Park Gives Windy City a Fresh Face

It cost nearly half a billion dollars, about three times the original estimate, and was finished almost four years behind schedule. But with Millennium Park, a 24 1/2-acre open space and performance center near Lake Michigan, officially set to open Friday, the controversy and complaints seem to have gotten lost in the excitement.

All along the spacious lawns and ornate gardens, locals and tourists alike are stopping to gaze at the towering modern sculptures and marvel at the slick ice rink.

One of Mayor Richard M. Daley’s pet projects, the park has an outdoor music pavilion designed by Frank Gehry, gardens with hundreds of different plants and an elegant underground theater that seats 1,500.

“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” said Jeremy Tolfin, 34, a car salesman who spent a recent afternoon here picnicking with friends. “It’s gorgeous and green and the sculptures are fun, but weird. I guess it’s worth the price.”

The park is the latest push by City Hall to expand the cutting-edge nature of Chicago’s historic skyline. Officials in the city that gave birth to the first steel skyscrapers are touting Millennium Park as part of the new face of Chicago -- an attempt to blend the classical lines of its downtown architecture with a modern attitude toward art and green space.

The effort to revamp the northwest section of Grant Park began back in 1976, with a proposal to simply expand the gardens along the lakefront, said Erma Tranter, president of the nonprofit association Friends of the Parks.

“At the time, this section of the park was an eyesore,” Tranter said. “You could see the rail lines, and there was a huge hole in the ground that had become an illegal parking lot.”

That plan, however, was derailed by cost concerns and the fact that railroad companies owned the property rights. In the 1990s, city attorneys filed a lawsuit against the railroads, which led to the city regaining control of the land. In 1998, Daley unveiled the plan for Millennium Park, and the project was back on.

The initial modifications were to be modest: Two years of work and $150 million would mean a new fountain, groomed walkways and a small band shell to host symphonic concerts. The project to upgrade the park -- to be paid for with revenue from a new underground garage --fit right into Daley’s overarching plan to beautify the city. That has included projects such as planting tulips and other flowers along the city’s boulevards and creating rooftop gardens.

Trouble arose, however, soon after construction began.

Architects didn’t finish their drawings in time, so major revisions to the shafts of concrete and steel -- which was used to create a solid foundation for the entire park -- had to be done. The garage’s sprinkler system had to be redone because it needed more water pressure to work. And some of the columns in the garage, which were used for support, were too rigid and ended up cracking.

When the Millennium Park Garage opened in February 2001, only 250 of the more than 2,100 total spaces were finished, not nearly enough to cover the city’s bills. The Chicago Tribune ran stories alleging poor management of the project and cronyism, among other things.

Officials’ vision of the park over time grew grander -- and more expensive.

The city has covered an estimated $270 million of the project’s $475-million cost, according to city officials. The bulk of that money has come from bonds. The remainder of the funding came from private and corporate donors.

The star of the park is the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the 120-foot-high outdoor venue designed by Gehry. Stainless steel, curled into swirling ribbons, surrounds the stage. A wandering grid of metal pipes climbs high into the air and is used to hold up the sound system.

Gehry also designed a steel serpentine bridge that winds its way from Millennium Park to Lake Michigan.

Anish Kapoor, an Indian-born artist, created a massive, 110-ton sculpture that locals have dubbed “the bean.” Looking like a curved black bean, its stainless steel exterior is polished and forged in such a way to reflect its surroundings.

And then there is the reflecting pool and fountain, which are flanked by a pair of 50-foot-high glass towers. On the towers, video images show people contorting their faces to make it look like the water from the fountain is coming out of their mouths.

“You can see how the budget grew,” said Ed Uhlir, project director of Millennium Park. “If we hadn’t had so much financial support from donors, this never would have been completed.”