Day 60: Plensa's Crowning Achievement

     As has been previously mentioned, the construction of Millennium Park called for many different installations of public art.  The Bean is just one example of that.  Another one is located just across the way from it.  Of course, we're talking about the Crown Fountain(otherwise known as that thing with people's faces on it spitting water).  The process began in 1999, when the Crown Family decided to donate money to furnish Millennium Park with more works of art.  After an independent audition process, the Crowns selected the artist Juame Plensa, over the artists Maya Lin and Robert Venturi.

     Work was soon started on the Fountain, with its twin towers serving as a study in Plensa's knack for dualism.  The largest amount of legwork involved in the project came next, as the likenesses of more than 1,000 Chicagoans were captured to adorn the sides of the fountain.  While this project was going on, the fountain was being designed and built.  The faces were to be displayed on LEDs, but the LEDs needed some sort of protection from the elements, but any such protection couldn't be so big that it would have interfered with the views of the folks looking at the faces. To address this problem, a glass plant in Mount Pleasant, PA was contacted to begin churning out glass bricks for the exterior of the sculpture.  After many struggles, the fountain was dedicated in July of 2004 as part of the ceremonies opening Millennium Park.

     Upon its opening, the Fountain faced more controversy due to the height of the two towers.  The reason anybody would even care about this goes back more than 150 years.  When Grant Park was first organized(the initial incarnation coming all the way back in 1836), the mantra was that the space would be 'forever open, clear, and free'.  This status was cemented by Aaron Montgomery Ward(of department store fame) through several lawsuits that he filed in the 1890s that forced the city to abide by the original intent.  Ultimately, the Fountain was allowed, on the grounds that it was a work of art rather than a building.  A few years later, the city put surveillance cameras on top of the fountain,. this got everybody riled up about the rise of big brother and all that assorted stuff.

     The Crown Fountain has scored rave reviews almost universally, being lauded as an "extraordinary art object", "public art at its best", and a "techno-fountain".  Comparisons have also been derived between this and the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park.  Overall, the Crown Fountain is one more facet of Millennium Park that should keep locals and tourists alike talking for years to come.