  Ice skating and people-watching (top) view fromAT&T Plaza during the summer (bottom) | |
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| Location | 55 N.Michigan Ave,Chicago, Illinois |
|---|---|
| Owner | City of Chicago |
| Capacity | 150 for offseason dining[1] |
| Construction | |
| Opened | December 20, 2001 (2001-12-20) |
| Construction cost | $3.2 million |
| Architect | OWP&P Architects |
| Tenants | |
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McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink orMcCormick Tribune Plaza is a multi-purpose venue withinMillennium Park in theLoopcommunity area ofChicago,Illinois, in the United States. On December 20, 2001, it became the first attraction in Millennium Park to open.[2] The $3.2 million plaza was funded by a donation from the McCormick Tribune Foundation.[3] It has served as anice skating rink, a dining facility and briefly as an open-air exhibition space.
The plaza operates asMcCormick Tribune Ice Rink, a free public outdoorice skating rink that is generally open four months a year, from mid-November until mid-March, when it hosts over 100,000 skaters annually. It is known as one of Chicago's better outdoorpeople-watching locations during the winter months.[4][5] It is operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs rather than theChicago Park District, which operates most major public ice skating rinks in Chicago.
For the rest of the year, it serves asPlaza at Park Grill orPark Grill Plaza, Chicago's largest outdoor dining facility.[6] The 150-seat park grill hosts various culinary events as well as music during its months of outdoor operation,[6][7] and it is affiliated with the 300-seat indoorPark Grill restaurant located beneathAT&T Plaza andCloud Gate. The outdoor restaurant offers scenic views of the park.
Lying betweenLake Michigan to the east and the Loop to the west,Grant Park has been Chicago's front yard since the mid-19th century. Its northwest corner, north of Monroe Street and theArt Institute, east ofMichigan Avenue, south ofRandolph Street, and west ofColumbus Drive, had beenIllinois Central rail yards and parking lots until 1997 when it was made available for development by the city as Millennium Park.[8] As of 2007, Millennium Park, which is located in the northwest corner of Grant Park, trails onlyNavy Pier as a Chicago tourist attraction.[9]
The earliest plans for Millennium Park were unveiled byChicago's mayor,Richard M. Daley, in March 1998 and included "a reflecting pool that would double as a skating rink in winter".[10] The architectural firm ofSkidmore, Owings & Merrill came up with the master plan for the park; their original design for the ice rink placed it along upper Randolph Street, on the park's northern edge. However, McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink was built on the western edge of Millennium Park. TheChicago Tribune'sPulitzer Prize-winning architecture criticBlair Kamin called this move "a masterstroke" and praised the new location "where the skaters symbolize the year-round vitality of the city".[11] Kamin noted the location on the east side of Michigan Avenue allowed those at the plaza and ice rink to enjoy the skyline of theHistoric Michigan Boulevard District.[11] Another addition to the plaza and rink's design was the 300-seat restaurant;[2] the final architectural design was completed by OWP&P Architects,[11] who were also the architects for the adjoiningWrigley Square.[12]
Although the rink was budgeted for$5 million, it was constructed for only $3.2 million ($5.7 million today), making it one of the few Millennium Park attractions to cost less than was initially budgeted.[13] The rink was funded by and named for the McCormick Tribune Foundation,[3] which was established by formerChicago Tribune owner and publisherRobert R. McCormick. The McCormick Tribune Foundation is a supporter of theMcCormick Tribune Freedom Museum and theMcCormick Tribune Campus Center at theIllinois Institute of Technology, both of which are also located in Chicago.[14][15]
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink was the first feature in Millennium Park to open. Its grand opening was celebrated on December 20, 2001,[16] a few weeks ahead of the Millennium Park undergroundparking garage. Mayor Daley, McCormick Tribune Foundation Chairman of the Board John W. Madigan, Millennium Park private donor group chiefJohn Bryan, actressBonnie Hunt and other local celebrities attended the event.[2] The new ice rink was seen as a replacement for "Skate on State", a public skating rink onState Street in the Loop[17][18] which closed in 2001.[19]
