Cloud Gate
The Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor, is the central work of art of the AT & T- Square in Millennium Park Chicago, Illinois. The sculpture was created between 2004 and 2006 and is named because of its bean-like shape and The Bean. It was welded together from 168 stainless steel plates, is highly polished and has no visible seams. It measures 10 m × 20 m × 13 m (66 ft × 33 ft × 42 ft ) and weighs 99.8 tons.
Design
In 1998, official representative of Millennium Park and a group of art collectors, curators and architects visited artworks by 30 different artists, of whom they asked for a proposal of two. It was designed by the American artist Jeff Koons, an approximately 46 -meter-high sculpture of a playground slide, which should be reached by a lift. The committee chose the proposal of the internationally renowned artist Anish Kapoor. The design called for an object with seamless stainless steel surface, which is shaped like liquid mercury. This mirror-like surface should reflect the Chicago skyline, due to the elliptical shape but in a distorted and twisted image.
Design and construction
The British engineering firm Aerotrope created the structural design. The Company Performance Structures, Inc. (PSI ) has been entrusted with the implementation, since they were known for their ability to create almost invisible weld seams. The project began with the attempt of PSI to create a smaller model. Using a high-density polyurethane foam template that was selected by Kapoor, the final structure design including the internal components was created. Originally planned PSI sculpture in Oakland, California to build and transport by ship through the Panama Canal and the St. Lawrence River to Chicago. However, this plan was rejected because it kept park officials too risky. Instead, the decision was made to bring the individual plates by truck transport to Chicago and assembled on site, a task which was carried out by MTH Industries.
Concerns have been expressed to the weight of the sculpture. The requisite to the desired aesthetics of the sculpture thickness of the steel was difficult to estimate. Originally it was estimated that Cloud Gate after completion would weigh 54.4 t, however, the final weight was 99.8 t almost twice as high. The extra weight made it necessary for the engineers to rethink the supporting structure. The roof of the Park Gripp, on the Cloud Gate stands had to be strong enough developed in order to support the weight can. The large retaining wall that separates Chicago metro from North Grant Park, bears much of the weight of the sculpture and forms the back of the restaurant. This wall had to be stiffened additionally, together with the rest of the foundations, before the construction was commenced. In addition, the Cloud Gate is strengthened by cross-bars that are anchored beneath the square.