Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Encyclopedia
Jay Pritzker Pavilion, also known as Pritzker Pavilion or Pritzker Music Pavilion, is a bandshell in Millennium Park
in the Loop
community area
of Chicago
in Cook County, Illinois
, United States. It is located on the south side of Randolph Street
and east of the Chicago Landmark
Historic Michigan Boulevard District
. The pavilion was named after Jay Pritzker
, whose family
is known for owning Hyatt Hotels. The building was designed by architect Frank Gehry
, who accepted the design commission in April 1999; the pavilion was constructed between June 1999 and July 2004, opening officially on July 16, 2004.
Pritzker Pavilion serves as the centerpiece for Millennium Park and is the new home of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
and the Grant Park Music Festival
, the nation's only remaining free outdoor classical music
series. It also hosts a wide range of music series and annual performing arts
events. Performers ranging from mainstream rock
bands to classical music
ians and opera
singers have appeared at the pavilion, which even hosts physical fitness
activities such as yoga
. All rehearsals at the pavilion are open to the public; trained guides are available for the music festival rehearsals, which are well-attended.
Millennium Park is part of the larger Grant Park
. The pavilion, which has a capacity of 11,000, is Grant Park's small event outdoor performing arts venue, and complements Petrillo Music Shell
, the park's older and larger bandshell. Pritzker Pavilion is built partially atop the Harris Theater for Music and Dance
, the park's indoor performing arts venue, with which it shares a loading dock
and backstage facilities. Initially the pavilion's lawn seats were free for all concerts, but this changed when Tori Amos
performed the first rock concert there on August 31, 2005.
The construction of the pavilion created a legal controversy, given that there are historic limitations on the height of buildings in Grant Park. To avoid these legal restrictions, the city classifies the bandshell as a work of art
rather than a building. With several design and assembly problems, the construction plans were revised over time, with features eliminated and others added as successful fundraising allowed the budget to grow. In the end, the performance venue was designed with a large fixed seating area, a Great Lawn, a trellis network to support the sound system
and a signature Gehry stainless steel
headdress. It features a sound system with an acoustic design that replicates an indoor concert hall sound experience. The pavilion and Millennium Park have received recognition by critics, particularly for their accessibility
; an accessibility award ceremony held at the pavilion in 2005 described it as "one of the most accessible parks – not just in the United States but possibly the world".
The Jay Pritzker Pavilion is an outgrowth of a long-standing vision to create a world-class home for the Grant Park Music Festival
, which began in 1935 in the original Petrillo Music Shell. Lying between Lake Michigan
to the east and the Loop to the west, Grant Park
has been Chicago's front yard since the mid-19th century. Its northwest corner, north of Monroe Street and the Art Institute
, east of Michigan Avenue
, south of Randolph Street, and west of Columbus Drive, had been Illinois Central
rail yards and parking lots until 1997, when it was made available for development by the city as Millennium Park
. In 2007, Millennium Park trailed only Navy Pier
as a Chicago tourist attraction.
File:Millennium Park Map labels.png|alt=Rectangular map of a park about 1.5 times as wide as it is tall. The top half is dominated by the Pritzker Pavilion and Great Lawn. The lower half is divided into three roughly equal sections: (left to right) Wrigley Square, McCormick Tribune Plaza, and Crown Fountain. North is to the left.|Image map
of Millennium Park
. Clicking on a feature or label on the map causes the browser to load its specific article.|401px|thumb|left
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When the city first determined that a new pavilion should be built, the commission was supposed to go to Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
. The original pavilion design was much more modest than the structure that was eventually built, with a smaller shell structure and speakers affixed to poles interspersed throughout the seating area. However, two factors led to the cancellation of the original plans. First, the project's scope changed as a result of additional funds raised by John H. Bryan
, former CEO of the Sara Lee Corporation. The second factor was the intervention of the Pritzker family as potential donors. Unimpressed with the pavilion's original design, Cindy Pritzker "mandated that Frank Gehry be involved in its re-design". Jay Pritzker, a prominent Chicago businessman, had died in January 1999; his family own several businesses, including Hyatt Hotels. Jay and Cindy Pritzker had founded the Pritzker Prize
in architecture in 1979, and the Pritzker family's Hyatt Foundation continues to award it annually. Architect Frank Gehry
had received the Pritzker Prize in 1989.
In February 1999, the city announced it was negotiating with Gehry to design a proscenium
arch and orchestra enclosure for a bandshell in the new park, as well as a pedestrian bridge over Columbus Drive (which became BP Pedestrian Bridge
). The city sought donors to cover Gehry's work, and the Chicago Tribune
dubbed him "the hottest architect in the universe" for his acclaimed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
. The Tribune noted Gehry's designs would not include such Mayor Richard M. Daley
trademarks as wrought iron
and seasonal flower boxes.
Millennium Park project manager Edward Uhlir said "Frank [Gehry] is just the cutting edge of the next century of architecture," and noted that no other architect was being sought. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architect Adrian Smith
approached Gehry several times on behalf of the city, which originally asked him about doing just a facade
, but Gehry was uninterested. A few months later the city asked him to get involved in Millennium Park; Gehry felt he would prefer to design a building, but that he could not complete it in time for the Millennium, and that he would need a much larger budget than the city had envisioned.
The city wanted Gehry, the donors supported him, and he was interested in the project. The key component in the modern themes strategy was Gehry's acceptance of the commission in April 1999.
That month, the city announced that the Pritzker family
had donated $15 million to fund Gehry's bandshell and an additional nine donors committed a total of $10 million. The day of this announcement, after it became clear that Cindy Pritzker would fund the project, Gehry agreed to the design request. In November, when his designs for both the pavilion and bridge were unveiled, Gehry already had the basic design for the bandshell, but said the bridge's design was very preliminary and not well-conceived because funding for it was not committed. The BP Pedestrian Bridge is designed to serve as a buffer against street noise, helping the pavilion's acoustics.
According to the Guggenheim Museum, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion "suggests musical qualities", much like Gehry's Experience Music Project
in Seattle, Washington
. The Pritzker Pavilion follows a series of open-air projects by Gehry, such as the Merriweather Post Pavilion
in Columbia, Maryland
, the Concord Performing Arts Center in Concord, California
, and numerous renovations to the Hollywood Bowl
in Hollywood, California
.
, which has the benefit that Millennium Park's indoor and outdoor performance venues share a loading dock, rehearsal rooms and other backstage facilities.
The bandshell's brushed stainless steel headdress frames the 120 feet (36.6 m) proscenium theatre; the main stage can accommodate a full orchestra and chorus of 150 members. The bandshell is connected to a trellis of interlocking crisscrossing steel pipes that support the innovative sound system, which mimics indoor concert hall acoustics
. The pavilion has restrooms on both its east and west sides. It is one of two features in the park to include accessible restrooms; the other is McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
. The majority of the park's 123 toilet fixtures (78 for women, 45 for men) are located in underground arcades to the east and west of the pavilion, with the ones on the east being heated for winter use.
Millennium Park is built on top of a large underground parking garage. Construction started before the park's design was completed, and in January 2000, 17 additional caissons
had to be added to the partially built garage to support the weight of Gehry's pavilion. In April the tops of all these caissons had to be rebuilt for changes in the pavilion's foundation.
U.S. Equities Realty was responsible for negotiating contracts with Gehry and all contractors
. Walsh Construction and its subcontractor
s were hired to execute three elements of Gehry's design: the structural steel supporting the stainless steel ribbons, the ribbons themselves and the trellis and associated sound system.
The LeJeune Steel Company of Minneapolis was the subcontractor for the structural steel. The pavilion's concrete walls frame the orchestra shell space, which is 100 feet (30.5 m) wide, 50 feet (15.2 m) tall and has no support column
s. The pavilion's roof rests on a dozen north–south truss
es supported by east–west truss girder
s. The south side of the orchestra shell space is enclosed by the glass doors of the proscenium, which are about 50 feet (15.2 m) tall, 100 feet (30.5 m) wide and function like aircraft hangar doors made of glass. They were the largest doors that Glass Solutions of , ever produced; the thickness of the glass was a design problem for the steel supports.
