Millennium Park is a 25-acre public park in downtown Chicago that opened in 2004 as one of the largest green-roof projects in the world, built atop a rail yard and parking garages along Michigan Avenue. It anchors the northwest corner of Grant Park and has become one of the most visited attractions in the Midwest, drawing crowds year-round to its mix of public art, gardens, and free programming.
The park’s signature piece is Cloud Gate, the 110-ton polished stainless-steel sculpture by Anish Kapoor known locally as “The Bean,” whose mirrored surface reflects the Chicago skyline and warps the reflections of everyone who walks beneath its 12-foot arch. Nearby, the Crown Fountain’s twin 50-foot glass-block towers project rotating video portraits of Chicago residents, spouting water from their lips each cycle, while the Frank Gehry-designed Jay Pritzker Pavilion hosts free summer concerts beneath a stainless-steel band shell.
Millennium Park is free to enter and open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., with Cloud Gate and the Lurie Garden accessible around the clock in season. Arriving before 9 a.m. avoids the heaviest tour-bus crowds and yields the cleanest reflections in the Bean’s surface.