What it Do: Millennium Park

Cloud GateJust like clothing, a building or outdoor space might be beautiful to see, but still uncomfortable. The feeling of being within the confines of that attractive, yet stifling shoe is actually a good comparison to make while moving through Millennium Park.

Working with public spaces, the importance of accessibility and functionality play as much of a role in an entities success as its outward aesthetic. Seeing as Millennium Park was designed by a group of well renowned and highly thought of architects, the physical appearance of the structures in the park as well as its layout were assured to be pleasing to at least a segment of the population. Regardless of what the space and various objects within it look like, though, there’s the greater issue of the project’s usefulness.

Thoughtfully designed, the space possesses some characteristics – namely bridges - unifying disparate portions of the park with the greater whole of Chicago. Struggling through the throngs of people there, though, isn’t too pleasurable.

There’s sense of wonderment evoked by “Cloud Gate,” a massive stainless steel sculpture by British based designer Anish Kapoor. Frequently referred to as “the Bean,” this work just as easily summons the image of a bicycle helmet. The sculpture’s ability to mean various things to different people renders “Cloud Gate” an interesting subject for debate as it serves no real purpose, but remains a landmark and a place for tourists, if not necessarily Chicagoans, to congregate.

No seating adorns the immediate area around Kapoor’s sculpture, begging for visitors to circumambulate the work and even walk through it. Moving around the space that “the Bean” occupies, there’s no shortage of flashing cameras and small children running around, seemingly unattended. Some folks are tourists and others are Chicagoans milling about. But in its knack for drawing people towards it, the sculpture functions as some sort of cultural magnet, uniting disparate people that otherwise may not have ever encountered each other.

Perceiving Kapoor’s creation as art, successful or not, becomes secondary to the piece’s ability to work as a meeting place, a landmark or just somewhere to contemplate the usefulness of public spaces and how each is utilized by the city.

Discussing the founding of Archeworks, a design school based in Chicago, with Mara Tapp in a 2000 interview from New Art Examiner, architect and educator Stanley Tigerman explains the point of his endeavor: “[It’s about] breaking down barriers, bringing everyone together.” The same sentiments are transferable to Millennium Park and “Cloud Gate” specifically. The space should be intended to unify Chicago’s population. But with the sculpture’s popularity, at times, it serves only to create congested sidewalks rendering the park to a nuisance to navigate instead of a pleasurable work of public art.

Bringing people together can’t be the goal of each distinct piece that makes up Millennium Park. Every portion of the public space needs to interact with the surrounding cityscape that is Chicago. Green space has become a more and more sought after aspect of urban planning in recent times, with cities like Seattle encouraging people to take advantage of it by offering free internet access according to a Kathy Mulady penned article that appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on May 19, 2005.

In Chicago, though, the lawn that makes up a sizable portion of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion is frequently cordoned off. And on September 8, 2005 the Pavilion as well as the area around “Cloud Gate” was rented out to Toyota Motor Sales at the cost of $800 thousand dollars, disallowing Chicagoans from making use of the vast majority of Millennium Park according to a Chicago Tribune article written by Hal Dardick on May 06^th of that year. Of course, there needs to be some sort of control exercised over the Pavilion and the rest of the space. However, if people are turned away, for whatever reason, the park doesn’t function to enrich the lives of all citizens, just those that can afford to take advantage of special events. Appearing to be a useful and all inclusive venue, the Prizker Pavilion, on occasion actually works to display the chasm that exists in Chicago between people of different socio-economic backgrounds.

The simple existence of Millennium Park in the middle of one of the most densely populated American cities seems outrageous. A project of its magnitude and one that demands so much space should have become a logistical nightmare to plan and complete. As it stands now, the public space can lend a hospitable atmosphere for local as well as out of town visitors. It has granted Chicago a deepened sense of identity by creating a space that people the world over are familiar with. There’s just no way that everyone can be pleased with it. They shouldn’t be.