Zahner
of , was the subcontractor for the pavilion's ribbons, described as "stainless steel panels that appear to be peeling back from the central opening". The proscenium's metal ribbons are composed of 697 panels that range from 6 to 300 sq ft (0.55741824 to 27.9 m2) and 1600 to 20000 lb (725.7 to 9,071.8 kg) with a thickness of about 14 inches (35.6 cm). They are made from aluminum with a stainless steel outer layer that has a uniform shade across all panels. The structural steel for the ribbons had an abnormally low fit tolerance of 0.125 inches (3.2 mm), rather than the standard 1 to 2 in (25.4 to 50.8 mm). The proscenium was inspired by Gehry's 2001 flagship store for Issey Miyake
in New York City, which has sculptured titanium that represents pleat
ing. During construction, about five cranes
and 18 aerial lift
s were on site. The apex of the center element is approximately 150 feet (45.7 m) high, which was near the limits of basic construction equipment at the time.
Acme Structural of , was the subcontractor for the trellis over the Great Lawn, which resulted from the distributed sound system's requirement for speakers every 70 feet (21.3 m). One way to achieve this would have involved placing the speakers on pipes or columns, but the resulting forest of columns seemed discordant with the architecture. Gehry preferred the trellis although it cost about $3 million more than speakers arranged on posts would have. The trellis uses 22 criss-crossing arch
es in a lattice pattern, and is noted for its parabolic
grid. The arches use pipes varying in diameter from 12–20 in (30.5–50.8 cm) depending upon the load requirements. Arches longer than 300 feet (91.4 m) have four or five different radii, where radius describes the extent of pipe curvature. The arch pipes connect to the structural steel of the pavilion structure without linking to the metal ribbons. The trellis is 600 by.
The pavilion's construction was aided by the French CATIA
software program and internet conferencing. Early plans to incorporate a surrounding waterfall
and stairway were abandoned. In the end, budget limitations led to compromises with the original architectural plan that left many elements in their most straightforward form, such as exposed pipes and conduits, or rough concrete.
The Talaske Group of , was the subcontractor for Jay Pritzker Pavilion's LARES
sound system, which "generates the reflected and reverberant energy that surrounds and envelops the listener in an indoor performance venue". The system, which effectively produces an even quality of sound throughout the entire venue, has received critical acclaim for its technological adaptations, such as signal processing in a variety of indoor and outdoor venues. The Pritzker Pavilion is the first permanent outdoor installation of the LARES system in the United States. The trellis has both acoustic and architectural functions; it allows for the precise placement of speakers for sound optimization without visual obstructions, while simultaneously providing a unifying visual canopy.
The overall acoustic system is a distributed sound reinforcement system, which allows musicians on stage to hear each other clearly in a way that facilitates ensemble play. In addition, direct natural sound from the stage is reflected from architectural surfaces as well as being reinforced by two sound systems. The forward-facing reinforcement speakers time the relaying of sound so as to make it seem to have arrived directly from the stage with proper clarity and volume levels. Distributed speakers allow for lower sound volumes than would be necessary with centralized speakers, which would disturb neighboring residences and business.
Instead of merely reinforcing the sound like a traditional public address system, the sound system on the trellis system seeks to replicate the acoustics of a concert hall, and create a clearly defined concert space. Noise from city disturbances is masked by sound arriving directly from lateral sources. Downward facing acoustic enhancement speakers simulate sound reflection similar to indoor concert hall wall and ceiling effects. While Chicago Tribune music critic John von Rhein felt the inaugural concert's sound quality was "a work in progress" that varied with the listener's location in the pavilion, critics Kevin Nance and Wayne Delacoma of the Chicago Sun-Times
said that even on the opening weekend it was clear that the acousticians, Talaske Group, and Gehry had solved many of the problems and mysteries of the outdoor presentation of classical music. James Palermo, artistic and general director of the Grant Park Music Festival felt that the musicians were able to interact more effectively with the new sound system because they were able to hear each other better.
Joel Roberts Poinsett
declared the land between Randolph Street and Madison Street east of Michigan Avenue
"Public Ground forever to remain vacant of buildings. Aaron Montgomery Ward
, who is known both as the inventor of mail order
and the protector of Grant Park, twice sued the city of Chicago to force it to remove buildings and structures from Grant Park and to keep it from building new ones. As a result, the city has what are termed the Montgomery Ward height restrictions on buildings and structures in Grant Park. However, Crown Fountain
and the 130 feet (39.6 m) Pritzker Pavilion were exempt from the height restrictions because they were classified as works of art
and not buildings or structures. According to The Economist
, the pavilion is described as a work of art to dodge the protections established by Ward, who "rules over Grant Park from the grave".
The naming of Jay Pritzker Pavilion was a cause for protests. The new pavilion was built as a replacement for Grant Park's decades-old Petrillo Music Shell, which had a long history of hosting free music events and was named for James C. Petrillo, a labor union leader who started free concerts in Grant Park. When the original bandshell was replaced and relocated a bit further north in Grant Park in 1978, the new structure retained the Petrillo name. In the early 2000s decade, the Petrillo family said naming the new music shell in Millennium Park for Jay Pritzker ignored Petrillo's legacy, and threatened legal action. As of 2009, the Petrillo Music Shell was still in use, though Chicago Tribune arts critic Howard Reich described it as "dilapidated" and "dismal".
Controversies during construction involved escalating costs and delays; both the pavilion and park opened four years later than originally planned and cost millions of dollars more than expected.
Once the pavilion was built, the initial plan was that the lawn seating would be free for all events. An early brochure for the Grant Park Music Festival said "You never need a ticket to attend a concert! The lawn and the general seating section are always admission free." However, when parking revenue fell short of estimates during the first year, the city charged $10 for lawn seating at the August 31, 2005, concert by Tori Amos. Amos, a classically trained musician who chose only piano and organ accompaniment for her concert, earned positive reviews as the inaugural rock and roll
performer in a venue that regularly hosts classical music. The city justified the charge by contending that since the Pavilion is an open air venue, there were many places in Millennium Park, such as the Cloud Gate
, Crown Fountain and Lurie Garden
s, where one could have enjoyed the sounds or the atmosphere of the park without having to pay.
In addition to charging for lawn seating, the event promoters prohibited concertgoers from bringing beverages, including bottled water, to the lawn; drinks instead had to be purchased onsite. The city later stated that confiscation of unopened beverage bottles was a mistake and that "Bottled water is always allowed at the free concerts we host at the park, and will be allowed at any future events as well." An estimated 300 attendees set up blankets beyond the trellis system, where they could enjoy their own beverages while listening to the concert. The official Chicago policy is that alcohol is permitted throughout Jay Pritzker Pavilion during public performances, but cans and glass bottles are not permitted on the Great Lawn. During the concert, the Gehry-designed BP Pedestrian Bridge
that connects Millennium Park with Daley Bicentennial Plaza was closed until 7:00 a.m. the next day.
as a Chicago area outdoor music venue. The pavilion hosts free music events such as Chicago Gospel Music Festival from spring to fall. In June, July and August, the Grammy
-nominated Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus performs free classical concerts at the Grant Park Music Festival. The festival, a Chicago tradition since 1931, remains the nation's only free, outdoor classical music series. Although the Music Festival shares pavilion space with several other program series and annual performances, its concerts most Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings throughout the heart of the summer are the core of the pavilion's offerings. Travel guide Frommer's
lists the park, pavilion, and these free concerts as some of the best free things to do in Chicago. In summer the pavilion also hosts a series of jazz concerts, and the Great Lawn hosts yoga
and pilates
workouts on Saturday mornings.
The Pritzker Prize presentation ceremony, which moves to an architecturally significant location each year, was held in the Pritzker Pavilion in April 2005. Among the annual performers at the pavilion are Steppenwolf Theatre, Lyric Opera of Chicago
and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
(CSO). At the end of the Grant Park Music Festival season in August, the Festival's Grant Park Orchestra and Carlos Kalmar
presented Pulitzer Prize
-winning composer John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls
, which was written at the request of the New York Philharmonic
to honor the victims of the September 11 attacks. On Sunday September 11, 2005, United States Senator Barack Obama
(who was later elected President of the United States
) served as guest narrator
for a 9/11 tribute concert by the CSO. The focal work of the concert was Aaron Copland
's "Lincoln Portrait" and the concert was led by former CSO resident conductor William Eddins
.
Although it was built as a replacement for Grant Park's outdoor concert facilities, larger annual events such as the Chicago Blues
and Chicago Jazz Festival
s and Taste of Chicago
are too large for Jay Pritzker Pavilion and continue to be held in and around Petrillo Music Shell. The pavilion has hosted smaller festivals, such as the Chicago Gospel Music Festival, since 2005. Public opinion has been in favor of moving some of the smaller Blues and Jazz festival events to the pavilion, with its better, more modern acoustics. By 2009, as the city grappled with a budget deficit, it considered realigning parts of the larger festivals and made definite plans to move some of the smaller ones to the more modern venue.
