COMMENTARY
MILLENNIUM PARK is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois. The park was intended to celebrate the third millennium and is a prominent civic center near the city’s Lake Michigan shoreline the area was previously occupied by parkland, Illinois Central’s rail yards, and parking lots. Millennium Park trailed only Navy Pier as a Chicago tourist attraction and by 2017 it had become the number one tourist attraction in the Midwestern United States.
millennium Park features the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Cloud Gate, the Crown Fountain, the Lurie Garden, and various other attractions. The park is connected by the BP Pedestrian Bridge and the Nichols Bridgeway to other parts of Grant Park. Because the park sits atop a parking garage and the commuter rail Millennium Station, it is considered the world’s largest rooftop garden. Some observers consider Millennium Park the city’s most important project since the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. In 2017, Millennium Park was the top tourist destination in Chicago and the Midwest and placed among the top ten in the United States with 25 million annual visitors
I wish I could remember enough to recount the behind the scenes story of millennium Park. My focus was on the visual components of the park with little regard for the story being told.
The one take away was that the artful use of open space and parks create value in urban environment.
The park was conceived as a 16-acre landscape-covered bridge over an underground parking structure to be built on top of the Metra/Illinois Central Railroad tracks in Grant Park. Originally, the park was to be designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, but gradually additional architects and artists such as Frank Gehry and Thomas Beeby were incorporated into the plan.
The community surrounding Millennium Park has become one of the most fashionable residential addresses in Chicago. In 2006, Forbes named the park’s 60602 zip code as the hottest in terms of price appreciation in the country, with upscale buildings such as The Heritage at Millennium Park (130 N. Garland) leading the way for other buildings, such as Waterview Tower, The Legacy and Joffrey Tower. The median sale price for residential real estate was $710,000 in 2005
Walking around Millennium Park
Click HereCloud Gatea public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Sir Anish KapoorJay Pritzker PavilionJay Pritzker Pavilion LClick HereClick HereLurie GardenClick Here
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