Jay Pritzker Pavilion is a bandshell in Millennium Park in the Loop
community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It
is located on the south side of Randolph Street and east of the Chicago
Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District. The pavilion was named
after Jay Pritzker of the Pritzker family, known for owning Hyatt
Hotels. The building was designed by architect Frank Gehry, who
accepted the design commission in April 1999; the pavilion was
constructed between June 1999 and July 2004, opening officially on July
16, 2004. Pritzker Pavilion serves as the centerpiece for Millennium
Park and is the new home of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and
Chorus and the Grant Park Music Festival, the nation's only remaining
free outdoor classical music series. It also hosts a wide range of
music series and annual performing arts events. Performers ranging from
mainstream rock bands to classical musicians and opera singers have
appeared at the pavilion, which even hosts physical fitness activities
such as yoga. All rehearsals at the pavilion are open to the public.
The construction of the pavilion created a legal controversy, given
that there are historic limitations on the height of buildings in Grant
Park. To avoid these legal restrictions, the city classifies the
bandshell as a work of art rather than a building. With several design
and assembly problems, the construction plans were revised over time,
with features eliminated and others added as successful fundraising
allowed the budget to grow. In the end, the performance venue was
designed with a large fixed seating area, a Great Lawn, a trellis
network to support the sound system and a signature Gehry stainless
steel headdress.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Pritzker_Pavilion>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1043:
Edward the Confessor was crowned King of England.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_the_Confessor>
1882:
Jesse James, an outlaw in the American Old West, was shot in the back
and killed for a bounty of US$5,000.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_James>
1895:
The libel trial instigated by Irish author Oscar Wilde began,
eventually resulting in Wilde's arrest, trial and imprisonment on
charges of homosexuality.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde>
1948:
The Marshall Plan , an economic recovery program established by U.S.
Secretary of State George Marshall to assist the post-World War II
re-building of Europe, was signed into law.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan>
1996:
A U.S. Air Force CT-43 crashed into a mountainside while attempting an
instrument approach to Dubrovnik Airport in Dubrovnik, Croatia, killing
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown and all the other 34 people on
board.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Croatia_USAF_CT-43_crash>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
potentate (n):
A powerful leader; a monarch, ruler
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/potentate>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If you have accomplished all that you have planned for yourself, you
have not planned enough.
--Edward Everett Hale
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Everett_Hale>
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