On July 18, 2007, the Grant Park Music Festival partnered with the Metro Chicago
to produce a free Wednesday-night show celebrating Metro's 25th anniversary and featuring indie band The Decemberists
with the Grant Park Orchestra. The show featured new orchestral arrangements of The Decemberists' songs by Sean O'Loughlin, who also conducted in lieu of Kalmar. While the concert was free, the front seating sections were reserved for season membership holders; fans of the band got the remaining seats or sat on the lawn. This led Decemberists' frontman Colin Meloy
to encourage the crowd to breach the barriers between the seats and Great Lawn to get closer to the stage for the band's encore performance, which was without the orchestra. Estimated attendance was 11,000 to 15,000, the largest for any free concert at the pavilion to date.
Other events include a concert by Wilco
on September 12, 2007, the "Poland for Chicago" show with Polish President Lech Kaczyński
on September 25, 2007, and a global warming
awareness festival which culminated in a performance entitled Arctic at the pavilion in November 2007. Most events at the pavilion remain free; the only public event at the pavilion in the summer of 2008 that charged admission was a concert by Rogue Wave
and Death Cab for Cutie
on June 3. The pavilion has hosted several one-day events that were noted in international publications, including the United States debut of A Throw of Dice
, a 1929 Indian silent movie
about two kings with a common love interest, on July 30, 2008. At the debut, Nitin Sawhney
and the Grant Park Orchestra accompanied the movie with a live performance. Oprah Winfrey
filmed the September 8, 2008, season-opening Oprah Winfrey Show on September 3, 2008, at the pavilion with more than 150 Olympic medalists, including Michael Phelps
, Nastia Liukin
, Dara Torres
, Kobe Bryant
, Misty May-Treanor
and Kerri Walsh
, in an effort to rally support for the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid
.
Concerts performed by the Grant Park Orchestra and directed by Kalmar were part of a June 19, 2009, citywide Burnham Plan
centennial celebration that included the unveiling of the Burnham Pavilion elsewhere in the park. The concert featured the world premiere of Michael Torke
's work for symphony
and chorus
entitled Plans, paired with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. Also, the pavilion serves as host to the annual Chicago Winter Dance Festival. During the festival there is a month of free dance instructions behind the glass doors of the pavilion stage and free skating instruction at the McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
.
Among the highlights of the 2010 calendar is the screening of the BBC
's nature documentary Planet Earth Live
on July 21, with live Grant Park Symphony Orchestra
accompaniment featuring the score by five-time Academy Award-winning composer George Fenton
, who serves as conductor.
Among the artists who performed with the festival at the pavilion in the 2000s decade are soprano
s Karina Gauvin
and Erin Wall
, tenor
Vittorio Grigolo
, pianist
Stephen Hough
, violin
ists Rachel Barton Pine
, James Ehnes
, Roby Lakatos
, Christian Tetzlaff
, and Pinchas Zukerman
, and vocalists Otis Clay
, Mariza
, and Maria del Mar Bonet
. All rehearsal
s at the pavilion are open to the public and well-attended. The festival is represented by a staff of trained guides, called docents
, that field questions and provide educational talks during the rehearsals.
Besides these public functions, the pavilion is available, as is the entire park, as a venue for private events year-round. The stage's glass and steel doors enable it to provide indoor space protected from the elements when necessary. In addition, the pavilion has a Choral Rehearsal Room that can be rented.
travel guide described it as the park's "showstopper" and "stunning", praising its stainless steel and sound system, as well as the variety of events it hosts. Time
called the pavilion "dynamic" and recommended it as one of two must-see attractions in the park, while one New York Times writer found herself standing "agog" at what appeared to her to be a "celestial gateway to another universe" and a frame for the sky. Lonely Planet
travel guide called the pavilion the anchor of the park, and the 2004 Year in Review issue of Time described it as the park's crown jewel. USA Today
described the bandshell as a landmark and the centerpiece of Millennium Park. Another critic described the pavilion as the "most spectacular structure to go up in early-twenty-first-century Chicago".
According to the Financial Times
, the bandshell's acoustics are unparalleled compared to any contemporary outdoor venue. Critics say that musicians have lauded the onstage acoustics. Another Financial Times critic noted that Gehry revisited some of his past design motifs, such as his use of stainless steel, and explored new ones such as the trellis and sound system. This sentiment was echoed by others. However, von Rhein noted that the sound is not of uniform quality throughout the venue and opined that the optimal sonics are toward the back of the seated area and front of the lawn.
Despite the praise it has received, the pavilion has its blemishes: the supporting north side of the structure along Randolph Street has attracted criticism for not being pleasing to the eye, and some observers found the exposed supporting proscenium braces offensive. Critic Fred Bernstein of The New York Times felt that the smooth rounded trellis and sharp-edged bandshell were geometrically discordant. A review in the Chicago Tribune criticized the "ugly concrete structure" surrounding the mixing console
in the midst of the fixed seats as the pavilion's "biggest design miscalculation", and called for it be moved. Although modern practice is to locate the sound console in with the audience, Gehry said at a symposium after the park's opening that he wanted "to scrap the big box of a sound booth that sprang up like a weed in the center of the pavilion's seating".
The director of Millennium Park was honored for his contribution to creating "one of the most accessible parks – not just in the United States but possibly the world" in a 2005 accessibility
award ceremony held at the pavilion. The pavilion's stage is reached by gently sloped ramps instead of stairs, as part of the park's overall accessibility design. The decision to save money and not slope the Great Lawn as much as originally planned was not universally popular. However, Gehry said that the actual slope of the lawn was more accommodating to people with disabilities and better able to accommodate activities than the original plan.
Millennium Park
Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, USA and originally intended to celebrate the millennium. It is a prominent civic center near the city's Lake Michigan shoreline that covers a section of northwestern Grant Park. The area was previously...
in the Loop
Chicago Loop
The Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...
community area
Community areas of Chicago
Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...
of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in Cook County, Illinois
Cook County, Illinois
Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...
, United States. It is located on the south side of Randolph Street
Randolph Street (Chicago)
Randolph Street is a street in Chicago. It runs east-west through the Chicago Loop, carrying westbound traffic west from Michigan Avenue across the Chicago River on the Randolph Street Bridge, interchanging with the Kennedy Expressway , and continuing west. It serves as the northern boundary of...
and east of the Chicago Landmark
Chicago Landmark
Chicago Landmark is a designation of the Mayor of Chicago and the Chicago City Council for historic buildings and other sites in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Listed sites are selected after meeting a combination of criteria, including historical, economic, architectural, artistic, cultural,...
Historic Michigan Boulevard District
Historic Michigan Boulevard District
The Historic Michigan Boulevard District is a historic district in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States encompassing Michigan Avenue between 11th or Roosevelt Road , depending on the source, and Randolph Streets and named after the nearby Great Lake...
. The pavilion was named after Jay Pritzker
Jay Pritzker
Jay Arthur Pritzker was an American entrepreneur and conglomerate organizer.-Biography:Pritzker was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Fanny and A. N. Pritzker. His brother was Robert Pritzker...
, whose family
Pritzker family
The Pritzker family is one of America's wealthiest families, and has been near the top of Forbes magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since the magazine began in 1982....
is known for owning Hyatt Hotels. The building was designed by architect Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
, who accepted the design commission in April 1999; the pavilion was constructed between June 1999 and July 2004, opening officially on July 16, 2004.
Pritzker Pavilion serves as the centerpiece for Millennium Park and is the new home of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Grant Park Symphony Orchestra
The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra or simply the Grant Park Orchestra is a publicly sponsored symphony orchestra that provides free performances in the Grant Park Music Festival during the summer months in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. Its sister organization is the Grant Park Chorus; the...
and the Grant Park Music Festival
Grant Park Music Festival
Grant Park Music Festival is an annual ten-week classical music concert series held in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It features the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Grant Park Chorus along with featured guest performers and conductors. The Festival has earned non-profit organization status...
, the nation's only remaining free outdoor classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
series. It also hosts a wide range of music series and annual performing arts
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
events. Performers ranging from mainstream rock
Mainstream rock
Mainstream rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada.-Format background:...
bands to classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
ians and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
singers have appeared at the pavilion, which even hosts physical fitness
Physical fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...
activities such as yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
. All rehearsals at the pavilion are open to the public; trained guides are available for the music festival rehearsals, which are well-attended.
