Chicago's Millennium Park Sets the Bar High For Los Angeles

Critics and the public have heralded Millennium Park as a hugely successful new urban park. What park features contribute most to Millennium's success?

The planning of the park developed from a very safe initial plan, which was an extension of the formal French Renaissance plan of Grant Park, into a plan of many visions of many architects, landscape architects, and artists, rather than a single vision. It has a variety of things to bring people together. Its public spaces are more interactive than any other public park in the country. It has unique programming, which we expand every summer. We're trying to do programming all year now. And I think it's the one space in Chicago that belongs to everyone; it's the most democratic public forum in Chicago.

What guiding principles helped shape "a park in and for the 21st century"?

We went back to original idea of the landscape of Grant Park, which was developed by Daniel Burnham and then later by Edward Bennett, which was a series of smaller rooms starting along Michigan Avenue and then successively getting grander spaces going to the lake. That concept applied to the rest of Grant Park, but we used it in Millennium Park as well. In those rooms, we've asserted different design ideas that are much more contemporary.

We kept a portion of Millennium Park historic because sections of Grant Park were part of the historic district called the Michigan Avenue Historic District. So, there's a transition from the French Renaissance edge of Michigan Avenue to the more contemporary architecture to the east, culminating with Frank Gehry's BP Bridge, which snakes across the old part of the park across the road.

How did you entice Frank Gehry to be involved with the architecture of Millennium Park?

Well, he was Pritzker Prize-winner, and he had a very close relationship with the Pritzker family, and since they were offering money to hire somebody like Frank, it was natural just to go and ask him to enter the project as principal designer of the pavilion. As he was looking at the plans that were already done, he noticed the pedestrian bridge. He was interested in that, so I was able to offer him the bridge as long as he also agreed to do the pavilion. That was enough to entice him to get involved in the project, but we had to wait for six months before we could even start. We were taking a huge risk because we were actually building the park in advance of even knowing what his design would look like.

What design decisions resulted from Gehry's involvement, especially on the Pavilion? How did its design impact the park's planning?

Well, the pavilion had to compete with a lot of very large structures around the park, i.e., Chicago's skyscrapers. It had to have enough impact and enough focus to draw your eye to the performance.

And his other brilliant move was the trellis, which is this crisscrossing pipe structure that holds the sound system. Because of the trellis that supports the speakers, we are able to distribute the sound uniformly across the entire audience. We were able to then add a secondary system called Enhance System, which delivers sound in a way that creates reverberation. We've really created a virtual room with reflections off the ceilings and walls.

Then there is the bridge connection to the Great Lawn and the trellis. For a pedestrian bridge it is an experience, and people love to walk out of there. As they go across the bridge they get to look at different elevations.

It is said that Millennium Park is a fusion of art, architecture, and landscape. How was the art selected, and what has been the impact of Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate and Jaume Plensa's Crown Fountain?

Jaume Plensa designed Crown Fountain for a private competition. We selected him because of his unique understanding of the essence of water, as well as his reference to gargoyles of Europe, which you would normally see on cathedrals. But he translated them into the faces of 1,000 Chicagoans. So these faces, which are depicted as LEDs, went behind what we consider the Jumbotron behind the glass brick façade. At some point in their six minutes of fame on the film, their faces spit water into a reflective pool for about 20 seconds.

It's a delight for families and children to be able to wade in this pool, which is only a quarter of an inch deep, and to interact with the faces in the fountain. It allows people to interact with public art in a very unique way.

Cloud Gate, which was designed by Anish Kapoor, is equally attractive to people. It has been described as a drop of mercury landed in Millennium Park-a 110-ton drop of mercury with highly polished, reflective side surfaces, and a quarter inch-thick stainless steel. It has a stainless finish that allows people to see themselves and the reflection of Chicago, the park, and the skyline. It essentially pulls the sky down to earth.

Landscape architects Guthrie/Gustafson designed Lurie Garden in collaboration with Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel. It is an extremely unique garden that reflects the history of the site but also has 120 varieties of plants. It's a sustainable garden; it's interesting no matter what season. In the winter, it has a water feature that people often enjoy, and it is an oasis in the city, surrounded by shoulder hedge, which gives some seclusion from the rest of the activities in Millennium Park.

