Top 10 Sensational Facts About Millennium Park

A photo of Millennium Park Chicago. Photo By J. Crocker – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Sensational Facts About Millennium Park

Millennium Park is a 24.5-acre public park in downtown Illinois, Chicago. It includes fountains, eye-catching sculptures, gardens, a large outdoor concert facility, a restaurant, and an outdoor ice-skating rink.

A brainchild of Mayor Richard M. Daley, Millennium Park is a tourist attraction and it is considered the world’s largest rooftop garden because the park sits atop parking garages, the commuter rail Millennium Station and rail lines.

Intended to celebrate the third millennium, the park was opened in a ceremony in July 2004. Though behind schedule and way above budget, it transformed an industrial wasteland into Chicago’s showplace for cutting-edge art, architecture, landscape design, music, and more.

1. Cloud Gate

Cloud Gate commonly known as ‘The Bean’ Photo by Jansen Miller on Unsplash

Cloud Gate is a three-story reflective sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor that is the centerpiece of AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park. The sculpture was inspired by a giant drop of liquid mercury. It weighs more than 110 tons and is 66 feet long by 33 feet high plus an arch that is 12 feet high.

Commonly known as ‘The Bean’ because of its legume-like shape, the mirrored surface offers an amazing reflection of the city’s skyline. Composed of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams because of thousands of hours of polishing.

It provides striking reflections of visitors, who can walk around and under its arch. 

2. Crown Fountain

Designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, the Crown Fountain is a unique waterfall with faces. The fountain is composed of a black granite reflecting pool placed between two transparent glass brick towers.

The towers are 50 feet (15 m) tall and use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) behind the bricks to display rotating animated images of 1,000 residents’ faces as a tribute to the people of Chicago.

While the images on the towers are shown throughout the year, the water portion is only turned on from mid-spring through mid-fall when the weather is good.

3. BP Bridge

The snakelike Bridge is 935 feet long and connects Millennium Park to Maggie Daley Park and makes for easy access to Columbus Drive. Designed by award-winning architect Frank Gehry, the BP Bridge rises high enough to provide great views of the surrounding area.

The outer part of the bridge is brushed stainless steel and is known for its aesthetics. It serves as a noise barrier for the Pritzker Pavilion, another Gehry-designed work, blocking traffic sounds from Columbus Drive. It meets highway standards and can bear a heavy load to accommodate an array of pedestrians exiting the Pavilion events.

4. The Pritzker Pavilion

The Jay Pritzker Pavilion Photo By Diego Delso – Wikimedia

Jay Pritzker Pavilion is the centerpiece of Millennium Park and has a capacity of 11,000. The stage is framed by curving plates of stainless steel and has a state-of-the-art sound system that mimics the acoustics of an indoor concert hall.

The audio setup is crème de la crème of sound systems. The sound transmitted through the system travels faster than through the air. In this case, when sitting at the back of the lawn near a speaker you will hear the music faster than waiting for it to come off the stage.

5. Millennium Monument

The Millennium Monument in Wrigley Square at the Millennium Park. Photo By Ruhrfisch – Wikimedia

The peristyle monument is on a large lawn at the Wrigley Square in the northwest corner of Millennium Park. It is 12 pairs of 40-foot columns built from Indiana limestone nicely arranged in a semicircle and a fountain sitting in front of it.

The monument is a tribute to the individual, corporate, and foundation benefactors of Millennium Park. The pedestal of the monument’s base features the names of 122 people that are considered the park’s founders.

6. Harris Theater

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1,499-seat Theater that is located at the northern edge of Millennium Park. The theater was named in honor of its benefactors Joan and Irving Harris.

Most of the theater is largely underground due to Grant Park-related height restrictions and serves as the park’s indoor performing venue. This theater compliments the Jay Pritzker Pavilion which hosts the park’s outdoor performances.

7. Lurie Garden

Lurie Garden is a 2.5-acre natural garden located at the southern end of Millennium Park. The garden is a combination of perennials, bulbs, grasses, shrubs, and trees. It is designed with four primary components: the shoulder hedge, the light plate, the dark plate, and the seam boardwalk.

It is used for guided walks, lectures, interactive demonstrations, family festivals, and picnics. The Lurie garden constantly depicts the dynamics of nature, but it is most colourful from June through autumn.

8. Exelon Pavilions 

The Northwest Exelon Pavilion is Millennium Park’s Welcome Center. Photo By Diego Ibarra Argelery – Wikimedia

The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings in different parts of the millennium park that generate electricity from solar energy.

The four are the Northeast Exelon Pavilion, the Northwest Exelon Pavilion, the Southeast Exelon Pavilion, and the Southwest Exelon Pavilion.

Besides producing energy, three of the four pavilions provide access to the park’s underground parking garages and the fourth serves as the park’s welcome.

9. McDonald’s Cycle Center

McDonald’s Cycle Center is a unique indoor bike station in the northeast corner of Millennium Park. The Cycle Center is designed to encourage bicycle commuting to work and nearby downtown locations to exercise and reduce traffic congestion to make the city greener and improve the quality of the air.

The bike station which serves bicycle commuters and utility cyclists also cater to runners and inline skaters. It provides lockers, showers, a snack bar with outdoor summer seating, bike repair, bike rental, and 300 bicycle parking spaces.

10. McCormick Tribune Plaza

McCormick Tribune Ice Rink also serves as Park Grill. Photo By Flickr – Wikimedia

McCormick Tribune Plaza is a multi-purpose venue within Millennium Park that was the first attraction in Millennium Park to open. It has served as an ice-skating rink, a dining facility, and briefly as an open-air exhibition space.

It hosts skaters serving as a free public outdoor ice-skating rink that is open for four months a year from mid-November until mid-March.

For the rest of the year, it serves as Park Grill Plaza the largest outdoor dining facility in Chicago. It is affiliated with the 300-seat indoor Park Grill restaurant located beneath AT&T Plaza and Cloud Gate.

The 150-seat park grill hosts various culinary events as well as music during its months of outdoor operation and offers scenic views of the park.