The Daily Feather — Cloud Gated
The plaza around ‘The Bean’ is undergoing renovations to enhance the visitor experience and improve accessibility. Public access and views of the sculpture will be limited through spring 2024.
Last August, ChooseChicago.com added the above advisory to its website. While most of the world thinks of the 12-foot-tall, 110-ton elliptical sculpture forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless-steel plates as “The Bean,” that’s not its formal name. Twenty years ago, British sculptor Anish Kapoor envisioned crafting a mirrored reflection of Chicago’s iconic skyline into the heavens. Inspired by liquid mercury, at a mathematically soothing 66 feet long by 33 feet high, he named the arch he constructed, one of the world’s largest permanent outdoor art installations, Cloud Gate. A gift from AT&T unveiled in 2004, the sculpture is the centerpiece of Millennium Park nestled in Chicago’s city center bordered by Michigan Avenue to the west, Columbus Drive to the east, Randolph Street to the north and Monroe Street to the south. An extra day in Chicago this weekend after Culver’s roaring success at a crew regatta in neighboring Skokie denied the opportunity to snap a group photo in front of the sculpture as it’s been closed for renovation since last August.
Maybe next time. That was my thought visiting with the parents of another senior rower on this spontaneous weekend in the Windy City. For the residents of Barrington Hills, their dual agenda entails buying in a state that begins with ‘T’ – Tennessee or Texas such that they can live at least six months and a day outside Illinois. We all know tax refugees. Still fans of the grand city of their youth, they’re also contemplating buying a renovated postwar apartment on Chicago’s storied Gold Coast.
Like an increasing number of friends and colleagues, they’re aware of the recession the media is determined to keep hush-hush until after Election Day. A flash on the local TV news after taking in the last of Saturday’s Masters surprised none of us. North Aurora-based Oberweis Dairy applied Friday with the Northern District of Illinois for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Add the ice cream producer to the growing pyre of insolvencies piling up across the nation. The twist: ABC7 noted that “The owners of Oberweis Dairy are related to Illinois Republican politician Jim Oberwei.”
For it being one headline, there’s a lot to unpack. Certain foods have been re-categorized as “luxury goods” pushing some niche players into bankruptcy. And, as illustrated in Saturday’s Intelligence Briefing, the gap between Republican’s and Democrats’ perceptions of the current economy and their expectations for it are near the widest in history.