is famous as “The Bean”. The structure was inspired by liquid mercury
and considered as the largest sculpture in the world of its kind. Its polished
stainless steel plates shines and reflects the Chicago Skyline. Its curved
surface displayed amazing reflections to people. A popular thing for visitors to
do here is to walk under The Bean and enjoy the distorted (pulled or twisted) reflections
and take pictures of your reflections.
Crown Fountain:
There are some other activities and attractions for tourists
in Millennium Park Chicago, such as Crown Fountain one of the most popular
tourist spot designed by Jaume Plensa a Spanish artist. It is a black granite sparkling
reflecting pool consists of two 50 feet high glass-block towers. The water
fells down with continuous shower from the tower that fills the plaza to a
depth of 1/8 inch. The water fells down the towers outer side in a cascade on
three sides. It can be fun to walk through the shower especially children love
to take this shower. The fourth side of towers is featured with banks of
different colors of leds what when viewed from a short distance give the
illusion of projected video. In the daylight the towers displays the different
faces of Chicagoans each face takes about 10 minutes and in final minute a
spout of water fells out from their mouths.
Other Attractions:
There are some other attractions such as 2.5 acre large
Lurie Garden in Millennium Park of Chicago. The garden is full of colorful flowers
and lush green grass covered ground and beautiful walking tracks. Visitors can enjoy the native plants too. For
people who like to enjoy indoor concerts or theater, Harris theater will not disappoint
them. It is a theater for music and dance.
BP Footbridge is 925 feet long zigzag snake-shape bridge
also known as Snake Bridge popular to take a walk. It was designed by Frank
Gehry, tourist enjoys the view of Michigan Lake and Chicago Skyline while
walking over bridge.
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