Lorbiter visited Millennium Park on
a frosty afternoon in March. Surprisingly, lots of people were there, some
sipping coffee, just hanging around and enjoying the place. A thousand boxed trees were pushed together nursery-style.
The Cloud Gate was tented and workers were welding seams for a final "seamless" polishing. Passers-by walking up Michigan
Avenue stopped in to sit and relax. Most of us gravitated to the Crown Fountain. The water (cycled at 12 thousand-gallons
a minute in warm weather) was shut off, but the towers gleamed with their shifting digital light show.
The pleasure of seeing other human faces is primal in our species,
so the 50-foot high portraits (photographed in natural movements) in the towers provide endless fascination. When the
installation was under construction, invitations went out to all Chicagoans to pose for video photos. Eventually 500 faces
were chosen for the park opening.
One fellow
said that his sister had volunteered, and that she went to the park with her large family and waited almost three hours before
her face appeared-- and what a moment that was. There she was, in Chicago's new showcase park-- smiling for the world and
proud of her hometown.