Millennium Park is part of the larger Grant Park
Grant Park (Chicago)
Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...
. The pavilion, which has a capacity of 11,000, is Grant Park's small event outdoor performing arts venue, and complements Petrillo Music Shell
Petrillo Music Shell
James C. Petrillo Music Shell or simply Petrillo Music Shell or Petrillo Bandshell as it is more commonly known, is an outdoor amphitheater/bandstand in Grant Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
, the park's older and larger bandshell. Pritzker Pavilion is built partially atop the Harris Theater for Music and Dance
Harris Theater (Chicago)
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1,525-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park on Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, US...
, the park's indoor performing arts venue, with which it shares a loading dock
Loading dock
A loading dock is a recessed bay in a building or facility where trucks are loaded and unloaded. They are commonly found on commercial and industrial buildings, and warehouses in particular....
and backstage facilities. Initially the pavilion's lawn seats were free for all concerts, but this changed when Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
performed the first rock concert there on August 31, 2005.
The construction of the pavilion created a legal controversy, given that there are historic limitations on the height of buildings in Grant Park. To avoid these legal restrictions, the city classifies the bandshell as a work of art
Work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...
rather than a building. With several design and assembly problems, the construction plans were revised over time, with features eliminated and others added as successful fundraising allowed the budget to grow. In the end, the performance venue was designed with a large fixed seating area, a Great Lawn, a trellis network to support the sound system
Sound reinforcement system
A sound reinforcement system is the combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers that makes live or pre-recorded sounds louder and may also distribute those sounds to a larger or more distant audience...
and a signature Gehry stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
headdress. It features a sound system with an acoustic design that replicates an indoor concert hall sound experience. The pavilion and Millennium Park have received recognition by critics, particularly for their accessibility
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
; an accessibility award ceremony held at the pavilion in 2005 described it as "one of the most accessible parks – not just in the United States but possibly the world".
Design and development
Grant Park Music Festival
Grant Park Music Festival is an annual ten-week classical music concert series held in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It features the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Grant Park Chorus along with featured guest performers and conductors. The Festival has earned non-profit organization status...
, which began in 1935 in the original Petrillo Music Shell. Lying between Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
to the east and the Loop to the west, Grant Park
Grant Park (Chicago)
Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...
has been Chicago's front yard since the mid-19th century. Its northwest corner, north of Monroe Street and the Art Institute
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
, east of Michigan Avenue
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
, south of Randolph Street, and west of Columbus Drive, had been Illinois Central
Illinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...
rail yards and parking lots until 1997, when it was made available for development by the city as Millennium Park
Millennium Park
Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, USA and originally intended to celebrate the millennium. It is a prominent civic center near the city's Lake Michigan shoreline that covers a section of northwestern Grant Park. The area was previously...
. In 2007, Millennium Park trailed only Navy Pier
Navy Pier
Navy Pier is a long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan. It is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area. The pier was built in 1916 at a cost of $4.5 million, equivalent to $ today. It was a part of the Plan of Chicago developed by architect and...
as a Chicago tourist attraction.
Image map
In HTML and XHTML , an image map is a list of coordinates relating to a specific image, created in order to hyperlink areas of the image to various destinations . For example, a map of the world may have each country hyperlinked to further information about that country...
of Millennium Park
Millennium Park
Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, USA and originally intended to celebrate the millennium. It is a prominent civic center near the city's Lake Michigan shoreline that covers a section of northwestern Grant Park. The area was previously...
. Clicking on a feature or label on the map causes the browser to load its specific article.|401px|thumb|left
rect 51 18 145 80 McDonald's Cycle Center
McDonald's Cycle Center
McDonald's Cycle Center is an indoor bike station in the northeast corner of Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The city of Chicago built the center at the intersection of East Randolph Street and Columbus Drive, and opened it July 2004...
rect 338 2 496 94BP Pedestrian Bridge
BP Pedestrian Bridge
The BP Pedestrian Bridge, or simply BP Bridge, is a girder footbridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Daley Bicentennial Plaza with Millennium Park, both parts of the larger Grant Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect...
rect 497 62 536 101BP Pedestrian Bridge
BP Pedestrian Bridge
The BP Pedestrian Bridge, or simply BP Bridge, is a girder footbridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Daley Bicentennial Plaza with Millennium Park, both parts of the larger Grant Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect...
rect 497 6 631 34 Columbus Drive
Columbus Drive (Chicago)
Columbus Drive is a north-south street in Chicago, Illinois which bisects Grant Park. It is 254 E in Chicago's street numbering system. Its south end is an interchange with Lake Shore Drive at Soldier Field...
rect 10 88 154 104 Exelon Pavilion NE
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 47 108 79 131 Exelon Pavilion NE
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 619 95 754 112 Exelon Pavilion SE
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 728 113 759 135 Exelon Pavilion SE
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 10 246 166 263 Exelon Pavilion NW
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 47 265 78 288 Exelon Pavilion NW
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 613 243 762 258 Exelon Pavilion SW
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 736 260 757 275 Exelon Pavilion SW
Exelon Pavilions
The Exelon Pavilions are four buildings that generate electricity from solar energy and provide access to underground parking in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States...
rect 44 149 174 229 Harris Theater
Harris Theater (Chicago)
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1,525-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park on Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, US...
rect 175 103 572 288 Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Jay Pritzker Pavilion
Jay Pritzker Pavilion, also known as Pritzker Pavilion or Pritzker Music Pavilion, is a bandshell in Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located on the south side of Randolph Street and east of the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan...
rect 573 134 757 238 Lurie Garden
Lurie Garden
Lurie Garden is a garden located at the southern end of Millennium Park in the Loop area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Designed by Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf, and Robert Israel, it opened on July 16, 2004. The garden is a combination of perennials, bulbs, grasses,...
rect 572 311 718 329 Nichols Bridgeway
Nichols Bridgeway
The Nichols Bridgeway is a pedestrian bridge located in Chicago, Illinois. The bridge begins at the Great Lawn of Millennium Park, crosses over Monroe Street and connects to the third floor of the West Pavilion of the Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago's newest wing...
rect 516 298 777 306 Nichols Bridgeway
Nichols Bridgeway
The Nichols Bridgeway is a pedestrian bridge located in Chicago, Illinois. The bridge begins at the Great Lawn of Millennium Park, crosses over Monroe Street and connects to the third floor of the West Pavilion of the Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago's newest wing...
rect 58 350 207 396 Chase Promenade North
Chase Promenade
Chase Promenade is an open-air, tree-lined pedestrian walkway that opened July 16, 2004. It is part of Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The Promenade was made possible by a gift from the Bank One Foundation...
rect 291 350 453 396 Chase Promenade Central
Chase Promenade
Chase Promenade is an open-air, tree-lined pedestrian walkway that opened July 16, 2004. It is part of Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The Promenade was made possible by a gift from the Bank One Foundation...
rect 537 350 687 396 Chase Promenade South
Chase Promenade
Chase Promenade is an open-air, tree-lined pedestrian walkway that opened July 16, 2004. It is part of Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The Promenade was made possible by a gift from the Bank One Foundation...
rect 313 397 431 424 AT&T Plaza
AT&T Plaza
AT&T Plaza is a public space that hosts the Cloud Gate sculpture. It is located in Millennium Park, which is a park built to celebrate the third millennium and which is located within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States...
rect 37 434 227 473 Boeing Gallery North
Boeing Galleries
- Past exhibitions :2005The first exhibition in the renamed Galleries was Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait, which was displayed on the Central Chase Promenade and South Boeing Gallery, appeared from June 10–October 10, 2005...
rect 516 433 757 469 Boeing Gallery South
Boeing Galleries
- Past exhibitions :2005The first exhibition in the renamed Galleries was Revealing Chicago: An Aerial Portrait, which was displayed on the Central Chase Promenade and South Boeing Gallery, appeared from June 10–October 10, 2005...
rect 337 426 416 470 Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and...
rect 60 486 216 546 Wrigley Square
Wrigley Square
Wrigley Square is a public square located in the northwest section of Millennium Park in the Historic Michigan Boulevard District of the Loop area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, USA. The square is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of East Randolph Street and North Michigan...
rect 287 477 457 543 McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink or McCormick Tribune Plaza is a multi-purpose venue within Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, USA. On December 20, 2001, it became the first attraction in Millennium Park to open. The $3.2 million plaza was funded by a donation from...
rect 557 488 727 543 Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area. Designed by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects, it opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a...
rect 308 567 439 583 Michigan Avenue
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
rect 1 316 23 442 Randolph Street
Randolph Street (Chicago)
Randolph Street is a street in Chicago. It runs east-west through the Chicago Loop, carrying westbound traffic west from Michigan Avenue across the Chicago River on the Randolph Street Bridge, interchanging with the Kennedy Expressway , and continuing west. It serves as the northern boundary of...
desc bottom-left
When the city first determined that a new pavilion should be built, the commission was supposed to go to Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP is an American architectural and engineering firm that was formed in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings; in 1939 they were joined by John O. Merrill. They opened their first branch in New York City, New York in 1937. SOM is one of the largest...
