The James R. Thompson Center is a glass-walled drum that curves eighteen stories into the Chicago skyline. Designed by Helmut Jahn and opened in nineteen eighty-five, it replaced the old Bismarck Hotel and a grand federal courthouse. Its…
Loop Plaza Public Art
This short walking tour guides you through the world-class outdoor gallery of Chicago's financial district. You'll stand before massive, iconic modern sculptures by Picasso, Calder, Miró, and Chagall, all sitting completely free on downtown plazas.
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1. James R. Thompson Center
2. Untitled by Pablo Picasso
The Chicago Picasso stands fifty feet tall in the center of Daley Plaza, a massive, rusted steel bird or woman or perhaps a dog, depending on who you ask. When it was unveiled in nineteen sixty-seven, city officials expected a public…
3. Miró's Chicago (The Sun, The Moon, and One Star)
A fifty-foot-tall skeleton of steel and bronze rises from the pavement, its dark, abstract curves twisted into a human shape. Joan Miró designed this sculpture in nineteen sixty-seven, but he never saw it installed. When the piece arrived…
4. Louise Nevelson's Dawn Shadows
Dawn Shadows stands as a sprawling, monochromatic sculpture composed of black-painted steel plates, creating an intricate web of geometric shadows. Louise Nevelson designed this piece specifically to interact with the sharp lines and light…
5. Chagall's Four Seasons
The Four Seasons mosaic on Dearborn Street stands seventy feet long and fourteen feet high, wrapped around four sides of a rectangular masonry wall. Marc Chagall designed this piece in nineteen seventy-four, using thousands of hand-cut…
6. Flamingo - Alexander Calder
The fifty-three foot tall sheet of steel painted a singular, brilliant shade of international orange marks the center of Federal Plaza. Alexander Calder designed this massive sculpture to contrast with the rigid, dark grids of the…