Making it shine
Only a person who has polished a 66-foot-long, 33-foot-high, 125-ton, hollow, stainless steel kidney-bean-shaped sculpture until it was so shiny you could use it as a shaving mirror could tell you what a cumbersome chore that sort of thing can be, and how long it will probably take you if you decide to attempt the task yourself. MORE>>
MP3 tour download a walk in the park
Millennium Park and its 24.5 acres can appear overwhelming, with the sculpture, the architecture, the landscape and the blur of performance artists and crowds. MORE>>
ONE YEAR LATER
The Millennium Park effect
NEW CATCH PHRASE was in the air after Frank Gehry's shimmering Guggenheim Museum made its spectacular debut eight years ago in the tattered shipbuilding city of Bilbao, Spain: "the Bilbao effect." The term, which sounded like weather forecasting jargon, spoke to the way a dazzling avant-garde work of architecture could instantly warm a city's artistic and business climates, attracting tourists by the planeload and turning a forgotten industrial outpost into a world cultural mecca. MORE>>
THE UNVEILING OF MILLENNIUM PARK
A midsummer's dream
Thousands of people flocked to Millennium Park's gala opening Friday night to see for themselves if the mega-project was worth $475 million and a six-year wait. MORE>>
INTERVIEW WITH 'THE BEAN'
A real smooth talker
In the days leading up the official opening of Millennium Park, RedEye sat down--and looked up--to talk with the area's biggest new attraction. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
At last: Opening Day for Millennium Park
Above a blighted, sunken site once occupied by railroad tracks and a gravel parking lot, what is arguably Chicago's most expansive outdoor cultural project since the Columbian Exposition of 1893 is finally open. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
Fest kicks off with showcase of favorites
Sure, Millennium Park is filled with delights for the eye. But music, let's not forget, is the reason the Jay Pritzker Pavilion was built. The Chicago Park District and Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs want folks to enjoy as much good music as possible this summer as they savor the park's dynamic architecture, sculptures and landscaping. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
`Listen In' as you walk through Millennium Park
It was probably inevitable. The ubiquitous cell phone, a practical convenience and sometime annoyance, has been co-opted by sound artists. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
Separate-but-unequal music programming
There it sits, off in a corner at Jackson Boulevard and Columbus Drive a dilapidated hulk suddenly dwarfed and humbled by the mighty Pritzker Pavilion to the north. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
No pop music scheduled for now
Fans of rock and pop will have to wait until the summer of 2005 to see and hear whether Millennium Park lives up to its billing as a first-rate outdoor concert facility. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
State-of-the-art sound
The sun's rays stream through the huge trellis of crisscrossing steel pipes, bouncing off the stainless-steel ribbons that adorn the stage house of the new Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. It is late June, and all ears are on the Grant Park Orchestra. The ensemble is rehearsing for the first time on the stage of the Grant Park Music Festival's new permanent home, in preparation for the pavilion's inaugural gala concert Friday night. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
A walk in the park: Sights at every turn
You have to be on foot to understand how special Millennium Park is. From every angle of approach, there is something delightful. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
'Cloud Gate' unveiled, still in progress
British sculptor Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate," one of the most important additions to the city's outdoor gallery of monumental sculpture in decades, will not be completed until mid-September. However, the hangar of white curtains that has surrounded the stainless-steel piece since April has been removed, and for a little more than a week visitors will have full access to the work-in-progress near Michigan Avenue and Madison Street. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
Glimpsing a garden: From the ground up
As is the case with so many things in life and certainly most gardens so it is with Millennium Park's new 3-acre Lurie Garden: Good things come to those who wait. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
Two restaurants, one prime location
The Park Grill, the full-service restaurant within Millennium Park, is about to welcome a little brother. MORE>>
MILLENNIUM PARK: USING THE PARK
Celebrating all weekend
Events are planned Friday through Sunday. MORE>>
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