Name: Cloud Gate
Address: 201 E Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60602
Rating: 4.7

Huge outdoor sculpture shaped like a bean & allowing for views from its many mirrored sides.

Chicago's Architectural Wonders: A Journey Through Time and Design

Millennium Park

Provided by Google

Cloud Gate

The Art Institute of Chicago

The Rookery Building

Chicago Board of Trade Building

Willis Tower

Jacob M. Jumonville

BRAJ MOHAN

Jo_He

Bruce

陈迪

The Wrigley Building

Tribune Tower

875 North Michigan Avenue

André Wolff

Standby Aviation

Jeremy Tyson

Chris

Chicago's Iconic Treasures: A Full-Day Adventure in the Windy City

Crown Fountain

Historic Route 66 Begin Sign

DuSable Bridge

Magnificent Mile

Polk Bros Park

Navy Pier

Museum Campus

Field Museum

Shedd Aquarium

Adler Planetarium

Lincoln Park Zoo

Wrigley Field

While the exterior of Cloud Gate is made entirely of stainless steel, the inside is actually constructed with wood. The wooden framework helps to support the steel.

Hidden Structure

The original project was estimated to cost $6 million. By the time the work was completed, it cost $23 million. All funding came from private donations.

Over Budget

Cloud Gate has been featured in numerous movies and music videos, including Kanye West's "Homecoming" video, which also featured Coldplay's Chris Martin.

Music Video Fame

When Millennium Park was being constructed, the park asked for designs from artists in 1999 for a new art exhibit. Park officials selected the proposal from Sir Anish Kapoor, an Indian-born British artist.

Artistic Selection

The design of Cloud Gate was inspired by the Chicago skyline and the element Mercury, reflecting the city's dynamic energy and its connection to the Great Lakes.

Design Inspiration

Cloud Gate, affectionately nicknamed "The Bean," is a public sculpture in Chicago's Millennium Park, distinguished by its seamless, highly polished stainless steel surface reflecting the city's skyline and the park's landscape. Its elliptical form, inspired by liquid mercury, creates distorted and captivating reflections, inviting interaction and photography. The sculpture's construction involved welding together 168 stainless steel plates, a feat of engineering that eliminated any visible seams. An interesting, often overlooked aspect is the "omphalos," or belly button, a concave indentation on the sculpture's underside offering a unique, warped perspective of those standing beneath it. This area is particularly popular for selfies and group photos. The reflective surface is meticulously maintained to preserve its pristine appearance, requiring regular cleaning. Cloud Gate's design allows for a continuous, unbroken reflection, a testament to the artist Anish Kapoor's vision and the advanced fabrication techniques employed in its creation.

Introduction

Cloud Gate's engineering is a marvel, highlighted by its seamless construction using 168 stainless steel plates meticulously welded together, a process that eliminated any visible seams. This was achieved through international collaboration, pooling expertise to overcome significant technical hurdles. The sculpture's design, inspired by liquid mercury, presented immense challenges in fabrication and engineering, pushing the boundaries of what was possible. The final structure, weighing 110 tons, stands as a testament to human ingenuity.

The assembly involved carefully lifting and positioning each plate with massive cranes. Its ability to expand and contract slightly with temperature changes adds to its dynamic nature, requiring precise calculations in its construction. The highly polished, mirror-like surface was painstakingly achieved, transforming the sculpture into a giant, liquid-like reflection of the city. Anish Kapoor's vision demanded a structure that appears weightless despite its massive size, a feat accomplished through innovative engineering and design. The 12-foot-tall archway invites visitors to walk underneath, offering changing reflections and a new perspective from every angle, further showcasing the interactive nature of its design. The flawless construction and alignment of panels are particularly impressive, demonstrating a union of art and engineering at its best.

Engineering Marvel

As the artistic heart of Millennium Park, Cloud Gate, affectionately known as "The Bean", draws visitors year-round. The sculpture is situated above Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. The McCormick Tribune Ice Rink is situated along Michigan Avenue, directly beneath "Cloud Gate". Millennium Park, where Cloud Gate is located, has been considered Chicago's "front yard" since the mid-19th century. The park was the city’s second largest tourist attraction in 2007.

Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work installed in the United States. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect Chicago’s famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives.

The sculpture was temporarily uncovered on July 8 for the opening, although Kapoor was unhappy with this as it allowed the public to see the sculpture in an unfinished state. The sculpture was finally completed on August 28, 2005, and officially unveiled on May 15, 2006. Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley declared the day of the sculpture's dedication, May 15, 2006, to be "Cloud Gate Day".

Millennium Park Landmark

Cloud Gate, affectionately known as "The Bean," stands as a prime example of reflective art, captivating visitors with its unique interaction with the surrounding environment. Inspired by liquid mercury, its highly polished, seamless stainless steel surface reflects and distorts the Chicago skyline, creating a constantly morphing urban panorama. This reflective quality extends to the clouds overhead, engaging the sculpture with the sky itself.

The sculpture's design encourages interaction, inviting viewers to walk around and under its 12-foot arch. The underside features the "omphalos," a concave chamber that intensifies the reflective experience, warping and multiplying reflections of visitors and the surrounding cityscape. This feature creates a disorienting yet engaging space, challenging perceptions and inviting playful interaction.

Cloud Gate's reflective properties have made it a popular subject for photography, though its essence often eludes capture in two-dimensional images. The sculpture seems to capture the viewer, rather than the other way around, reserving its full impact for those who engage with it directly. The lack of clear visual references, such as defined edges or a fixed perspective, adds to the ethereal quality of the experience, blurring the line between the sculpture and its environment. Its success lies in its ability to reflect not only the city but also the desires, expressions, and emotions of those who encounter it.

Reflective Art

Anish Kapoor's vision for Cloud Gate, affectionately known as "The Bean," was to create a seamless, reflective sculpture inspired by liquid mercury that dynamically interacts with Chicago's cityscape and sky. Kapoor's audacious design, selected from over 160 proposals in a 1999 competition, aimed to distort and reflect the city's skyline, inviting viewers to engage with their reflections in a new way. Realizing this vision presented monumental engineering and fabrication challenges due to the sculpture's scale and seamless design.

The construction involved meticulously welding 168 stainless steel plates together, then polishing them to achieve a mirror-like finish. Kapoor's concept of a "gate" between the sky and the viewer is realized through the sculpture's reflective surface, capturing the activity and lights of the park and surrounding skyline. The 12-foot high arch allows visitors to walk underneath, revealing the "omphalos," a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections.

Kapoor's selection of Performance Structures, Inc. (PSI) was crucial due to their expertise in creating nearly invisible welds. The sculpture's weight, initially estimated at 60 short tons but ultimately reaching 110 short tons, required engineers to reinforce the Park Grill's roof and supporting structures. Cloud Gate stands as Kapoor's first permanent public outdoor work in the United States, embodying his artistic themes and offering a unique photo-taking opportunity due to its reflective properties.

Cloud Gate

Did You Know?

Hidden Structure

Over Budget

Music Video Fame

Artistic Selection

Highlights from Reviews

Location