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 surrounding federal buildings. When it was dedicated in nineteen seventy-four, Mayor Richard Daley declared it a triumph for the city. Calder himself attended the ceremony, riding a brightly decorated commuter train to the site while crowds gathered to see the structure for the first time.