. The original pavilion design was much more modest than the structure that was eventually built, with a smaller shell structure and speakers affixed to poles interspersed throughout the seating area. However, two factors led to the cancellation of the original plans. First, the project's scope changed as a result of additional funds raised by John H. Bryan
John H. Bryan
John Henry Bryan, Jr. is the former CEO of the Sara Lee Corporation.A graduate of Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee and Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, he is also affiliated with the French Legion of Honor, the World Economic Forum, and was a Member of the Board for Sara Lee,...
, former CEO of the Sara Lee Corporation. The second factor was the intervention of the Pritzker family as potential donors. Unimpressed with the pavilion's original design, Cindy Pritzker "mandated that Frank Gehry be involved in its re-design". Jay Pritzker, a prominent Chicago businessman, had died in January 1999; his family own several businesses, including Hyatt Hotels. Jay and Cindy Pritzker had founded the Pritzker Prize
Pritzker Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
in architecture in 1979, and the Pritzker family's Hyatt Foundation continues to award it annually. Architect Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
had received the Pritzker Prize in 1989.
In February 1999, the city announced it was negotiating with Gehry to design a proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...
arch and orchestra enclosure for a bandshell in the new park, as well as a pedestrian bridge over Columbus Drive (which became BP Pedestrian Bridge
BP Pedestrian Bridge
The BP Pedestrian Bridge, or simply BP Bridge, is a girder footbridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Daley Bicentennial Plaza with Millennium Park, both parts of the larger Grant Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect...
). The city sought donors to cover Gehry's work, and the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
dubbed him "the hottest architect in the universe" for his acclaimed Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, built by Ferrovial, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The...
. The Tribune noted Gehry's designs would not include such Mayor Richard M. Daley
Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party, and former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his...
trademarks as wrought iron
Wrought iron
thumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
and seasonal flower boxes.
Millennium Park project manager Edward Uhlir said "Frank [Gehry] is just the cutting edge of the next century of architecture," and noted that no other architect was being sought. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill architect Adrian Smith
Adrian Smith (architect)
Adrian D. Smith is an American architect who has designed skyscrapers including the Burj Khalifa, Jin Mao Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower, as well as the proposed Kingdom Tower for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.-Education:...
approached Gehry several times on behalf of the city, which originally asked him about doing just a facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
, but Gehry was uninterested. A few months later the city asked him to get involved in Millennium Park; Gehry felt he would prefer to design a building, but that he could not complete it in time for the Millennium, and that he would need a much larger budget than the city had envisioned.
The city wanted Gehry, the donors supported him, and he was interested in the project. The key component in the modern themes strategy was Gehry's acceptance of the commission in April 1999.
That month, the city announced that the Pritzker family
Pritzker family
The Pritzker family is one of America's wealthiest families, and has been near the top of Forbes magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since the magazine began in 1982....
had donated $15 million to fund Gehry's bandshell and an additional nine donors committed a total of $10 million. The day of this announcement, after it became clear that Cindy Pritzker would fund the project, Gehry agreed to the design request. In November, when his designs for both the pavilion and bridge were unveiled, Gehry already had the basic design for the bandshell, but said the bridge's design was very preliminary and not well-conceived because funding for it was not committed. The BP Pedestrian Bridge is designed to serve as a buffer against street noise, helping the pavilion's acoustics.
According to the Guggenheim Museum, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion "suggests musical qualities", much like Gehry's Experience Music Project
Experience Music Project
The EMP Museum is a museum dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction located in Seattle, Washington...
in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
. The Pritzker Pavilion follows a series of open-air projects by Gehry, such as the Merriweather Post Pavilion
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Merriweather Post Pavilion is an outdoor concert venue located within Symphony Woods, a 40-acre lot of preserved land in the heart of the planned community of Columbia, Maryland. It was named for the American Post Foods heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post...
in Columbia, Maryland
Columbia, Maryland
Columbia is a planned community that consists of ten self-contained villages, located in Howard County, Maryland, United States. It began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, not...
, the Concord Performing Arts Center in Concord, California
Concord, California
Concord is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California, USA. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 122,067. Originally founded in 1869 as the community of Todos Santos by Salvio Pacheco, the name was changed to Concord within months...
, and numerous renovations to the Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheater in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles, California, United States that is used primarily for music performances...
in Hollywood, California
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
.
Construction
Jay Pritzker Pavilion cost $60 million, a quarter of which came from the Pritzker family donation. It includes 4,000 fixed seats and a 95000 square feet (8,825.8 m²) Great Lawn that can accommodate an additional 7,000 people. The pavilion was built above and behind the Harris TheaterHarris Theater (Chicago)
The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance is a 1,525-seat theater for the performing arts located along the northern edge of Millennium Park on Randolph Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, US...
, which has the benefit that Millennium Park's indoor and outdoor performance venues share a loading dock, rehearsal rooms and other backstage facilities.
The bandshell's brushed stainless steel headdress frames the 120 feet (36.6 m) proscenium theatre; the main stage can accommodate a full orchestra and chorus of 150 members. The bandshell is connected to a trellis of interlocking crisscrossing steel pipes that support the innovative sound system, which mimics indoor concert hall acoustics
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
. The pavilion has restrooms on both its east and west sides. It is one of two features in the park to include accessible restrooms; the other is McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink or McCormick Tribune Plaza is a multi-purpose venue within Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, USA. On December 20, 2001, it became the first attraction in Millennium Park to open. The $3.2 million plaza was funded by a donation from...
. The majority of the park's 123 toilet fixtures (78 for women, 45 for men) are located in underground arcades to the east and west of the pavilion, with the ones on the east being heated for winter use.
Millennium Park is built on top of a large underground parking garage. Construction started before the park's design was completed, and in January 2000, 17 additional caissons
Deep foundation
A deep foundation is a type of foundation distinguished from shallow foundations by the depth they are embedded into the ground. There are many reasons a geotechnical engineer would recommend a deep foundation over a shallow foundation, but some of the common reasons are very large design loads, a...
had to be added to the partially built garage to support the weight of Gehry's pavilion. In April the tops of all these caissons had to be rebuilt for changes in the pavilion's foundation.
U.S. Equities Realty was responsible for negotiating contracts with Gehry and all contractors
General contractor
A general contractor is responsible for the day-to-day oversight of a construction site, management of vendors and trades, and communication of information to involved parties throughout the course of a building project.-Description:...
. Walsh Construction and its subcontractor
Subcontractor
A subcontractor is an individual or in many cases a business that signs a contract to perform part or all of the obligations of another's contract....
s were hired to execute three elements of Gehry's design: the structural steel supporting the stainless steel ribbons, the ribbons themselves and the trellis and associated sound system.
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s. The pavilion's roof rests on a dozen north–south truss
Truss
In architecture and structural engineering, a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in...
es supported by east–west truss girder
Girder
A girder is a support beam used in construction. Girders often have an I-beam cross section for strength, but may also have a box shape, Z shape or other forms. Girder is the term used to denote the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams...
s. The south side of the orchestra shell space is enclosed by the glass doors of the proscenium, which are about 50 feet (15.2 m) tall, 100 feet (30.5 m) wide and function like aircraft hangar doors made of glass. They were the largest doors that Glass Solutions of , ever produced; the thickness of the glass was a design problem for the steel supports.
