the modern wing

So here's what Deanna Issacs had to say about Renzo Piano's new Modern Wing for the Art Institute of Chicago back in March of 2006:

Besides a public terrace and restaurant on the third floor, the addition has sprung a long tongue of a bridge – 15 feet wide and 620 feet long – that it’ll stick right up the ass of Millennium Park.

No one knows more about all things visual than the Art Institute, so I must be mistaken in thinking that this attenuated ramp, which rises in a straight shot at a five-degree angle from the midsection of the park to the third floor of the new wing, will be a blight on the eastern horizon. (I’m also probably getting the wrong signals from the extruded aluminum sunscreen over the east pavilion’s glass roof. Piano has dubbed it a ‘flying carpet,’ but to me it whispers ‘patio enclosure.’)

I dunno. Passed it under construction the last couple of weekends and it seems to be coming together quite nicely.

Also quizzed Blair Kamin, the Architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune, about it when we strolled by it during class a couple of springtimes back, and he was all over it.

Add to that Piano's success in New York -- one of my favorites being his addition to the JP Morgan Library -- and I think we'll be (as I've learned Midwesterners love to say) "fine."

of long tongues & flying carpets

crown fountain on cameraphone
Originally uploaded by suttonhoo.

Besides a public terrace and restaurant on the third floor, the addition has sprung a long tongue of a bridge – 15 feet wide and 620 feet long – that it’ll stick right up the ass of Millennium Park.

No one knows more about all things visual than the Art Institute, so I must be mistaken in thinking that this attenuated ramp, which rises in a straight shot at a five-degree angle from the midsection of the park to the third floor of the new wing, will be a blight on the eastern horizon. (I’m also probably getting the wrong signals from the extruded aluminum sunscreen over the east pavilion’s glass roof. Piano has dubbed it a ‘flying carpet,’ but to me it whispers ‘patio enclosure.’)

Deanna Isaacs writing in: The Magic Bridge: The Art Institute believes an elevated path from Millennium Park will bring newbies to the museum in the Chicago Reader

I haven’t seen the plans for the AI addition so I’ll reserve comment for the time being, but to your question, b1-66er: Rants like this are one of the reasons I dig Chicago.