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Jay Pritzker Pavilion

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Jay Pritzker Pavilion
skyview of Pritzker Pavilion and Millennium Park
Map
AddressMillennium Park
Chicago, Illinois
 United States
OwnerCity of Chicago
Capacity11,000 (4,000 fixed, 7,000 lawn)[1]
Current usePerforming arts
Construction
Opened2004-07-16
Years active2004-present
ArchitectFrank Gehry

Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Pritzker Pavilion, or Pritzker Music Pavilion is a band shell in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The Frank Gehry-designed pavilion, named for Pritzker family member Jay Pritzker, was constructed between June 1999 and July 2004 in Millennium Park.[1] It is located on the south side of Randolph Street directly across from some of the tallest buildings in the world and east of the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District.

It is the park's outdoor performing arts venue and the new home of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. As home of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Chorus it is also the home of the Grant Park Music Festival, the nation's only remaining free outdoor classical music series. The structure is built partially atop the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, the park's indoor performing arts venue.[2] It serves as the centerpiece for the park that was opened on July 16 2004.[3]

The performance venue is designed with a large fixed seating area, a great lawn, a trellis network to support the sound system and a signature Gehry stainless steel headress. It features a sound system with an innovative acoustic design that replicates an indoor concert hall sound experience.

Details

The pavilion includes 4,000 fixed seats and Template:Ft2 to m2 great lawn that accommodates an additional audience of 7,000.[1] The pavilion features a Template:Ft to m proscenium theatre with a brushed stainless steel headdress. The main stage, which can accommodate a full orchestra and chorus of 150 members,[4] is connected by this frame to a trellis of interlocking crisscrossing steel pipes that support the sound system. The innovative sound system distributes sound to mimic indoor concert hall acoustics.[5] The trellis is Template:Ft to m.[6] The cost of the project was $60 million.[7] The structure is named after Jay Pritzker, a prominent Chicago businessman from the Pritzker family, who own the Hyatt Hotels.[8] The family contributed $15 million to the construction.[4]

The development follows a series of open-air projects by Guggenheim Museum Bilbao designer, Frank Gehry, such as the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, the Concord Performing Arts Center in Concord, California, and numerous renovations to the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California. The structure is also a part of a larger inner city redevelopment that includes a theater, extensive gardens and a Gehry-designed serpentine pedestrian footbridge that buffers against street noise.[9] The redevelopment was part of an effort to overcome unsightly railroad tracks and parking lots.[10] Much like his Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington, it suggests musical qualities. The form is designed to project sounds like a brass instrument. The trellis design was an effort to avoid the traditional obstructing forest of speaker towers.[9]

The original design was much more modest. It had a smaller shell structure and speakers affixed to poles interspersed throughout the seating area. However, two things happened to change the original plans. John H. Bryan, former CEO of the Sara Lee Corporation, raised revenues to change the scope of the project. Also, Jay Pritzker's widow was unimpressed with the design and demanded that Gehry be involved.[3] Despite the redesign, the pavilion has its blemishes: the supporting backside along Randolph Street is a bit controversial, and the fact that the supporting proscenium braces are left exposed bothers some observers.[11]

Acoustics

The pavilion band shell is designed to reflect sound for optimal acoustics.
Speakers close up

Pritzker uses an innovative LARES sound system that generates reflected and reverberant energy that surrounds the audience. The system causes the sound quality to be fairly uniform throughout the entire venue. The system has received critical acclaim for adaptations of its technologies such as signal processing in a variety of indoor and outdoor venues.[3][12] The Pritzker Pavilion is the first permanent outdoor installation of the LARES system in the United States. The trellis serves acoustic and architectural purposes because it allows for the precise placement for sound optimization without visual obstructions, and it simultaneously provides a unifying visual canopy.[3]

The overall acoustic system is described as a distributed sound reinforcement system. It has many innovative features:[13][3]

  • Musicians on stage are able to hear each other clearly in a way that facilitates ensemble play.
  • Direct natural sound from the stage is reflected from architectural surfaces and reinforced by two sound systems.
    • Forward facing reinforcement speakers time the relaying of sound so as to make it seem to have arrived directly from the stage with clarity and proper volume levels.
    • Downward facing acoustic enhancement speakers simulate sound reflection similar to indoor concert hall wall and ceiling effects.

