Voelz Chandler: Chicago style inspires Denver

Millennium Park a model for revitalizing city's Civic Center ... and procedural path

Published August 28, 2006 at midnight

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A short history lesson's in order before you head down to the Colorado Convention Center on Wednesday to hear architect Daniel Libeskind talk about his ideas for Civic Center's revitalization.

Not about Civic Center; we've been down that road. What's missing from the current Civic Center equation is knowing what Libeskind, the designer of the Denver Art Museum's new Frederic C. Hamilton Building, believes might improve the core of the city.

That is, what elements and connections could "activate" the park, using a public and private partnership (Denver Parks and Recreation, and the Civic Center Conservancy) before finding generous donors for whatever plans eventually materialize from this week's presentation and the public input to follow.

So far it's been a thorny path. After all, how is it that in Denver, where public process is a byword, could an architect be hired by a private entity to offer design ideas for a public space without a thought to a request for other proposals?

But people confused about how we got to this place can take solace in one thing: We are not alone. And though the increase in private support for public places, especially parks, is a nationwide trend, much of what is fueling this current effort to remake Civic Center comes from one place. In fact, it comes from a city Denver has looked to for more than a century for design inspiration.

That would be Chicago. And now it is Millennium Park, and a mayor, Richard M. Daley, whose administration has been characterized as long on results and short on public process.

That's a thread through the new book Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark (University of Chicago Press, 442 pages, $45), in which Loyola University Chicago history professor Timothy J. Gilfoyle writes a fond biography of the much-hailed attraction that replaced an old rail yard near Grant Park in downtown Chicago. And he begins at the beginning, with planning in the 1830s that pushed to keep the lakefront public.

It is this paragraph, the first one in the first chapter, that strikes a chord:

"By the end of the twentieth century, Grant Park was Chicago's 'front yard.' More than any other piece of Chicago real estate, the park's 319 acres along Lake Michigan immediately east of the city's Loop embodied the city's civic heart. Here Chicagoans came to witness the public appearances of famous people, celebrate special events, attend major festivals, and patronize leading museums . . . The completion of Grant Park's final 24 acres - Millennium Park - in 2004 reinforced the centrality of the site in the cultural life of the metropolis."

Take out the lake and reduce the acreage, and it's Civic Center. After all, Grant Park was the subject of multiple plans, and rests on the work of Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett (yes, the same Edward Bennett who worked on Civic Center). Their 1909 Plan of Chicago addressed future development.

That included the site that is now Millennium Park, which for years was controlled by the Illinois Central Railroad.

Millennium Park may have begun life as something simple to stick on top of a new parking garage near the Art Institute, but venerable philanthropists and the city's long, blue-chip list of corporations headquartered there soon churned civic pride and naming opportunities into a site agog with bells and whistles.

That includes a bandstand designed by Frank Gehry, a stunning silver "bean" sculpture by Anish Kapoor, Gehry's slithery BP Bridge over Columbus Drive, and the miniaturized peristyle, the Millennium Monument, that recalls a similar structure at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. And there's a garden, and an ice rink, and a dual-totem fountain on which faces are projected, sometimes spitting water.

As the book points out, no one worried about RFQs or RFPs in a project that was a mayoral baby. After all, it kicked off with a $6 million no-bid contract for the initial work of what was estimated to be a $150 million project.

The first design, by Adrian Smith of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, was a simple one, costing $23 million with a $7 million endowment. That was soon lost in the push by the mayor's appointed fundraiser, Sara Lee head John Bryan, for bigger and better. Along the way architects clashed, and Daley and Gehry had a falling out, when the former blamed the latter for the lateness of the project. They did make up.

Six years and $475 million later, the place opened late on July 16, 2004, but to immediate acclaim. Gilfoyle addresses lingering questions, not only about aesthetic decisions but also about the role of private interests in the civic realm.

And in this, Millennium Park - place and book - can offer a lesson to Denver about the meaning of public space. After all, Conservancy members and city officials have made the pilgrimage there with an eye toward putting more flash in Civic Center.

Then there is the issue of right hand not knowing what left hand was doing. As the Millennium Park fundraisers signed on donors (he calls them modern-day Medicis) who often chose their own designers, it tested the strength (literally) of the parking garage and the project budget. Design by committee was the order of the day. There were no public hearings and no appearance before the city's Plan Commission. It's was more like an informal drive-by of the city's Public Art Committee, which bought the idea that Gehry's bandshell was a sculpture, not a building. Really; it's the funniest story in the book.

There was some concern from the press about high costs and busted deadlines, but Gilfoyle poohs poohs that until his conclusion, where he recounts jabs at the project for its design overload, a la theme park, and for its reliance on private decision-making.

"Such criticisms were no surprise to architect Adrian Smith. Early on, he warned that Grant Park was being transformed into 'a sort of sculpture gallery and extravaganza.'"

Others called it "Logo Land."

Gilfoyle counters that "these criticisms ignore a more complex history and urban reality," including long-standing philanthropy, and naming rights, in city parks.

Interestingly enough, backers did not create a conservancy, but a corporation. "Private gifts exceeding $200 million built the park, but the space remains under city or park district supervision. Indeed John Bryan was openly reluctant to create a private, nonprofit conservancy to operate and maintain Millennium Park. 'We don't know how to run parks, and the city's very good at it,' he admitted on behalf of the donor's group."

I'm not so sure I would necessarily say that about Denver, where parks planning and maintenance seem to be on an odd course in terms of how our parks operate and look.

But as Libeskind takes the stage Wednesdayto reveal what has only been rumors, I know I'll be thinking about Millennium Park, private control, and public process. And what road Denver will take.

Civic Center Town Hall

• What: Architect Daniel Libeskind unveils his conceptual ideas for Civic Center

• When: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

• Where: Colorado Convention Center, Room 201-203, 700 14th St.

• Next steps: Public Civic Center Sessions, Sept. 14 and Oct. 10 in the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building,; Oct. 2, conference center of the Denver Public Library, Central Branch. All begin at 5:30 p.m.

• Information: 720-913-0630 (project manager Helen Kuykendall)

Chandlerm@com or 303-954-2677.

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