From June 21 to September 15, 2002, McCormick Tribune Plaza hosted the inaugural exhibit in Millennium Park,[20]Exelon Presents Earth From Above byYann Arthus-Bertrand, a Frenchaerial photographer. Arthus-Bertrand used planes and helicopters to photograph sites in over 60 countries on every continent,[21][22] and displayed more than 120 of these photographs in dozens of cities, starting inParis and includingTokyo andGeneva.[20] In the summer of 2002, the book associated with the exhibit had sold over 1.5 million copies,[21] and the photographs were displayed inBrazil,Lebanon,Poland,Sweden,Germany,Britain,Norway,Hungary and along the banks of theVolga River inRussia.[20]
Chicago was the first American city to host theEarth From Above exhibition.[21][23][24] The exhibit featured 4-by-6-foot (1.2 m × 1.8 m) photographic prints that werelaminated onto thin 5-by-7.5-foot (1.5 m × 2.3 m)aluminum panels that protected them fromultraviolet rays.[20] The photographs included scenes of natural beauty such as aFilipinoBajau village built oncoral reefs, a formation of rocks inMadagascar, an inlet in theIonian Islands that is home toendangered sea turtles, and architectural highlights such as thePalace of Versailles and theHagia Sophia in Istanbul. It also showed scenes of tragedy such as the 1999 earthquake inTurkey and the destruction of theAmazon rainforest.[21][23] The exhibit usedphotovoltaic solar panels to store electrical energy during the day that then lit the exhibit at night.[20][25]
Part of the 2006 filmThe Weather Man, starringNicolas Cage, was shot at the rink.[26] In 2008, Millennium Park hosted a winter celebration called the Museum of Modern Ice. The installation included a 95-by-12-foot (29.0 m × 3.7 m) ice wall in the park and a large abstract painting byGordon Halloran, which was embedded in the McCormick Tribune Ice Rink. The works were titledPaintings Below Zero.[27] In 2008–2009 the logo for the unsuccessfulChicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics was displayed in the rink's ice.[28]
The ice rink served as the "headquarters" for the 2011 edition ofHockey Weekend Across America; theNHL on NBC broadcast its studio coverage from the rink on February 20 of that year.Eddie Olczyk opened the show by skating with theStanley Cup in the Millennium Park rink.[29]
The ice skating rink at McCormick Tribune Plaza is 200 by 80 feet (61 by 24 m). Due to the rink's rounded corners, the total skating surface is 15,910 square feet (1,478 m2),[30][31] which critic Blair Kamin called "amply sized".[11] For comparison, this is a considerably larger skating surface than theRockefeller Center rink inNew York City, which is 120 by 60 feet (37 by 18 m).[32]
The Millennium Park rink has a lobby which provides skaters a respite from the natural environs, as well as toilets and public lockers.[3] During the 2003–04 season the rink rented 77,667 pairs ofice skates.[32] By 2009–2010, its ninth season, it was attracting more than 100,000 skaters a year. While availability of the rink depends on the weather, it also has a state-of-the-art chiller system that can maintain the ice in the event of unseasonably warm weather. Thus, temperature is not the only factor involved in decisions to close the rink.[3] In his review of the plaza and rink, Kamin gave it two stars (out of a possible four), called the structure "solid, though unremarkable", and praised its uses throughout the year.[11]
When the rink is closed, its surface becomes a 150-seat cafe that complements the 300-seat indoorPark Grill dining facility.[30][33] Street level features such as McCormick Tribune Plaza are linked to elevated features such asCloud Gate and AT&T Plaza, which are atop the Park Grill Restaurant and can be reached viabalustraded stairs.[34]
Through 2006 and 2007, the McCormick Tribune Ice Rink was one of several operated by the Chicago Park District.[35] Since then, although the Chicago Park District still operates ten public ice skating rinks,[36] the Millennium Park ice rink is operated by a division of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs,[37][38] itself a Department of the City of Chicago Government.[39][40]
