Millennium Park Aesthetics (Essay Sample)

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Millennium Park Aesthetics
Millennium Park is perceived to be one of the most accessible parks in the world. The park has transformed its underutilized space to offer numerous amenities designed to attract universal appraisal in terms of the best venue for hosting outdoor events. The public in general get pleasure from the large outdoor lawn meant for musical and arts events. Planning, structure and formation of the park began in 1997. Construction was initiated in 1998 October and the park was ceremoniously opened in July 2004. The design has incorporated railroads, pedestrian passages, gardens, fountains, sculptures, and indoor facilities have been strategic placed to complement the park’s social and political functions. The park was meant to celebrate the new millennium and offer civic centre for residents of Chicago.
Frank Gehry’s contribution to the park is the lawn that displays the best acoustics for musical performances. Pritzker Pavilion is a large turf that presents the right ambience for recreational activities, as well as political and activism functions. Ghery’s architectural masterstroke solves the acoustical problems by combining functional intervenes in a sensitive form. The lawn is easily accessible using the BP Bridge which also connects the park with the eastern parking garage and the lake front. The BP bridge not only crosses the over Columbia drive but acts as a sound barrier to the pavilion (Schulze 67). It breaks the traffic sound from Columbus Drive reaching the exhibition area. The exhibition area is mostly preferred for events in the city because it gives support sound system similar to indoor concert hall. Another pedestrian walk (Nicholas Bridleway) connects the lawn with the south end of the park where the Boeing Galleries exhibition space. This exhibition area is well known for hosting grand outdoor art exhibitions. Visitors to the park enjoy sitting on the edge of the boardwalk while soaking their feet in the stream of water.
The overall layout of the park adequately offered social services with the following features; the skating rink, fountain location, peristyle lawn, the promenade, music shell, and a garden. These features have helped transform the city into a cultural site with Millennium Park as the most engaging centre in the entire United States (Schulze 67). On a usual day, the park is filled with unimpeachable sounds made by children who eagerly stand in stream of water tumbling from crown fountain. The fountain is a brilliant artistry by Jaume Plensa. In most parks around the world, fountains are associated with the history but the peak fountain deviates from this norm (Schulze 67). The water is pumped to each of the interior edges of the glass towers as the waters flow on the walls of the tower with portraits of various residents of Chicago. The faces of the portraits are distinctively smiling with contemplative eyes. These portraits are natural continuum of simultaneous presence and absence of ambience created by the park (Crimp 80). The art in the pictures, as well as, other exhibitions in the park showcases how the various architectures were expressing their minds and perception of life. For instance, the smiling portraits with contemplative wide open eyes are also replicated by the children beneath the fountain. It complements the pleasure expressed by the visitors as well as the children. Residents have praised the fountains artistic entertainment and its pleasant theme of dualism light and water that promotes physical interaction between public and water in a creative setting (Crimp 88). This fountain is mostly preferred during summer as it helps the residence escape the strong summer heat.
A similar relationship between the artist and audience is displayed at the base of the monumental sculpture by Anish Kapoor who is the brilliant behind the Chicago bean. This huge stainless steel legume-like structure is well-polished offering reflection of the person standing next to it as well as the surrounding areas. Kapoor named his architectural work the cloud gate. The cloud gate in has become a central tourist attraction site for photographic scenes as well as reflective art piece. The reflective steel legume sculpture distorts that reflection of onlookers. The reflective art piece was supplemented by the crown fountain which is also an interactive art piece with glass tower displays showing videos of Chicago residence (Jodidio 224). This is a perfect public gathering place for children to play and have fun. The water tower cascade the water as it flows into the pool.
Laurie garden combines perennial grasses, bulbs grass and shrubs. This garden was specifically meant to describe the city in the backyard. The garden is of two shades, a dark shade that depicts Chicago’s history through its shade loving plants. The dark shade is achieved through the tree canopy. The light shade represents the city’s future. This is attributed to the sun basking perennials as well as the residents who visit the park to sun bask. In addition, there is an ice rink and grill located on the western end of the park. It is a favorite outdoor skating rink with an aptitude of 100,000 skaters annually (Gilfoyle 172). The grill plaza offers best restaurant ambience of up to 300 seat capacity and located beneath AT & T mall. It is the most successful financial restaurant in Chicago. On the northwest corner of the park, there is the Wrigley square that resembles the historical Greek Doric columns. This peristyle was inscribed with names of 115 financial donors who contributed a total sum of $1 million to pay for Millennium Park. McDonald’s cycle centre is a 300 space heated and air conditioned bike station with a number of social amenities like snack bar, summer seating, bike repair, showers and lockers. The Exelon pavilion is well equipped with solar energy generating power structures that provide sufficient energy for the park. In addition, it allows access to the parks underground parking garage that hosts up to 2500 parking spaces.
Many architects have commended the park as having the best relationship with the city landscape as well as its contemporary culture. The two elements correspond and interact with each other. The park’s infrastructure network flows into the ambiguous spaces in a significant network flow thus portraying a complete urban environment within the park (Schulze 68). This realm blends well with the historical artistry nature of sculptures and fountains within the park. Millennium Park appears to be a massive green roof with varied uses. The park is perceived to be a modern tradition of the 20th century since it is a park built in a city known to be the first in embracing modern architecture. The lakeshore and the tall buildings adjacent to the park give it a desire full art approach that cannot be achieved anywhere else. This is a topmost accomplishment of urban planning (Gilfoyle 172).