Artists & Designers
The artists and designers who contributed to the success of Millennium Park were especially chosen based on their individual visions for the Park and their contributions to the art community. Each has their own unique story of how they became a part of the ideality of the Park designated to represent the new Millennium.
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor is a British sculptor known for his large-scale works made of various stones, highly-saturated pigments and, most famously, highly-reflective stainless steel. Cloud Gate was Kapoor’s first permanent public outdoor work in the United States and has become his most famous.
For more information on Anish Kapoor and his works around the globe, please visit his website.
Jaume Plensa
Jaume Plensa is an award-winning Spanish artist and sculptor, with a significant amount of work set in the context of public sculpture. His work has been installed in a variety of countries including Spain, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, Korea, Germany, Canada, and the United States. Learn more about the Crown Fountain here.
For more information on Jaume Plensa and his other works, please visit his website.
Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry is an award-winning architect based out of Los Angeles, California. Born February 28, 1929 in Toronto, Canada, Gehry has spread his signature Deconstructivist style in all parts of the globe. Learn more about the Jay Pritzker Pavilion.
For more information on Frank Gehry and his other works, please visit his website.
Piet Oudolf
Piet Oudolf (who hails from the Netherlands) is a renowned Dutch garden and landscape designer at the forefront of the New Perennial movement. Over the course of his thirty-year career, he has constructed dozens of private and corporate gardens, and collaborated on public spaces throughout the world, including the celebrated High Line in New York City, Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago, and temporary installations for the Venice Biennale and the Serpentine Gallery pavilion. He was awarded the highest cultural honor in The Netherlands, the Prince Bernhard Culture prize, in 2013.
For more information on Piet Oudolf, please visit his website.
GGN
GGN is a landscape architecture firm based in Seattle, Washington founded in 1999 by Jennifer Guthrie, Shannon Nichol, and Kathryn Gustafson. The firm’s founding principals, led the design and construction of the Lurie Garden.
Prominent projects include the National Museum of African American History and Culture, CityCenterDC, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Campus, and Boston’s North End Parks. GGN was the recipient of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Architecture in 2011. The firm’s project awards include ASLA National Awards of Excellence, ASLA and AIA Honor Awards for Design, Tucker Design Awards, and Great Places Awards from the Environmental Design Research Association.
For more information about GGN, please visit their website.
Ed Uhlir
Ed Uhlir (1944-2017) served as Millennium Park’s design director, master planner, and Millennium Park Foundation’s first Executive Director. Overseeing all aspects of the Park’s creation, Ed championed the idea that great cities deserve great public spaces. The Park would not be considered “Chicago’s crown jewel” without Ed’s formidable stewardship. (Ed Uhlir is on the left in the picture)
Terry Guen
Terry Guen is Principal and Founder of Chicago-based Terry Guen Design Associates. As the master landscape architect for Millennium Park, she was responsible for the design and implementation of the entire 24.5 acre landscape. Working with Gustafson Guthrie Nichol as Lurie Garden’s local landscape architect, she worked with contractors to implement the design, including procurement of plants, and layout of Piet Oudolf’s perennial plant display.
For more information about Terry Guen and her design firm, please visit her website.
Austin Eischeid
Austin Eischeid is the owner and head designer of Chicago-based Austin Eischeid Garden Design. He specializes in designing dynamic naturalistic plantings using strong perennials and grasses with all season interest. Austin has been responsible for the creation of the North Gardens at Millennium Park, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion East Garden, the spring bulbs at the McDonald’s Cycle Center, and the seasonal displays in the park’s perimeter planters. Future designs will include new gardens near Cloud Gate Plaza and the McCormick Tribune Plaza/Ice Rink. His garden design work in Millennium Park represents Eischeid’s first major public landscape installation in the United States.
For more information about Austin Eischeid and his garden design work, please visit his website. http://www.austineischeid.com