McCormick Tribune Ice Rink is generally open for skating afternoons and evenings seven days a week, with longer hours on weekends.[41] However, it is occasionally closed for private events.[35][36] Skating is free and skate rental is available.[30] Except for its first year, the rink has been scheduled to be open from mid-November until mid-March, weather permitting.[35][36] For the 2009–10 winter season, the rink was scheduled to be open from November 20, 2009 to March 14, 2010, with abbreviated holiday schedules onThanksgiving,Christmas Eve,Christmas Day andNew Year's Eve.[41] Skating is accompanied byloudspeaker music,[4] which is mostly seasonal music during the holidays.[42]
Rink attendance is heavier on the weekends and other times when school is not in session.[43][44] Romantic holidays such as Christmas Eve andValentine's Day are also quite crowded.[42] The ice rink is a popularpeople watching location during the winter months;[4][5][31] many view events at the McCormick Tribune Plaza from AT&T Plaza, above and to the east.[45] The ice skating rink has become so popular that when the weather was too warm for the rink's opening in November 2005, the story became international news.[46] The book1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die suggests a visit to McCormick Tribune Plaza during the skating season, and describes Millennium Park as a renowned attraction.[47]
There are days when themed skating is encouraged.Santa attire was encouraged on Saturday, December 13, 2008, andzombie attire was encouraged the next day, as part of an attempt to set aGuinness World Record for number of zombies on ice.[48] The rink also serves as a host to the annual Chicago Winter Dance Festival; during the festival there is a month of free skating instruction and demonstration at the rink, and there is free dance instructions behind the glass doors of theJay Pritzker Pavilion stage.[49]
During much of the offseasonalfresco dining is available in a 150-seatcafe set up on the ice rink,[33] in what is then referred to as the Park Grill Plaza. This outdoor dining experience is associated with thePark Grill Restaurant and the Park Grill Cafe, which are both located under theCloud Gate on AT&T Plaza.[3] Architecture critic Blair Kamin compares the in-park eating options availed at the Park Grill with New York's formerTavern on the Green and Chicago'sCafe Brauer.[11] The Park Grill Plaza is the largest outdoor dining venue in Chicago,[6] and hosts a variety of events, including a benefit called "Chefs on the Grill" in which guests interact with invited chefs who are competing to produce the best dish.Wine tastings are also hosted there,[7] and during the summer, the Park Grill Plaza hosts musical performances on Thursdays.[6] During the skating season, there are rinkside tables and the Park Grill Cafe offers take out and to-go service.[50] Outdoor dining service begins in May.[51]
McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink is one of two features in the park to include accessible restrooms; the other isJay Pritzker Pavilion. The restrooms are located adjacent to the Park Grill.[1] Although McCormick Plaza is a winter focal point, the park's restroom facilities at this feature are not heated for winter use.[52]
According toFodor's, the restaurant is known for a view that makes up for unimpressive service.[53] However,Citysearch speaks positively about the service.[54]Metromix,Fodor's andFrommer's all laud the location of the restaurant,[53][55][56] which servesNew American cuisine.[53][55][57]Frommer's gives the restaurant 2 out of 3 stars and notes that the restaurant has a kids menu to accommodate the numerous families that visit the park.[55] Metromix notes that the restaurant is well known for its signature Park Grill Burger. The northern area of the Plaza has been named the North Lounge and has furniture for lounging; it has a distinct menu including options from the Plaza's menu, as well as its own offerings.[56] The indoor restaurant has seating for 300, a VIP room,[56] and serves dinner, lunch, and weekend brunch.[54][56]
Millennium Park in the city's downtown is one of the environmentally friendly mayor's proudest achievements, but Mother Nature has declined to help out with what has become one of the city's leading attractions. An unseasonably mild November – this is Chicago, so wrap up – has delayed the opening of the ice rink, which attracts 100,000 skaters a year. City officials are hoping for a drop in temperatures to allow it to open this week
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Places adjacent to McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink | |
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41°52′57.68″N87°37′25.55″W / 41.8826889°N 87.6237639°W /41.8826889; -87.6237639