Zahner
Zahner
Zahner or A. Zahner Company is an architectural metal & glass company located in Kansas City, Missouri.-History and Company Information:...
of , was the subcontractor for the pavilion's ribbons, described as "stainless steel panels that appear to be peeling back from the central opening". The proscenium's metal ribbons are composed of 697 panels that range from 6 to 300 sq ft (0.55741824 to 27.9 m2) and 1600 to 20000 lb (725.7 to 9,071.8 kg) with a thickness of about 14 inches (35.6 cm). They are made from aluminum with a stainless steel outer layer that has a uniform shade across all panels. The structural steel for the ribbons had an abnormally low fit tolerance of 0.125 inches (3.2 mm), rather than the standard 1 to 2 in (25.4 to 50.8 mm). The proscenium was inspired by Gehry's 2001 flagship store for Issey Miyake
Issey Miyake
is a Japanese fashion designer. He is known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances.-Life and career:Miyake was born 22 April 1938 in Hiroshima, Japan. As a seven year-old, he witnessed and survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. He studied...
in New York City, which has sculptured titanium that represents pleat
Pleat
A pleat is a type of fold formed by doubling fabric back upon itself and securing it in place. It is commonly used in clothing and upholstery to gather a wide piece of fabric to a narrower circumference....
ing. During construction, about five cranes
Crane (machine)
A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It uses one or more simple machines to create mechanical advantage and thus move loads beyond the normal capability of...
and 18 aerial lift
Aerial lift
An aerial lift is a means of transportation in which cabins, cars, gondolas or open chairs are hauled above the ground by means of one or more cables.Types of aerial lifts include:...
s were on site. The apex of the center element is approximately 150 feet (45.7 m) high, which was near the limits of basic construction equipment at the time.
Arch
An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...
es in a lattice pattern, and is noted for its parabolic
Parabola
In mathematics, the parabola is a conic section, the intersection of a right circular conical surface and a plane parallel to a generating straight line of that surface...
grid. The arches use pipes varying in diameter from 12–20 in (30.5–50.8 cm) depending upon the load requirements. Arches longer than 300 feet (91.4 m) have four or five different radii, where radius describes the extent of pipe curvature. The arch pipes connect to the structural steel of the pavilion structure without linking to the metal ribbons. The trellis is 600 by.
The pavilion's construction was aided by the French CATIA
CATIA
CATIA is a multi-platform CAD/CAM/CAE commercial software suite developed by the French company Dassault Systemes...
software program and internet conferencing. Early plans to incorporate a surrounding waterfall
Waterfall
A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.-Formation:Waterfalls are commonly formed when a river is young. At these times the channel is often narrow and deep. When the river courses over resistant bedrock, erosion happens...
and stairway were abandoned. In the end, budget limitations led to compromises with the original architectural plan that left many elements in their most straightforward form, such as exposed pipes and conduits, or rough concrete.
Acoustics
LARES
LARES is an electronic sound enhancement system that uses microprocessors to control multiple loudspeakers and microphones placed around a performance space for the purpose of providing active acoustic treatment. LARES was invented in Massachusetts in 1988, by engineers working at Lexicon,...
sound system, which "generates the reflected and reverberant energy that surrounds and envelops the listener in an indoor performance venue". The system, which effectively produces an even quality of sound throughout the entire venue, has received critical acclaim for its technological adaptations, such as signal processing in a variety of indoor and outdoor venues. The Pritzker Pavilion is the first permanent outdoor installation of the LARES system in the United States. The trellis has both acoustic and architectural functions; it allows for the precise placement of speakers for sound optimization without visual obstructions, while simultaneously providing a unifying visual canopy.
The overall acoustic system is a distributed sound reinforcement system, which allows musicians on stage to hear each other clearly in a way that facilitates ensemble play. In addition, direct natural sound from the stage is reflected from architectural surfaces as well as being reinforced by two sound systems. The forward-facing reinforcement speakers time the relaying of sound so as to make it seem to have arrived directly from the stage with proper clarity and volume levels. Distributed speakers allow for lower sound volumes than would be necessary with centralized speakers, which would disturb neighboring residences and business.
Instead of merely reinforcing the sound like a traditional public address system, the sound system on the trellis system seeks to replicate the acoustics of a concert hall, and create a clearly defined concert space. Noise from city disturbances is masked by sound arriving directly from lateral sources. Downward facing acoustic enhancement speakers simulate sound reflection similar to indoor concert hall wall and ceiling effects. While Chicago Tribune music critic John von Rhein felt the inaugural concert's sound quality was "a work in progress" that varied with the listener's location in the pavilion, critics Kevin Nance and Wayne Delacoma of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
said that even on the opening weekend it was clear that the acousticians, Talaske Group, and Gehry had solved many of the problems and mysteries of the outdoor presentation of classical music. James Palermo, artistic and general director of the Grant Park Music Festival felt that the musicians were able to interact more effectively with the new sound system because they were able to hear each other better.
Controversies
Protected by legislation that has been affirmed by four previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings, Grant Park has been "forever open, clear and free" since 1836, which was a year before the city of Chicago was incorporated. In 1839, United States Secretary of WarUnited States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
Joel Roberts Poinsett
Joel Roberts Poinsett
Joel Roberts Poinsett was a physician, botanist and American statesman. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives, the first United States Minister to Mexico , a U.S...
declared the land between Randolph Street and Madison Street east of Michigan Avenue
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
"Public Ground forever to remain vacant of buildings. Aaron Montgomery Ward
Aaron Montgomery Ward
Aaron Montgomery Ward was an American businessman notable for the invention of mail order.The mail-order industry was started by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872 in Chicago...
, who is known both as the inventor of mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
and the protector of Grant Park, twice sued the city of Chicago to force it to remove buildings and structures from Grant Park and to keep it from building new ones. As a result, the city has what are termed the Montgomery Ward height restrictions on buildings and structures in Grant Park. However, Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain
Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area. Designed by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects, it opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a...
and the 130 feet (39.6 m) Pritzker Pavilion were exempt from the height restrictions because they were classified as works of art
Work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...
and not buildings or structures. According to The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, the pavilion is described as a work of art to dodge the protections established by Ward, who "rules over Grant Park from the grave".
The naming of Jay Pritzker Pavilion was a cause for protests. The new pavilion was built as a replacement for Grant Park's decades-old Petrillo Music Shell, which had a long history of hosting free music events and was named for James C. Petrillo, a labor union leader who started free concerts in Grant Park. When the original bandshell was replaced and relocated a bit further north in Grant Park in 1978, the new structure retained the Petrillo name. In the early 2000s decade, the Petrillo family said naming the new music shell in Millennium Park for Jay Pritzker ignored Petrillo's legacy, and threatened legal action. As of 2009, the Petrillo Music Shell was still in use, though Chicago Tribune arts critic Howard Reich described it as "dilapidated" and "dismal".
Controversies during construction involved escalating costs and delays; both the pavilion and park opened four years later than originally planned and cost millions of dollars more than expected.
Once the pavilion was built, the initial plan was that the lawn seating would be free for all events. An early brochure for the Grant Park Music Festival said "You never need a ticket to attend a concert! The lawn and the general seating section are always admission free." However, when parking revenue fell short of estimates during the first year, the city charged $10 for lawn seating at the August 31, 2005, concert by Tori Amos. Amos, a classically trained musician who chose only piano and organ accompaniment for her concert, earned positive reviews as the inaugural rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
performer in a venue that regularly hosts classical music. The city justified the charge by contending that since the Pavilion is an open air venue, there were many places in Millennium Park, such as the Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate
Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and...
, Crown Fountain and Lurie Garden
Lurie Garden
Lurie Garden is a garden located at the southern end of Millennium Park in the Loop area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Designed by Kathryn Gustafson, Piet Oudolf, and Robert Israel, it opened on July 16, 2004. The garden is a combination of perennials, bulbs, grasses,...
s, where one could have enjoyed the sounds or the atmosphere of the park without having to pay.
In addition to charging for lawn seating, the event promoters prohibited concertgoers from bringing beverages, including bottled water, to the lawn; drinks instead had to be purchased onsite. The city later stated that confiscation of unopened beverage bottles was a mistake and that "Bottled water is always allowed at the free concerts we host at the park, and will be allowed at any future events as well." An estimated 300 attendees set up blankets beyond the trellis system, where they could enjoy their own beverages while listening to the concert. The official Chicago policy is that alcohol is permitted throughout Jay Pritzker Pavilion during public performances, but cans and glass bottles are not permitted on the Great Lawn. During the concert, the Gehry-designed BP Pedestrian Bridge
BP Pedestrian Bridge
The BP Pedestrian Bridge, or simply BP Bridge, is a girder footbridge in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It spans Columbus Drive to connect Daley Bicentennial Plaza with Millennium Park, both parts of the larger Grant Park. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect...
that connects Millennium Park with Daley Bicentennial Plaza was closed until 7:00 a.m. the next day.