Specifically, the trellis system has unique features:[13][3]

  • It facilitates sound delivery to a large audience.
  • It creates a clearly defined concert space.
  • Sound arriving directly from lateral sources masks city disturbances.
  • Distributed speakers allow for lower sound volumes than would be necessary with centralized speakers that would disturb the neighboring residences and business.

Events

The Jay Pritzker Pavilion hosts free music events, such as the Grant Park Music Festival and Gospel Fest, from spring through fall.[8] The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra performs in June, July and August.[14] Other recently scheduled events include a concert by Wilco on September 12 2007 and the "Poland for Chicago" featuring Lech Kaczynski on September 25 2007.[15][16] The pavilion also hosted a series of Jazz concerts from July 26-August 27 2007.[17] On Saturday mornings in the summer the great lawn under the trellis system hosts various workouts such as yoga and pilates.[18] Events in this outdoor park extend well beyond summer.[19] The Pritzker Prize presentation ceremony, which moves to various architecturally significant international locations each year, was held in the Pritzker Pavilion in 2005.[20]

Grant Park Music Festival

The Grant Park Music Festival, a Chicago tradition since 1931,[21] remains the nation's only free, outdoor classical music series and features the Grammy-Nominated Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus.[22] The 2007 performances were on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from mid-June to mid-August.[23]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jay Pritzker Pavilion.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Facts and Dimensions of Jay Pritzker Pavilion". City of Chicago. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  2. ^ "The Jay Pritzker Pavilion". Pbase.com and Kenneth Tanaka. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Delacoma, Wayne. "The Jay Pritzker Music Pavilion Sounds as Good as it Looks". Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  4. ^ a b "Pritzker Pavilion, The". chicagoarchitecture.info. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  5. ^ "Jay Pritzker Pavilion". City of Chicago. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  6. ^ Kamin, Blair. "Jay Pritzker Pavilion". Architectural Record. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  7. ^ "The List". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  8. ^ a b Carlson, Prescott. "Jay Pritzker Pavilion". About, Inc. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  9. ^ a b "Millennium Park Music Pavilion and Great Lawn". guggenheim.org. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  10. ^ Pesci, Renato. "A people's park of international importance in downtown Chicago". citymayors.com. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  11. ^ Becker, Lynn. "Frank Gehry, Millennium Park and the development of the Techno-Baroque". Repeat. Lynn Becker. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  12. ^ "1993 TEC Awards". mixfoundation.org.
  13. ^ a b "Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park" (PDF). london.gov.uk. Talaske. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  14. ^ Frommer's Irreverent Guide to Chicago (sixth edition), 2007, p. 123, Wiley Publishing, Hoboken, NJ, ISBN 0-470-04079-3.
  15. ^ Cox, Ted. "Wilco just perfect at Millenium Park concert". Daily Herald Inc. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  16. ^ "Poland for Chicago". City of Chicago. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  17. ^ "Calendar of Millennium Park Free Programs: Jazz". City of Chicago. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  18. ^ "Calendar of Millennium Park Free Programs: Fitness". City of Chicago. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  19. ^ "Arctic Symphony". City of Chicago. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  20. ^ Queiroga, Rodrigo M. "Brazilian architect wins the 2006 Pritzker Prize". citymayors.com. Retrieved 2007-09-22.
  21. ^ Tiebert, Laura, Frommer's Chicago with Kids (3rd edition), 2007, Wiley Publishing, Inc., ISBN 978-0470-12481-9, p.263.
  22. ^ "Grant Park Music Festival". City of Chicago. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
  23. ^ "Grant Park Music Festival 2007". grantparkmusicfestival.com. Retrieved 2007-09-20.
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