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Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, US, and originally intended to celebrate the second 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 occupied by parkland, Illinois Central rail yards, and parking lots.〔(This picture ) shows Grant Park before Millennium Park (upper right) was built.〕 The park, which is bounded by Michigan Avenue, Randolph Street, Columbus Drive and East Monroe Drive, features a variety of public art. As of 2009, Millennium Park trailed only Navy Pier as a Chicago tourist attraction. In 2015, the park became the location of the city's annual Christmas tree lighting. Planning of the park began in October 1997. Construction began in October 1998, and Millennium Park was opened in a ceremony on July 16, 2004, four years behind schedule. The three-day opening celebrations were attended by some 300,000 people and included an inaugural concert by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus. The park has received awards for its accessibility and green design. Millennium Park has free admission, and features the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, ''Cloud Gate'', the ''Crown Fountain'', the Lurie Garden, and various other attractions. The park is connected by the BP Pedestrian Bridge and the Nichols Bridgeway to other parts of Grant Park. Because the park sits atop a parking garage and the commuter rail Millennium Station, it is considered the world's largest rooftop garden. Some observers consider Millennium Park to be the city's most important project since the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.〔 It far exceeded its originally proposed budget of $150 million. The final cost of $475 million was borne by Chicago taxpayers and private donors. The city paid $270 million; private donors paid the rest, and assumed roughly half of the financial responsibility for the cost overruns. The construction delays and cost overruns were attributed to poor planning, many design changes, and cronyism. Many critics have praised the completed park. ==Background== From 1852 until 1997, the Illinois Central Railroad owned a right of way between downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan, in the area that became Grant Park and used it for railroad tracks.〔 In 1871, Union Base-Ball Grounds was built on part of the site that became Millennium Park; the Chicago White Stockings played home games there until the grounds were destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Untitled (Baseball Park Codes) )〕 Lake Front Park, the White Stockings' new ball grounds, was built in 1878 with a short right field due to the railroad tracks. The grounds were improved and the seating capacity was doubled in 1883, but the team had to move after the season ended the next year, as the federal government had given the city the land "with the stipulation that no commercial venture could use it".〔〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.neweastside.org/decisions.html )〕 Daniel Burnham planned Grant Park around the Illinois Central Railroad property in his 1909 Plan of Chicago. In 1997, when the city gained airspace rights over the tracks, it decided to build a parking facility over them in the northwestern corner of Grant Park.〔 Eventually, the city realized that a grand civic amenity might lure private dollars in a way that a municipal improvement would not, and thus began the effort to create Millennium Park. The park was originally planned under the name Lakefront Millennium Park. The park was conceived as a landscape-covered bridge over an underground parking structure to be built on top of the Metra/Illinois Central Railroad tracks in Grant Park. Originally, the park was to be designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, but gradually additional architects and artists such as Frank Gehry and Thomas Beeby were incorporated into the plan.〔 Sponsors were sought by invitation only.〔 In February 1999, the city announced it was negotiating with Frank Gehry to design a proscenium arch and orchestra enclosure for a bandshell, as well as a pedestrian bridge crossing Columbus Drive, and that it was seeking donors to cover his work.〔 At the time, the ''Chicago Tribune'' dubbed Gehry "the hottest architect in the universe"〔 in reference to the acclaim for his Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and they noted the designs would not include Mayor Richard M. Daley's trademarks, such as wrought iron and seasonal flower boxes. Millennium Park project manager Edward Uhlir said "Frank is just the cutting edge of the next century of architecture,"〔 and noted that no other architect was being sought. Gehry was approached several times by Skidmore architect Adrian Smith on behalf of the city.