What was it about this park's design and planned programming that captured the imagination of so many of Chicago's private philanthropic donors?

I think the impetus was the turning of the millennium-the year 2000. We gave a chance to Chicago benefactors and philanthropists to contribute. As the park developed and the plans developed, we were able to demonstrate that this park would be special-an opportunity for people to make a contribution that their families could see for hundreds of years in the future. Chicago has a history of civic entrepreneurship and is very fortunate in that way; other cities are trying to figure out how we did it.

What are some of the creative financing mechanisms used at Millennium Park to monetize its assets for the benefit of park operations?

I'm an architect and planner, so my role was a little bit tricky because I was the liaison between the Mayor's office, the private sector, and then also all of the designers who worked on the project. So, I had to balance the desires of the various designers involved with the goals of the whole park. And then I had to help sell elements of the park to particular donors.

The major source of funding from the city side was the garage revenue. A new garage was built under Millennium Park called the Millennium Garage, which justified a bond issue to support $175 million in capital dollars. The advertising revenues that we receive from bus shelters installed throughout Chicago finance the operations of the park. Millennium Park is the poster child for good financing, because it's gone way beyond the anticipated property values that were generated by the project actually being built, so those was the two sources of city finance. The financing came from the private sector. The biggest donor amount was $15 million, but we had 115 donors who gave a million dollars or more.

How is the parked managed? How were the uses and programming of the park determined? How is the maintenance of the park funded?

Essentially, the city owns Millennium Park and all the public art. There is an agreement with the not-for-profit private sector to use some of their endowment money. They ultimately gave out $25 million to maintain the garden, so the Lurie Garden is maintained strictly with endowment money. There are also endowments to create temporary public art on an annual basis.

The city-the Department of Cultural Affairs, led by Lois Weisberg-is responsible for all the programming in the park. The Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus provides about 32 free concerts through the course of the summer. There's a jazz series, a world music series; there are family events that are all free to the public. The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, which has a $2 million budget, and the rest of the sponsorships underwrite everything.

What have been the economic benefits of the park to the city and the surrounding neighborhood? Did the City of Chicago expect cultural tourism to be as significant an economic generator as it has become?

It's been enormous. I think it's much greater than our initial estimate of what it could be. In fact, we're looking at the option now of going back and reevaluating the initial impact study. An old study determined that over the next eight years the park would generate residential property values of about $1.4 billion. Current estimates are that over the next eight years Millennium Park will generate $2.6 billion in additional tax revenue. So as you look at all the tax-generated additional jobs and the residential property values, it's close to $5 billion over a ten-year period from when the park opened.

And there are additional condominium projects coming on line now. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel is building a new hotel a block and a half away from Millennium Park. Originally they said that they weren't going to do that until they saw Millennium Park.

In 2005, Priceline.com determined that Millennium Park was the 35th most popular tourist destination in the country, and in 2006 it jumped to number one, beating the Las Vegas strip and Central Park.

Lastly, you have toured with and briefed a number of visiting VIP architectural and civic leaders visiting Millennium Park over the years. What advice could you offer civic leaders and the developer regarding the 16-acre Grand Avenue Civic Park now being planned in Downtown Los Angeles?

Avoid doing a dull design. Our first design was dull. And avoid offering unrealistic time and cost projections. There was much criticism by the press because the projects were taking longer and costing more, but the Mayor and the private sector side decided that you get one chance to do a project like this the right way. You may as well spend the time and look for the funds to do it the right way and do something that is going to result in that heritage for the future.

Los Angeles' Grand Avenue Committee should look for the most creative artists, architects, and planners, and use landscapes that are innovative. Then you have to create opportunities for people to underwrite portions of the park. We didn't have a single name on the park; it was named Millennium Park to avoid the stigma of having a single name. We relied on a generic name, but then we created eleven elements to the park that could be named after corporations, foundations, or individuals.