Edward Keegan: Millennium Park has failed to live up to its promise

Chicago Tribune

03-05-2025

If you were born when Millennium Park opened, you'll be enjoying legal cocktails this summer. And while the park's landscaping is also achieving maturity, it's not clear when the popular venue will function again as the public park it was meant to be.
The result of a lengthy and often ad hoc design process that involved innumerable top-notch players, the 24.5 acres at the northwest corner of Grant Park were designed to invite the public to its varied attractions. But the contagion of unsightly crowd control barriers, often coupled with cumbersome security checks, has thwarted public access and become the unfortunate norm in recent years.
Millennium Park was the first important public space in the United States in the 21st century. When it opened in 2004, Millennium Park was rightly hailed as a new kind of park, and it has proved to be a precursor to a generation of vibrant new urban spaces that include New York's High Line (2009), The 606 (2015) and the Chicago Riverwalk (2016).
In the years prior to its opening, much of the press about Millennium Park, most especially in this newspaper, focused on the increasingly higher costs above the initial estimates. But the ballooning budget reflected an increasingly ambitious scope shepherded by design director and master planner Ed Uhlir, which changed from a modest bandshell and revamped parking garage to the stunning art- and design-driven series of spaces we now know. And those hundreds of millions of additional dollars were largely offset by epic philanthropic fundraising led by Sara Lee CEO John H. Bryan.
The public reaction on the park's opening that July centered on the park's considerable design features with Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavilion; Jaume Plensa's Crown Fountain; Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate (also known as The Bean); and Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel's Lurie Garden as the main attractions. These inventive venues are high art that doesn't pander and were conceived to be fully accessible. But recent years have seen Millennium Park's original promise diminished by bad public policy and safety concerns that need to be reconsidered.
And today, many parts of the park are showing their age. The Gehry-designed trellis above the Pritzker Pavilion's lawn is currently undergoing extensive repairs. Much of the concrete on both sides of the bandshell is cracked and spalling; original signage is badly faded and dated; and the much-needed public restrooms need a good refresh. In contrast, Cloud Gate and the plaza it sits on look great — the result of renovations completed last year. But Crown Fountain could use a similar overhaul.
The very idea of the public park is America's most important design contribution to the 19th century. Early examples like New York's Central Park, Brooklyn's Prospect Park, Boston's Fens and San Francisco's Golden Gate Park were almost always placed in a central location, open to all without a cost of admission. Parks throughout the country became central to cities' identities and their public lives. Frederick Law Olmsted was not just our foremost landscape designer but also a proselytizer for the role of parks as civic institutions and promoters of public health.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Millennium Park — 'the best thing former Mayor Richard M. Daley ever did' — 20 years later
And parks are a key part of Chicago's design legacy. Our boulevard-linked system of large parks — Jackson and Washington parks on the South Side, Douglass and Humboldt parks on the West Side, and Lincoln Park on the North Side — combined the considerable talents of Olmsted, Calvert Vaux and William Le Baron Jenney, among others. The boulevard system's 26-mile length touches on numerous neighborhoods throughout the city. These green open spaces often spurred the initial development of these neighborhoods and can provide an impetus for their ongoing renewal.
While still one of our newest parks, it's important to recognize that Millennium Park's efficacy as a public park has been hampered in recent years. Originally, ticketed events were rare: The occasional big artist necessitated temporary fencing around the pavilion and its lawn. But recent years have seen 'temporary' fencing around the perimeter of the entire park, and many periods when entry is tightly controlled with invasive security searches and long lines to just visit the park. Much of this can be attributed to public safety concerns during the pandemic, but it's long past time that these anti-democratic restrictions are removed. Ticketed events should be the rare exception. Gates and fences should be eliminated.
This corner of Grant Park might be the most accessible single spot in the entire city, with abundant public transportation. CTA buses and trains are available nearby, and Metra and South Shore Line trains stop at Millennium Station directly below the park. And car parking is not a problem with 3,976 spaces underneath in the Grant Park North and Millennium Park garages.
But this public access is no longer reflected at the perimeter of the park, where the fencing is seldom removed. Balancing maintenance and repair with public access isn't easy. But adding militaristic public safety measures shouldn't be a part of Millennium Park.
Millennium Park was Mayor Richard M. Daley's remarkable response to a gaping hole that revealed railroad tracks and surface parking over the eastern half of the site — neither reflecting what an early cartographer labeled as 'forever open, clear and free' nor Daniel Burnham's vision of the grand formal lakefront park that is Grant Park.
Jose More, Chicago Tribune
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Millennium Park's original attractions still hold genuine power, allowing you to see yourself and the city reflected in The Bean's fun house mirror; to walk on or be drenched in the water at Crown Fountain; and to hear live music from the exuberant stainless steel explosion of Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion, a contemporary remaking of the traditional proscenium that's reminiscent of Louis Sullivan's rousing 19th century rendition at the Auditorium just a few blocks away.
Each of these experiences endures, as designed. But public access to these public assets is vital — and has been severely compromised through the last two mayoral administrations.
Millennium Park needs to, once again, become a living, breathing part of the city.
Mayor, tear down these walls.
Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan's biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.