〔 His hesitance and refusal to accept the commission was overcome by Cindy Pritzker, the philanthropist, who had developed a relationship with the architect when he won the Pritzker Prize in 1989. According to John H. Bryan, who led fund-raising for the park, Pritzker enticed Gehry in face-to-face discussions, using a $15 million funding commitment toward the bandshell's creation.〔 Having Gehry get involved helped the city realize its vision of having modern themes in the park; upon rumors of his involvement the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' proclaimed "Perhaps the future has arrived",〔 while the ''Chicago Tribune'' noted that "The most celebrated architect in the world may soon have a chance to bring Chicago into the 21st Century". rect 51 18 145 80 McDonald's Cycle Center rect 338 2 496 94BP Pedestrian Bridge rect 497 62 536 101BP Pedestrian Bridge rect 497 6 631 34 Columbus Drive rect 10 88 154 104 Exelon Pavilion NE rect 47 108 79 131 Exelon Pavilion NE rect 619 95 754 112 Exelon Pavilion SE rect 728 113 759 135 Exelon Pavilion SE rect 10 246 166 263 Exelon Pavilion NW rect 47 265 78 288 Exelon Pavilion NW rect 613 243 762 258 Exelon Pavilion SW rect 736 260 757 275 Exelon Pavilion SW rect 44 149 174 229 Harris Theater rect 175 103 572 288 Jay Pritzker Pavilion rect 573 134 757 238 Lurie Garden rect 572 311 718 329 Nichols Bridgeway rect 516 298 777 306 Nichols Bridgeway rect 58 350 207 396 Chase Promenade North rect 291 350 453 396 Chase Promenade Central rect 537 350 687 396 Chase Promenade South rect 313 397 431 424 AT&T Plaza rect 37 434 227 473 Boeing Gallery North rect 516 433 757 469 Boeing Gallery South rect 337 426 416 470 Cloud Gate rect 60 486 216 546 Wrigley Square rect 287 477 457 543 McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink rect 557 488 727 543 Crown Fountain rect 308 567 439 583 Michigan Avenue rect 1 316 23 442 Randolph Street desc bottom-left Plans for the park were officially announced in March 1998 and construction began in September of that year. Initial construction was under the auspices of the Chicago Department of Transportation, because the project bridges the railroad tracks. However, as the project grew and expanded, its broad variety of features and amenities outside the scope of the field of transportation placed it under the jurisdiction of the city's Public Buildings Commission. In April 1999, the city announced that the Pritzker family had donated $15 million to fund Gehry's bandshell and an additional nine donors committed $10 million.〔 The day of this announcement, Gehry agreed to the design request.〔 In November, when his design was unveiled, Gehry said the bridge design was preliminary and not well-conceived because funding for it was not committed. The need to fund a bridge to span the eight-lane Columbus Drive was evident, but some planning for the park was delayed in anticipation of details on the redesign of Soldier Field. In January 2000, the city announced plans to expand the park to include features that became ''Cloud Gate'', the ''Crown Fountain'', the McDonald's Cycle Center, and the BP Pedestrian Bridge. Later that month, Gehry unveiled his new winding design for the bridge. Mayor Daley's influence was key in getting corporate and individual sponsors to pay for much of the park. Bryan, the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Sara Lee Corporation who spearheaded the fundraising, says that sponsorship was by invitation and no one refused the opportunity to be a sponsor. One ''Time'' magazine writer describes the park as the crowning achievement for Mayor Daley, while another suggests the park's cost and time overages were examples of the city's mismanagement. The July 16–18, 2004, opening gala was sponsored by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. The community surrounding Millennium Park has become one of the most fashionable residential addresses in Chicago. In 2006, Forbes named the park's 60602 zip code as the hottest in terms of price appreciation in the country, with upscale buildings such as The Heritage at Millennium Park (130 N. Garland) leading the way for other buildings, such as Waterview Tower, The Legacy and Joffrey Tower. The median sale price for residential real estate was $710,000 in 2005 according to Forbes, also ranking it on the list of most expensive zip codes.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=#404 60602 )〕 The park has been credited with increasing residential real estate values by $100 per square foot ($1,076 per m2). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Millennium Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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