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East of Michigan Avenue is Grant Park, nicknamed “Chicago’s Front Yard”. It’s a large park with smaller sections that have been developed into other popular parks.
Brief History of Grant Park
Grant Park was established on April 29, 1844, and was originally known as Lake Park. It covers 319 acres and was renamed on October 9, 1901, to honor Civil War general and US President Ulysses S. Grant. Much of today’s park was formed with debris that was used to fill in Lake Michigan after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Grant Park was designated public land in 1839, to be free of buildings forever. This idea was ignored and several civic buildings as well as an early baseball field for what are now the Chicago Cubs were built there. Starting in 1906, businessman Aaron Montgomery Ward (c. 1844 – 1913) fought four court battles against civic leaders to keep the park free of buildings and eventually won. The only exception was to allow the Art Institute of Chicago, built in 1892. The Burnham Plan, written by architects Daniel Burnham (1846-1912) and Edward Bennett (1874-1954) in 1909, sealed Ward’s efforts.
Since being secured for public use, Grant Park has hosted several events over the years. These include Lollapalooza, the Chicago Blues Festival, the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Taste of Chicago, various sports championship rallies, and rallies for dignitaries. It was also the scene of the notorious 1968 Democratic National Convention riots.
Buckingham Fountain
The crown jewel of Grant Park is the regal Buckingham Fountain, which is one of the largest fountains in the world. 133 jets of water spray 14,000 gallons per minute and the center jet sprays 150 feet into the air every hour on the hour for 10 minutes. It operates from 8am to 10pm. In the winter, it’s decorated with lights.
Buckingham Fountain was donated to the city in 1927 by Kate Sturges Buckingham (1858-1937) in honor of her late brother, Clarence. It was designed by architect Edward Bennett (1874-1954), who modeled it after the Latona Fountain at the Palace of Versailles in France. The fountain represents Lake Michigan while the four seahorses represent the four states that border the lake. It’s featured on the opening credits for Married…with Children.
Millennium Park
One of the most visited and liveliest attractions in Chicago is Millennium Park. It’s located at the northwest corner of Grant Park and opened four years behind schedule in 2004. It’s full of events, activities for families, art exhibits, and more. Built over a large parking garage, it’s also technically the world’s largest rooftop garden.
Cloud Gate (The Bean)
The most popular section of Millennium Park is AT&T Plaza, which contains Cloud Gate, a huge stainless steel sculpture affectionately known as “The Bean”. It’s one of the most photographed attractions in the entire city.
Cloud Gate was designed by British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor and is polished to give a distorted reflection. 168 stainless steel plates were welded together to construct it but there are no visible seams in the entire work. It measures 33 x 66 x 42 feet (10 x 20 x 13 meters), and weighs about 100 tons. The sculpture was built between 2004 and 2005 and officially unveiled to the public on May 15, 2006.
McCormick Tribune Plaza
Underneath Cloud Gate is the McCormick Tribune Plaza and Ice Rink. It became the first attraction at Millennium Park to open to the public, on December 20, 2001. During the winter months, it’s converted into a hugely popular outdoor skating rink in an amazing setting under the Chicago skyline. In the summer months, it serves as an outdoor restaurant, Park Grill.
Crown Fountain
To the south is the Crown Fountain, a work of video art designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. It opened to the public in July 2004.
The fountain consists of two huge video screens opposite each other with faces of local residents rotating every five minutes. As water flows over the screens on both sides, the faces smile and blink and also “spit” water out of the fountain. The space between the screens is used as a respite from the summer heat with many children playing in the water.
Wrigley Square
To the north is Wrigley Square, which contains the Millennium Monument. The monument is a peristyle that was built to replace another peristyle that sat on the same spot between 1917 and 1953. The pedestal is inscribed with the names of the 115 donors who contributed at least $1 million each to finance Millennium Park.
Boeing Galleries
Next to both Wrigley Square and the Crown Fountain are the Boeing Galleries, which display works of art including photos and sculptures. Behing the galleries is the Chase Promenade, which also sometimes displays art.
Pritzker Pavilion
The Harris Theater and Pritzker Pavilion are the park’s indoor and outdoor performing arts venues. The Harris Theater, which opened on November 8, 2003, is used for small indoor performances while the Pritzker Pavilion is used for large open-air performances including both free and paid concerts.