Events
Jay Pritzker Pavilion competes with Ravinia ParkRavinia Park
Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music festival in the United States, with a series of outdoor concerts and performances held every summer from June to September. It has been the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1936...
as a Chicago area outdoor music venue. The pavilion hosts free music events such as Chicago Gospel Music Festival from spring to fall. In June, July and August, the Grammy
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-nominated Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus performs free classical concerts at the Grant Park Music Festival. The festival, a Chicago tradition since 1931, remains the nation's only free, outdoor classical music series. Although the Music Festival shares pavilion space with several other program series and annual performances, its concerts most Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings throughout the heart of the summer are the core of the pavilion's offerings. Travel guide Frommer's
Frommer's
Frommer's is a travel guidebook series and one of the bestselling travel guides in America. The series began in 1957 with the publication of Arthur Frommer's book, Europe on $5 a Day. Frommer's has expanded to include over 350 guidebooks across 14 series, as well as other media including the award...
lists the park, pavilion, and these free concerts as some of the best free things to do in Chicago. In summer the pavilion also hosts a series of jazz concerts, and the Great Lawn hosts yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
and pilates
Pilates
Pilates is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates in Germany, the UK and the USA. As of 2005, there were 11 million people practicing the discipline regularly and 14,000 instructors in the United States....
workouts on Saturday mornings.
The Pritzker Prize presentation ceremony, which moves to an architecturally significant location each year, was held in the Pritzker Pavilion in April 2005. Among the annual performers at the pavilion are Steppenwolf Theatre, Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
(CSO). At the end of the Grant Park Music Festival season in August, the Festival's Grant Park Orchestra and Carlos Kalmar
Carlos Kalmar
Carlos Kalmar is a Uruguayan conductor. He began violin studies at age six. At age fifteen, he enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Music where his conducting teacher was Karl Österreicher...
presented Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning composer John Adams' On the Transmigration of Souls
On the Transmigration of Souls
On the Transmigration of Souls, for orchestra, chorus, children’s choir and pre-recorded tape is a composition by composer John Adams commissioned by The New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center’s Great Performers shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks.Adams began writing the piece in...
, which was written at the request of the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
to honor the victims of the September 11 attacks. On Sunday September 11, 2005, United States Senator Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
(who was later elected President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
) served as guest narrator
Narrator
A narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...
for a 9/11 tribute concert by the CSO. The focal work of the concert was Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
's "Lincoln Portrait" and the concert was led by former CSO resident conductor William Eddins
William Eddins
William Eddins is an American pianist and conductor. He is the Music Director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.Eddins started playing piano at age 5 after his parents purchased a piano at a garage sale...
.
Although it was built as a replacement for Grant Park's outdoor concert facilities, larger annual events such as the Chicago Blues
Chicago Blues Festival
The Chicago Blues Festival is an annual event held in June that features three days of performances by top-tier blues musicians, both old favorites and the up-and-coming. It is hosted by the City of Chicago Mayor's Office of Special Events, and always occurs in early June...
and Chicago Jazz Festival
Chicago Jazz Festival
The Chicago Jazz Festival is a popular and well-known four day free celebration of jazz at Petrillo Music Shell in Grant Park in downtown Chicago. It is run by the Jazz Institute of Chicago during Labor Day weekend, integrating both world-famous and local artists...
s and Taste of Chicago
Taste of Chicago
The Taste of Chicago is the world's largest food festival, held annually for ten days in Grant Park, in Chicago starting the Friday before the 4th of July and ending the Sunday after . The event is the largest festival in Chicago...
are too large for Jay Pritzker Pavilion and continue to be held in and around Petrillo Music Shell. The pavilion has hosted smaller festivals, such as the Chicago Gospel Music Festival, since 2005. Public opinion has been in favor of moving some of the smaller Blues and Jazz festival events to the pavilion, with its better, more modern acoustics. By 2009, as the city grappled with a budget deficit, it considered realigning parts of the larger festivals and made definite plans to move some of the smaller ones to the more modern venue.
On July 18, 2007, the Grant Park Music Festival partnered with the Metro Chicago
Metro Chicago
This page is about the concert hall; for the metro region surrounding Chicago, see Chicago metropolitan area.Metro is a concert hall at 3730 N. Clark Street in Chicago, Illinois that plays host to a variety of local, regional and national emerging bands and musicians. The Metro was first opened in...
to produce a free Wednesday-night show celebrating Metro's 25th anniversary and featuring indie band The Decemberists
The Decemberists
The Decemberists are an indie folk rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States, fronted by singer/songwriter Colin Meloy. The other members of the band are Chris Funk , Jenny Conlee , Nate Query , and John Moen .The band's...
with the Grant Park Orchestra. The show featured new orchestral arrangements of The Decemberists' songs by Sean O'Loughlin, who also conducted in lieu of Kalmar. While the concert was free, the front seating sections were reserved for season membership holders; fans of the band got the remaining seats or sat on the lawn. This led Decemberists' frontman Colin Meloy
Colin Meloy
Colin Patrick Henry Meloy is the lead singer and songwriter for the Portland, Oregon, folk-rock band The Decemberists. In addition to vocals, he performs with an acoustic guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bouzouki, harmonica, percussion and interpretive hand gestures.-Early life...
to encourage the crowd to breach the barriers between the seats and Great Lawn to get closer to the stage for the band's encore performance, which was without the orchestra. Estimated attendance was 11,000 to 15,000, the largest for any free concert at the pavilion to date.
Other events include a concert by Wilco
Wilco
Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...
on September 12, 2007, the "Poland for Chicago" show with Polish President Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
on September 25, 2007, and a global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
awareness festival which culminated in a performance entitled Arctic at the pavilion in November 2007. Most events at the pavilion remain free; the only public event at the pavilion in the summer of 2008 that charged admission was a concert by Rogue Wave
Rogue Wave (band)
Rogue Wave is an indie rock band from Oakland, California, , and headed by Zach Schwartz who created the band after losing his job in the dot-com bust. Their first album was Out of the Shadow which was released privately in 2003 and re-released in 2004...
and Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie is an American alternative rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Ben Gibbard , Chris Walla , Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr ....
on June 3. The pavilion has hosted several one-day events that were noted in international publications, including the United States debut of A Throw of Dice
A Throw of Dice
A Throw of Dice is a 1929 silent film by German-born director, Franz Osten, based on an episode from the Indian epic The Mahabharata....
, a 1929 Indian silent movie
Silent Movie
Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...
about two kings with a common love interest, on July 30, 2008. At the debut, Nitin Sawhney
Nitin Sawhney
Nitin Sawhney is an Indian-British musician, producer and composer. His critically acclaimed work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of jazz and electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics and spirituality...
and the Grant Park Orchestra accompanied the movie with a live performance. Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
filmed the September 8, 2008, season-opening Oprah Winfrey Show on September 3, 2008, at the pavilion with more than 150 Olympic medalists, including Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions...
, Nastia Liukin
Nastia Liukin
Anastasia Valeryevna "Nastia" Liukin is a Russian-American artistic gymnast. She was the 2008 Olympic individual all-around Champion, the 2005 and 2007 World Champion on the balance beam, and the 2005 World Champion on the uneven bars...
, Dara Torres
Dara Torres
Dara Grace Torres is an American international swimmer and a twelve-time Olympic medalist. Torres was the first swimmer from the United States to compete in five Olympic Games , and, at age 41, the oldest swimmer ever to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team...
, Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant is an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Lower Merion High School, where he was recognized as the top high school...
, Misty May-Treanor
Misty May-Treanor
Misty Erie May-Treanor is an American professional volleyball player. She has won more tournaments than any other female player with 107 career wins....
and Kerri Walsh
Kerri Walsh
Kerri Lee Walsh-Jennings is an American professional beach volleyball player.Walsh-Jennings and teammate Misty May-Treanor were the gold medalists in beach volleyball at both the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics...
, in an effort to rally support for the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid
Chicago 2016 Olympic bid
The Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics was an unsuccessful campaign, first recognized by the International Olympic Committee on September 14, 2007...
.
