Chicago Journal
Part Nine: 2005 Updates: Millenium Park, Art Institute, Soldier Field.
Most of what I've written above is from 2000. A lot of it is still useful advice for a tourist, but much has changed since then! I'm back in the city now, in Streeterville, after a few years traveling. High time for some updates!
Millenium Park is finally starting to shake its image of a long-delayed, over-budget debacle and is becoming a well loved city fixture. People use the ice skating rink (moved from the still infamously empty Block 37 on State) in the winter and hang out everywhere when the weather warms up. Of course the neverending project isn't completely done. The cool Crown Fountain (I love how it seems to show a waterfall when it's raining and faces when it isn't!) is constantly being worked on and the wonderful Cloud Gate sculpture (locally known as "The Bean") is completely under wraps for polishing. Given a bright sunny day, with both of these available, the city literally gleams around you. It's a glorious place to view the city and looks like a great place for an outdoor concert on the Great Lawn. And what can be said about Frank Gehry's Priztker Music Pavilion? It looks fake, like a prop in a low budget science fiction movie, and yet, with its thin cage of steel ribbons snaking out over the well kept lawn, it somehow, improbably, works.
Millennium Park also justifies the Aon Center Plaza for a quick look. The Aon Building is formerly the Amoco Building and formerly before that the Standard Oil Building, so you'll still hear old timers call it by all of these names. It was built in the 70's and generally disliked or ignored by Chicagoans for many years. However, with a modern looking park in front of it, and plenty of other tall, modern buildings to the north now, it no longer looks out of place. More importantly, it has a great lower level plaza, with some pleasant fountains. It's worth crossing the street (north) to visit from the park.
I should also let out-of-towners know that you can park a car under Millenium Park. Actually, this parking lot was there before and was a great choice for those visiting Grant Park, but it was closed for so long during the Millenium construction that I think a lot of people forgot about it. In any case, this is a large lot and a very good location to leave the car while you visit the city by foot and public transport.
The new Soldier Field (mistakenly called "Soldier's Field" by nearly everyone) is another big lakefront change. While hiking the Appalachian Trail last summer, I met Tillie Wood at her log cabin in the woods near Pearisburg, Virginia. Tillie lets hikers sleep in her bunkhouse in return for some chores. After hearing I'm from Chicago, she asked me what I thought about the new football stadium. I admitted that I hadn't seen it yet, but I'd heard it was controversial. At that point she told me her son was one of the architects. Well Tillie, I've seen it now and the reviews are indeed mixed. On the plus side, it is a modern, functional stadium, that looks great from the inside. On the other hand, from the outside, it looks like a giant alien spaceship had an unfortunate hyperspace merging with some Roman ruins.
The Art Institute has rearranged their galleries a bit, generally to good affect. The two upstairs east galleries used to hold rather bad examples of modern art. Now they house a newly consolidated American art collection, with Grant Wood's "American Gothic" and Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks" being the most familiar. Not sure why it took them so long to put this collection here, but it is an improvement. Also, they have some of the now defunct Terra Museum works, including a loan of Samual Morse's (of Morse Code fame) "Gallery of the Louvre". This more than makes up for the temporary removal of the Chagall Windows, which were taken down to work on the new north wing of the building. However, if the torpid constuction pace of neighboring Millennium Park is an indication, the lovely blue windows will be down for a long time to come.