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Chicago's 'Bean' To Get Some Serious Competition This Summer

April 17, 2009 at 3:41 PM | by | Comments (0)

For visitors to Chicago, a must-do is taking a picture of your own reflection in the smooth, mirrored surface of Anish Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" sculpture at the entrance to Millennium Park. Nicknamed "the Bean," the massive blob holding court at the Michigan Ave entrance to the park is about to get some serious competition for touristic affection on June 19, when the city unveils not one, but two new pavilions which will do more than just sit there and look pretty.

Costing a paltry $500,000 each, chump change compared the the $23 million dollar Bean, each pavilion will showcase video and light art as part of a "public discourse about the the history and future of Chicago." Why all the sudden civic love, you ask? Well, you see, this whole project to boost the 5-year old Millennium Park rides on the coattails of the city's 100th Anniversary of the city plan by architect Daniel Burnham and compliments the soon-to-open new Modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Reasons for celebration just keep on coming, as these pavilions have been designed by some of the heaviest hitters in modern architecture: Ben van Berkel of UNStudio and good old Zaha Hadid. Just as with her recent Chanel Mobile Art capsule, the Pritzer Prize-winning Hadid has configured her pavilion, and Berkel his, for temporary display and easy dismantlement for possible future exhibitions. We however can't imagine anything so specifically designed to honor this year in Chicago popping up anywhere else, unless it's as our new beach house.

Visit the Burnham Pavilions for free in Chicago's Millennium Park from June 19 through October 31, 2009.

Related Stories:
· The Burnham Pavilions [Travel With Frank Gehry]
· 'The Bean' Gets New Neighbors [Metromix]
· Zaha Hadid on her Millennium Park pavilion and the Burnham Plan [Chicago Tribune]
· Architecture Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Image: Travel With Frank Gehry]

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