ML - Michigan Avenue

2014 - Issue 4 - Summer

Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!

Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/335804

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 127 of 163

5 MONEY MATTERS a public-private partnership expands the possibilities for MillenniuM park. Thanks to the fundraising efforts of John Bryan, the people behind Millennium Park were able to think bigger. "It's hard to say no to John," says Steve Crown, general partner of the privately held Henry Crown and Company, whose family donated $10 million for the Crown Fountain. "He may be one of the greatest fundraisers in the history of Chicago." Unlike a university or a cultural institution with a large donor base, Millennium Park had nothing, says Bryan. "We wanted the best the world had to offer. That meant going to the private sector." While others had f loated park ideas previously, it was the strong political backing of Daley that quieted Millennium Park's naysayers. "We had a mayor who was strong enough to protect the private sec- tor from the bureaucrats and City Hall," Bryan says. "When Mayor Bloomberg came to see our park, he said, 'You could never do it in New York because they just wouldn't let it be done.'" As the scope of the project grew—from 16.5 acres to 24.5 acres— the Millennium Park Foundation pushed for more funding. By May 20 04, less than 10 years after it began, the foundation had raised $143 million, and by June 2005 it had raised $173.5 million, accord- ing to Timothy Gilfoyle, author of Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark. Says Gilfoyle, "It was the perfect storm of positive events that allowed it to be built." Although its final construction budget more than tripled, today most people think building Millennium Park was one of Chicago's greatest feats. "This is one of the true successes of a private-public partnership," says Crown. "You don't see that very often." TWIN GARGOYLES the crown fountain turns JauMe plensa's dreaM of walking on water into a reality. Inspired by the gargoyles he saw at European cathedrals, Spanish artist Jaume Plensa designed the Crown Fountain to feature water spilling down glass blocks and spurting from the mouths of faces into a ref lecting pool that would skim the top of one's shoes. "My dream was to walk on the water and offer that dream to others," says Plensa. To create it took 18,000 glass bricks to build two 50-foot honeycomblike towers, and a computer hidden below to con- trol the 1,000 alternating faces on the towers' screens. "When I was developing the project, many people were concerned about using technology in the public space," says Plensa. "'Nobody will understand; it's too intellectual.'" The night before it opened, Plensa gave the fountain a test. "Kids came over and started to enjoy it without any prejudice," he says. "It was not intellectual; it was just a place for freedom. They interacted completely, without any prob- lem with my faces and jets of water. It was complete magic." 6 A replica of Grant Park's original semicircle of Doric-style columns, Wrigley Square's Millennium Monument pays homage to the park's individual and corporate benefactors. 126  michiganavemag.com

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of ML - Michigan Avenue - 2014 - Issue 4 - Summer