5
Grant Park Music Festival night view of Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion
Jay Pritzker Pavilion cost $60 million, a quarter of which came from the Pritzker family donation. It includes 4,000 fixed seats and a 95,000-square-foot (8,800 m) Great Lawn that can accommodate an additional 7,000 people. The pavilion was built above and behind the Harris Theater, which has the benefit that Millennium Park's indoor and outdoor performance venues share a loading dock, rehearsal rooms and other backstage facilities. The bandshell's brushed stainless steel headdress frames the 120-foot (37 m) proscenium theatre; the main stage can accommodate a full orchestra and chorus of 150 members. The bandshell is connected to a trellis of interlocking crisscrossing steel pipes that support the innovative sound system, which mimics indoor concert hall acoustics. The pavilion has restrooms on both its east and west sides. It is one of two features in the park to include accessible restrooms; the other is McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. The majority of the park's 123 toilet fixtures (78 for women, 45 for men) are located in underground arcades to the east and west of the pavilion, with the ones on the east being heated for winter use. Millennium Park is built on top of a large underground parking garage. Construction started before the park's design was completed, and in January 2000, 17 additional caissons had to be added to the partially built garage to support the weight of Gehry's pavilion. In
Construction
April the tops of all these caissons had to be rebuilt for changes in the pavilion's foundation. U.S. Equities Realty was responsible for negotiating contracts with Gehry and all contractors. Walsh Construction and its subcontractors were hired to execute three elements of Gehry's design: the structural steel supporting the stainless steel ribbons, the ribbons themselves and the trellis and associated sound system. The LeJeune Steel Company of Minneapolis was the subcontractor for the structural steel. The pavilion's concrete walls frame the orchestra shell space, which is 100 feet (30 m) wide, 50 feet (15 m) tall and has no support columns. The pavilion's roof rests on a dozen north–south trusses supported by east–west truss girders. The south side of the orchestra shell space is