Cool. We'll have to try this tour. MP3 file available here
Chicago Tribune MP3 tour
Millennium Park and its 24.5 acres can appear overwhelming, with the sculpture, the architecture, the landscape and the blur of performance artists and crowds.
But anyone with an iPod or any other MP3 player can now download a free walking tour from the artists and architects of Millennium Park at http://www.millenniumpark.org.
The Chicago Park District's Web site just began offering the audio download that experts say is in the forefront of new technology. The tour includes the voices of architect Frank Gehry and artists Anish Kapoor and Jaume Plensa, who talk about their work at the park. The audio tour also includes the voice of Mayor Richard Daley, horticulturists and others involved in operations.
Chicago may be the first to undertake such a project for a park, said Celina Nichols, librarian and archivist for the National Recreation and Park Association.
Even among new, downloadable audio tours, the Millennium Park tour stands out because it uses the voices of people who created much of the park.
Standing before the 110-ton Cloud Gate sculpture, you not only hear Kapoor interpret his work, but his voice echoes as he makes his way from the front to the interior of the polished metal sculpture known as “the Bean” in Chicago.
“What I wanted to do in Millennium Park is make something that would engage the Chicago skyline so one will feel the clouds kind of floating in with those very tall buildings reflected in the work,” he says in the audio tour.
“And then, since it is in the form of a gate, the viewer ... the participant will be able to enter into the work and enter this very deep chamber that does, in a way, the same thing to one's reflection as the exterior of the piece is doing to the reflection of the city.”
There are some surprises, too, when listening to artists talk of how they believed their work would be perceived compared to the reality of Millennium Park.
Some of the biggest crowds gather daily around Plensa's Crown Fountain, two 50-foot glass towers separated by a stretch of black granite.
The boisterous chatter and water fights that erupt between the towers seem a far cry from Plensa's initial perception when he says, “It's the tremendous possibility in that project to offer finally to the public space the capacity to talk about the soul.”
The recordings capture everyone from Gehry, who insists that his voluptuous Pritzker Pavilion is more function than form, to Lauren Rudy, manager of the popular Millennium Park bike station, as she describes the facilities.
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