Our assignment was to write a short critique of Frank Gehry’s Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. As we approach the Pritzker Pavillion, we are instructed to take in the city skyline, and how the pavilion relates to the other buildings. Behind the Pavillion, we can see the Aqua building (second building from the right), designed by Jeanne Gang, who was awarded a MacArthur Foundation grant this fall.
Modern Wing of the Art Institute
Directly facing Millennium Park and the Pritzker Pavilion is Renzo Piano’s Modern Wing of the Art Institute.
‘When Frank Gehry completed the Jay Pritzker Pavilion - a baroque swirl of steel plates enclosing a concert shell - he issued a friendly challenge [regarding the location of the Modern Wing]. ‘Come and get me,’ he told Piano, who was finalizing his design. The Italian did just that, exploiting the rigorous street grid to align his concourse on the pavilion, counterpointing Gehry’s exuberance with his cool rationality. ‘He works in his language, I with mine, but the two projects do a similar job,’ says Piano. ‘He created an acoustical space and we created a visual space protected from the sun.’ “ http://www.architectural-review.com/buildings/art-institute-of-chicago-by-renzo-piano-building-workshop-chicago-usa/8601035.article
We cross the Nichols Bridgeway, also designed by Piano, which joins Millennium Park to the Art Institute's Modern Wing. We stop to take photos at Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, aka “The Bean,” also in Millennium Park. The Bean is one of the most popular (and most often photographed) sculptures in Chicago.
