Chicago Millennium Park - amazing bean egg sculpture CLOUD GATE

Cloud Gate, a popular site for photography
The AT&T Plaza is a public space that hosts the Cloud Gate sculpture.[61] The plaza opened in July 2004 with the unveiling of the sculpture during the grand opening weekend of the park. Ameritech donated $3 million for the naming right for the plaza, but it was SBC Plaza when the park opened, as a merger had changed the company name to SBC Communications.[27][62] The 2005 merger of SBC and AT&T led to the present name. The sculpture and the AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. The plaza has become a place to view the McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. During the holiday season, the plaza hosts Christmas caroling.[63]
Cloud Gate is a three-story steel sculpture that has been dubbed "The Bean" by Chicagoans, because of its legume-like shape. The sculpture is the first public artwork in the United States by world-renowned artist Anish Kapoor. The privately funded piece cost $23 million, considerably more than the original estimate of $6 million. Composed of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33×66×42 feet (10×20×13 m) and weighs 110 short tons (100 t; 98 long tons).[64]
After Kapoor's design for the sculpture was selected during a design competition,[65] numerous technological concerns regarding the design's construction and assembly arose,[64][66][67][68] in addition to concerns regarding the sculpture's upkeep and maintenance.[67][69] Experts were consulted, some of whom believed the design could not be implemented.[70] Eventually, a feasible method was found, but the sculpture's construction fell behind schedule. Cloud Gate was unveiled in an incomplete form during the Millennium Park grand opening celebration,[71] as the grid of welds around each metal panel was still visible.[72] The sculpture was concealed again while it was completed;[73][74] in early 2005, workers polished out the seams.[72] Cloud Gate was formally dedicated on May 15, 2006,[75][76] and it has since gained considerable popularity, both domestically and internationally.[77][78][79][80][81]
Cloud Gate is a reflective steel sculpture that is inspired by liquid mercury; the sculpture's surface reflects and distorts the city's skyline.[65][82] The curved, mirror-like surface of the sculpture provides striking reflections of visitors,[77] the city skyline (particularly the historic Michigan Avenue "streetwall") and the sky.[83][84] Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate's 12-foot (3.7 m) high arch. On the underside is the "omphalos" (Greek for "navel"), a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections. The sculpture builds upon many of Kapoor's artistic themes and is popular with tourists as a photo-taking opportunity for its unique reflective properties.[85][86]

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