Concerts performed by the Grant Park Orchestra and directed by Kalmar were part of a June 19, 2009, citywide Burnham Plan
Burnham Plan
The Burnham Plan is a popular name for the 1909 Plan of Chicago, co-authored by Daniel Burnham and Edward H. Bennett. It recommended an integrated series of projects including new and widened streets, parks, new railroad and harbor facilities, and civic buildings...
centennial celebration that included the unveiling of the Burnham Pavilion elsewhere in the park. The concert featured the world premiere of Michael Torke
Michael Torke
Michael Torke is an American composer who writes music influenced by jazz and minimalism. Sometimes described as a post-minimalist, his most postminimal piece is Four Proverbs, in which the syllable for each pitch is fixed and variations in the melody produce streams of nonsense words. Other works...
's work for symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
and chorus
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
entitled Plans, paired with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. Also, the pavilion serves as host to the annual Chicago Winter Dance Festival. During the festival there is a month of free dance instructions behind the glass doors of the pavilion stage and free skating instruction at the McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink or McCormick Tribune Plaza is a multi-purpose venue within Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, USA. On December 20, 2001, it became the first attraction in Millennium Park to open. The $3.2 million plaza was funded by a donation from...
.
Among the highlights of the 2010 calendar is the screening of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's nature documentary Planet Earth Live
Planet Earth Live
Planet Earth Live is a 2010 BBC nature documentary film that celebrated its premier in the U.S. with a tour featuring narration and live orchestral accompaniment featuring the score by composer George Fenton, who serves as conductor...
on July 21, with live Grant Park Symphony Orchestra
Grant Park Symphony Orchestra
The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra or simply the Grant Park Orchestra is a publicly sponsored symphony orchestra that provides free performances in the Grant Park Music Festival during the summer months in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. Its sister organization is the Grant Park Chorus; the...
accompaniment featuring the score by five-time Academy Award-winning composer George Fenton
George Fenton
George Fenton is a British composer best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, although he also writes music for the theatre. His real name is George Howe but he is better known by his pseudonym of George Fenton.-Selected film and television credits:Fenton has composed...
, who serves as conductor.
Among the artists who performed with the festival at the pavilion in the 2000s decade are soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
s Karina Gauvin
Karina Gauvin
Karina Gauvin is an internationally-recognized Canadian soprano who has made several recordings and is especially recognised for her interpretation of Baroque music. Opera News stated that, "Gauvin knows how to rivet an audience in opera and concert. She has been a queen of Baroque opera for years...
and Erin Wall
Erin Wall
Erin Wall is a Canadian operatic soprano.She studied at the Vancouver Academy of Music, Western Washington University, Rice University and Music Academy of the West and was a finalist at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in Wales in 2003, a competition where 951 singers from 56 nations...
, tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Vittorio Grigolo
Vittorio Grigolo
Vittorio Grigolo is an Italian singer.Grigolo was born in Arezzo, but raised in Rome.He began singing by the age of four...
, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
Stephen Hough
Stephen Hough
Stephen Andrew Gill Hough is a British-born classical pianist, composer and writer. He became an Australian citizen in 2005 and thus has dual nationality .-Biography:...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ists Rachel Barton Pine
Rachel Barton Pine
Rachel Barton Pine is a violinist from Chicago. Considered a child prodigy at the violin, she started playing at the age of 3 and a half. She played at many renowned venues as a child and teenager...
, James Ehnes
James Ehnes
James Ehnes, CM is a Canadian concert violinist.The son of Alan Ehnes, trumpet professor at Brandon University and Barbara Ehnes, former director of the Brandon School of Dance, James Ehnes began his violin studies at the age of four...
, Roby Lakatos
Roby Lakatos
Roby Lakatos, the “devil’s fiddler”, is a Romani violinist from Hungary. He is renowned for his mix of classical music with Hungarian Romani music and jazz themes....
, Christian Tetzlaff
Christian Tetzlaff
-Biography:Tetzlaff was born in Hamburg. He began playing the violin and piano at the age of 6, and made his concert debut at 14 years old. He studied with Uwe-Martin Haiberg at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and with Walter Levine at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.He is...
, and Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman is a world-renowned violinist, violist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and his ongoing 45-year career has seen him perform with the world's best-known orchestras and record over 100 works...
, and vocalists Otis Clay
Otis Clay
Otis Clay is an American R&B and soul singer, who started in gospel music.-Life and career:...
, Mariza
Mariza
Mariza is the stage name of a popular fado singer. She was born Marisa dos Reis Nunes on 16 December 1973 in Lourenço Marques, Mozambique. At the time, Mozambique was known as the Portuguese Overseas Province of Mozambique....
, and Maria del Mar Bonet
Maria del Mar Bonet
Maria del Mar Bonet i Verdaguer is a Balearic singer from the island of Majorca.-Early life and career:She studied ceramics in the school of arts, but eventually she decided to dedicate herself to song. She arrived in Barcelona in 1967, where she began to sing with the group Els Setze Jutges...
. All rehearsal
Rehearsal
For other uses, see Rehearsal or Dress rehearsal A rehearsal is a preparatory event in music and theatre that is performed before the official public performance, as a form of practice, and to ensure that all details of the performance are adequately prepared and coordinated for professional...
s at the pavilion are open to the public and well-attended. The festival is represented by a staff of trained guides, called docents
Museum docent
Museum docent is a title used in the United States for educators trained to further the public's understanding of the cultural and historical collections of the institution, including local and national museums, zoos, historical landmarks, and parks. In many cases, docents, in addition to their...
, that field questions and provide educational talks during the rehearsals.
Besides these public functions, the pavilion is available, as is the entire park, as a venue for private events year-round. The stage's glass and steel doors enable it to provide indoor space protected from the elements when necessary. In addition, the pavilion has a Choral Rehearsal Room that can be rented.
Reception
Critics have said that Jay Pritzker Pavilion is the highlight of Millennium Park. Fodor'sFodor's
Fodor's is the world's largest publisher of English language travel and tourism information, and the first relatively professional producer of travel guidebooks...
travel guide described it as the park's "showstopper" and "stunning", praising its stainless steel and sound system, as well as the variety of events it hosts. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
called the pavilion "dynamic" and recommended it as one of two must-see attractions in the park, while one New York Times writer found herself standing "agog" at what appeared to her to be a "celestial gateway to another universe" and a frame for the sky. Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...
travel guide called the pavilion the anchor of the park, and the 2004 Year in Review issue of Time described it as the park's crown jewel. USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
described the bandshell as a landmark and the centerpiece of Millennium Park. Another critic described the pavilion as the "most spectacular structure to go up in early-twenty-first-century Chicago".
According to the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
, the bandshell's acoustics are unparalleled compared to any contemporary outdoor venue. Critics say that musicians have lauded the onstage acoustics. Another Financial Times critic noted that Gehry revisited some of his past design motifs, such as his use of stainless steel, and explored new ones such as the trellis and sound system. This sentiment was echoed by others. However, von Rhein noted that the sound is not of uniform quality throughout the venue and opined that the optimal sonics are toward the back of the seated area and front of the lawn.
Despite the praise it has received, the pavilion has its blemishes: the supporting north side of the structure along Randolph Street has attracted criticism for not being pleasing to the eye, and some observers found the exposed supporting proscenium braces offensive. Critic Fred Bernstein of The New York Times felt that the smooth rounded trellis and sharp-edged bandshell were geometrically discordant. A review in the Chicago Tribune criticized the "ugly concrete structure" surrounding the mixing console
Mixing console
In professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board, mixing desk, or mixer is an electronic device for combining , routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals. A mixer can mix analog or digital signals, depending on the type of mixer...
in the midst of the fixed seats as the pavilion's "biggest design miscalculation", and called for it be moved. Although modern practice is to locate the sound console in with the audience, Gehry said at a symposium after the park's opening that he wanted "to scrap the big box of a sound booth that sprang up like a weed in the center of the pavilion's seating".
The director of Millennium Park was honored for his contribution to creating "one of the most accessible parks – not just in the United States but possibly the world" in a 2005 accessibility
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
award ceremony held at the pavilion. The pavilion's stage is reached by gently sloped ramps instead of stairs, as part of the park's overall accessibility design. The decision to save money and not slope the Great Lawn as much as originally planned was not universally popular. However, Gehry said that the actual slope of the lawn was more accommodating to people with disabilities and better able to accommodate activities than the original plan.
External links
- High Quality 360 view of Pritzker Pavilion and virtual tour of Millenium Park
- Millennium Park map
- City of Chicago Loop Community Map
- archives at Chicago TribuneChicago TribuneThe Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...