Chicago Letter: Things are big here in Chicago. Big buildings, big lake, big airport. It's also a city of big ideas, stretching back to the days of Daniel Burnham, who devised a plan a century ago to turn the mid-western prairie town into a model of urban design, writes Julie Sell.
Although much of Burnham's plan never came to pass, his spirit still permeates America's third-largest city, considered one of the better-organised (and increasingly green) urban centres in the country.
Now a sparkling new civic space in Chicago is showing yet again how big ideas can be transforming. Millennium Park, a 24.5-acre parcel on the edge of the downtown business district, opened two months ago to rave reviews. Since then the park - it is actually part park, civic plaza and performance space - has attracted over 1 million visitors (300,000 came during opening weekend alone) and is a bonanza for the surrounding area, from shops and cafes to luxury condominium towers.
The attractions of Millennium Park are many-fold: Frank Gehry, one of several big names involved, created two eye- catching elements: an open-air bandshell with all the twirling metal flourishes one would expect from him, and a sensuously snaking pedestrian bridge.
British artist Anish Kapoor designed a 110-ton steel jellybean- shaped sculpture. Its surface reflects the changing sky and surrounding buildings; visitors who walk underneath are amused by the dimpled bottom which offers a fun-house mirror effect.
Jaume Plensa, a Spaniard, has produced arguably the park's most unusual element: two 50-ft glass towers which reflect giant video images of Chicagoans' faces in succession; every so often, the faces pucker their mouths and water shoots out of them like modern-day gargoyles, much to the delight of children who rush to get doused.
There are also green spaces, gardens and a few quiet corners to escape. Such urban pleasures come at a cost. The park opened four years behind schedule and wildly over budget.
A project manager notes that the $475 million price tag (covered by a mix of public and private dollars) is for something whose scope and scale differs dramatically from the initial plan.
Indeed the original concept, floated by the city's green- friendly mayor Richard M. Daley, was rather modest: to cover an unsightly patch of railroad tracks adjoining busy Michigan Avenue with something more appealing.
However as the project got rolling, some deep-pocketed citizens and companies jumped on board and a grander vision took shape. Critics contend the result is an overcrowded show- place plastered with the names of corporate and private sponsors.
But two months after Millen- nium Park's inauguration, its benefits are clear. Before it was opened, the city estimated its economic impact at $100 million to $150 million annually. It is too early to know if those estimates will be surpassed, but they were based on expected annual park attendance of up to 3 million people (one-third of which has already been reached).
Michigan Avenue, whose most stylish blocks have long been north of the Chicago River, is seeing a flood of pedestrians headed south to the park, which sits near the Art Institute of Chicago, a reliable staple of the city's cultural scene which was an island of civility on the edge of the bustling, cavernous business district. Restaurants, cafés and shops have sprung up along the avenue and there is new energy on the sidewalks.
One clear measure of Millen- nium Park's impact is on real estate. Sales of luxury condomin- iums are soaring in a half-dozen new high-rise towers under construction - some of which are not due to open until 2007 - which ring the area and adjoining Grant Park.
Mayor Daley, a lifelong resident of the city's south side, has purchased a unit in the Heritage at Millennium Park, a 57-storey tower overlooking the park that is scheduled to open next year.
"We've never seen a boom like this," says Gail Lissner of Appraisal Research Counsellors, a consulting firm which tracks real estate.
The number of housing units in the city centre has blossomed - growing from 48,000 units in 1991 to 77,000 this year and an anticipated 85,000 by 2006 - with a growing share in the Loop/New East Side area which surrounds Millennium Park.
Prospective buyers stand in line for hours to put down hefty deposits on luxury units and prices are surging. The Loop/ New East Side accounted for over 27 per cent of newly built condo sales downtown in the second quarter of this year, Ms Lissner says, up from 5 per cent in the first quarter of 2003.
As Chicago heads into the cooler fall months, with its infamous winter looming on the horizon, it's unclear whether Millennium Park will remain the phenomenal draw it has been recently. The inclusion of a restaurant and ice skating rink, as well as an indoor theatre for music and dance, reflects an effort to make the park a year- round attraction.
The latest big idea to come from Chicago, middle America's undisputed capital of culture, shopping and business, is being watched with interest by urban planners across America and the world.