The Pritzker Pavilion was designed by architect Frank Gehry and has a capacity of 11,000. It was built between June 1999 and July 2004 and officially opened on July 16, 2004. There’s an assigned seating area as well as open seating on the grass behind it, with stainless steel beams criss-crossing the entire open area.
Lurie Garden
Behind the Pritzker Pavilion is the Lurie Garden, which is full of flowers, shrubs, and trees. It opened on July 16, 2004, and is bisected by a boardwalk and canal. The garden is named for its benefactor, Ann Lurie.
Chicago Christmas Tree at Millennium Park
If you’re in town during the Christmas season, you can see the official Chicago Christmas tree at Millennium Park. The tree has been located there since 2015.
BP Pedestrian Bridge
The BP Pedestrian Bridge, which opened on July 16, 2004, is a serpentine pedestrian bridge connecting Millennium Park and Maggie Daley Park. It was designed by Frank Gehry and is accessed to the east of Pritzker Pavilion. The bridge is 935 feet (285 meters) long and 20 feet (6.1 meters) wide. It crosses over Columbus Drive.
Map of Millennium Park
Maggie Daley Park
Maggie Daley Park opened to the public on December 13, 2014, at the northeast corner of Grant Park. It’s named for Maggie Daley, the former first lady of Chicago who died of cancer in 2011. The park was built on the former Daley Bicentennial Plaza and designed by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh. It contains rock climbing walls, a playground, miniature golf, and an ice skating ribbon in the winter, among other kid-friendly activities.
Art Institute of Chicago
South of Millennium Park is one of the finest art museums in the world, the Art Institute of Chicago. Flanked by its signature lions, the building was built in 1893 with a modern wing that opened in 2009.
Public Art in Grant Park
Grant Park is full of gardens, sculptures, and public art. Sculptures are dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, and John Logan.
The Bowman and the Spearman
The Bowman and The Spearman are two sculptures of Native American warriors that “guard” Grant Park. They were erected in 1928 by Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic (1883-1962) at Congress Plaza Gardens, at the center west end of the park. Interestingly, their weapons are nonexistent.
Agora
A huge public art installment of headless and bodiless figures, Agora, sits at the southwest end of the park. It was developed by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz (1930-2017). The figures are hollow pieces of rusted iron made in Poznan, Poland, between 2004 and 2006. They stand 9 feet (2.7 meters) tall and weigh about 1,800 lb (820 kilograms).
Other Features of Grant Park
On the southeast end, Hutchinson Field includes 12 baseball diamonds to provide recreational opportunities. It’s named for businessman Charles Hutchinson (1854-1924). Near the Agora art installation is Grant Park Skate Plaza, which opened on December 6, 2014. There’s also a dog park as well as the Petrillo Music Shell, which opened on August 24, 1931, and hosts large music performances. It’s named for musician James Petrillo (1892-1984), who created a free concert series at Grant Park in 1935.
The Chicago Skyline from Grant Park
From the south end of the park, there are fantastic views of the city skyline, including three important skyscrapers. The Prudential, built in 1955, was once the tallest building in Chicago at 41 stories. Two Prudential Plaza, built in 1990, features a large spire and is 64 stories high. To the right is the Aon Center. It was built in 1974 as the Standard Oil Building and was later known as the Amoco Building. It has 83 floors.
The Lakefront at Grant Park
Part of the Chicago Lakefront Trail, an 18-mile track that sits along the lake, runs through Grant Park. People use it for running, biking, dog walking, or simple enjoyment. It passes through beaches, other parks, and along harbors.
Monroe Harbor sits along Grant Park. It’s the home of the Chicago Yacht Club and Columbia Yacht Club and provides mooring cans for over 824 boats, which are served by tenders. Du Sable Harbor, which opened in 1999, can accommodate 420 boats.
Grant Park: A Work In Progress…
Grant Park has been a work in progress since it first opened in 1844. There are still several makeovers that can improve the park, including removing the eyesore created by the train tracks running through the middle of the park below ground level. Although there have been many plans to cover them with more parkland over the years, only the creation of Millennium Park has been successful in eliminating some of the ugliness they produce. Hopefully the city can move forward with the help of private donors to create another success story like Millennium Park and make Chicago’s Front Yard even more of a special place for Chicagoans and the world to come together.
