Chicago’s “Bean” Creatively Engages and Entertains the Public While Showcasing the City

Cloud Gate. Chicago, IL.

Indian born, British designer, Anish Kapoor unveiled his (now famous) behemoth, interactive public art in Chicago’s Millennium Park in 2004. Locals quickly began to call the sculpture “The Bean”, preempting Kapoor’s official title, “Cloud Gate”. Both names are fitting as the massive, 33’ high x 43’ wide x 66’ long,sculpture resembles a seamless, stainless steel navy bean. However, Kapoor choose the name “Cloud Gate” in reference to the smooth surface’s ability to reflect the clouds above while its underside serves as a “gate” into Millennium Park. Perhaps seemingly simple in design, The Bean was a significant feat in engineering. The sculpture weighs 110 tons (equivalent to 15 adult elephants) and consists of 168 individual steel plates, which have been welded and highly polished to provide a seamless finish. Kapoor’s inspiration for The Bean was liquid mercury, and it was conceptually based on his earlier work “Turning the World Inside Out”, measuring 148cm x 184cm x 188cm. Kapoor’s interactive art is beloved for its ability to entertain the public with is reflections and distortions of the surrounding sky, cityscape, green space and the visitors themselves. Eighty percent of the Bean’s surface reflects the sky and bends it into a gate shape.

Serving as an entry point into Millennium Park, The Bean sits in AT&T Plaza- adjacent to McCormick Tribune Plaza and Ice Rink, in front of the Chase Promenade and atop the Park Grill. Planning for Millennium Park began in 1997- a redevelopment of land once occupied by the Illinois Central Rail yards and parking lots at the northwest corner of Grant Park in central Chicago. The plans included several public art works. The selection committee included representatives from the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and some of the city’s foremost art patrons. Proposals were submitted from an international pool of 16-30 artists. Submissions by Kapoor and Jeff Koons were selected as finalists with Kapoor’s design originally planned for Laurie Garden and Koon’s design for AT&T Plaza. Koon’s design of a 150 foot long glass and steel slide with an observation platform, raised 90 feet above ground, proved to be problematic due to its accessibility requirements. Kapoor’s design was then moved to AT&T Plaza- yet it also presented its own challenges: the engineering required to support its massive weight, the required ability to adapt to Chicago’s extreme weather by retaining and conducting heat and finding solutions to maintenance issues presented by fingerprints, bird droppings and graffiti. In response to the first issue, a retaining wall which separates Chicago’s Metro train tracks from North Grant Park Garage supports much of The Bean’s weight and forms the backside of the Park Grill restaurant below- it is also buttressed by lateral members underneath the plaza, and anchored to the sculpture’s interior by tie rods.

Of his design, Kapoor told the Chicago Tribune, “What I wanted to do was to make a work that would deal with the incredible skyline of Chicago and open the sky and the lake but then also be a kind of gate. You know, tradition of public sculpture is for the gate, the archway, the square to flow within (the landscape) rather than being an object decorating it.” Kapoor continued, “Contemporary public spaces are a very difficult problem that we haven’t yet fully and properly understood. The idea here was to make a work that was drawing in the sky, the skyline and all of that, and at the same time allowing you to enter it like a piece of architecture that was pulling your own reflection into the fulcrum, making a kind of participatory experience.” For visitors, a large part of The Bean’s appeal is the constant change of appearance due to the time of day, the light, the seasons and specificperspectives. Each visitor sees a reflection that is unique.

Kapoor began his design process with a wooden model and progressed to CAD drawings. He worked with British engineering firm, Atelier One for the structural design and Oakland, CA based Performance Structures Inc (PSI) for fabrication. PSIwas chosen primarily for their ability to produce (nearly) invisible welds in their work in boat building. Designers worked with high-density polyurethane foam sheets and models before progressing to stainless steel. The final sheets were pieces of a steel eggshell. PSI Co-president, Ethan Silva explained, “It’s very thin but because it’s contiguous and smooth, it’s strong.” The initial plan was to ship the fully intact sculpture from California to Chicago through the Panama Canal and across the northeastern US through the St Lawrence Seaway. The plan later changed to have the individual stainless steel plates (that had been polished to a 98% finish) shipped via truck to Chicago with fabrication taking place on site. Once in Chicago, half a dozen workers built the interior support structure with 2 permanent metal rings, one at each end, and would move independently and divide the weight of the structure. This design allows The Bean to expand and contract with changes in temperature and with its surrounds. During construction a temporary truss system supported the plates. Due to the precise measurements accomplished by PSI, no cutting was done on site and all 168 individual pieces fit together per the design. The pieces were welded together and the final polish provided a seamless appearance on the gleaming surface. The Bean’s underside is knownas the omphalos, or navel. This was the point where construction began. From there the builders worked down and then upward until all of the plates joined to enclose the sculpture. The underside’s opening is 12 feet above ground, with the highest point in the omphalos being 27 feet above ground. This spoon-like underbelly provides multiple reflections of its subject underneath.

Of the finished design, Project Manager, Lou Cerny of MTH Industries said, “When the light is right you can’tsee where the sculpture ends and the sky begins.”  Within a few years of its unveiling The Bean became Chicago’s second most popular tourist attraction after the Navy Pier. Visitors are allowed to touch The Bean and the lower 6 feet are wiped down with a Windex-like solution up to seven times a day. Twice a year the entire sculpture is cleaned with 40 US gallons of liquid detergent and then polished and buffed. No public funds were used to finance The Bean’s $23 million final costs, with funds being raised through individualand corporate donations. Kapoor has since installed a similar sculpture in Houston, TX- a vertical representation of liquid mercury called “Cloud Column”. “Cloud Gate”, or “The Bean”, is a wonderful example of how art can engage the public and contribute to the overall enjoyment of its surrounding environment. Through thoughtful design, Chicago has regenerated the Grant Park/ Millennium Park area into a thriving mixed-use development for the public to enjoy and interact with their city.