A city. By a lake. Tall buildings. It is good to experience a city when we live in this fairly small town...just to remind myself of scale. And the diversity and density of humanity. And the kinds of buildings and public spaces you can create at that scale The lobby of the Palmer Hotel. The new wing for contemporary art at the Art Institute.
As far as the new wing, the best part is the pedestrian bridge connecting it to the Millennium Park...making a more democratic connection to "the people." and it is very functional in its ability to display new large scale contemporary art. But it does not juxtapose art with architecture, does not cause the spirit to soar as does, for example, the new spaces at the Met or MOMA in New York. Yet it was thronged with a crowd of 20 and 30 year olds which bodes well for the future of the institute.
And, well, any museum that can give my nephew, Greg, and his wife Mary, a chance to spend Sunday in The Park with Seurat can't be all bad.
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Location:Chicago
