There are some key factors that contribute to the rise of a
public work to the status of a landmark with true usefulness within a city
framework. Chicago’s Millennium Park is an example of an urban park that has
achieved great success and inspired investment and growth into the city of
Chicago. It can be considered a landmark and a successful one at that. However,
less successful projects like Athen’s “OAKA” (Olimpiako Athlitiko Kentro
Athinon) sports complex beg the question, what makes one public project
successful over another?
Let us first explore what makes Millennium Park such a
beloved and oft used fixture of Chicago’s cityscape. The project, headed by Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill, was poorly planned, over-budget and four years behind
schedule but nonetheless produced such architectural fixtures as Cloud Gate or
“The Bean” sculpture, Crown Fountain, Lurie Garden and the Pritzker Pavilion.
The park breaks from the tradition of relying on nature to sculpt a green oasis
in the middle of the city. Instead the park relies on strong steel, glistening
materials and an organic and ever-evolving layout that boasts multi-uses to
create a space to be used and enjoyed by city residents and tourists alike. With
attendence expected hit 5 million this year, the space is indeed frequented by
many. The Boston Globe’s Robert Campell elaborated on why Millennium Park is
such a success:
Everybody
goes to (Millennium Park), in almost every season, because there’s great stuff
to do. Magical artworks, a delightful café, theatres, an outdoor concert venue,
a world-class art museum next door… inventive gardens, an ever-changing pool
for wading and running, a bike rental pavilion – the list of delights seems
endless.
The park’s wide array of offerings draws users to explore
and actually enjoy its grounds. However,
the park requires important maintenance that is costly, $100,000 per acre
annually to keep the park clean and its exhibits in good condition. Millennium
Park has inspired the development of restaurants, hotels and condominiums at its
perimeter with the condominiums selling for 29% higher than those in
surrounding neighborhoods that are lacking the Millennium Park view.
Millennium Park succeeded not only in creating a well-used
public space but also in creating jobs and investment into the city mainly with
the spur of real estate projects around its perimeter. While Millenium Park can
be lauded as a huge success, Athens OAKA stadium is a separate public project
that fell short of such accolades and long-term use. Designed by Spanish
architect Santiago Calatrava it was used as the main arena for the 2004 Olympic
games in Greece. However, the monumental building quickly fell into disrepair
and abandonment in the aftermath of the Olympics. Calatrava used white on the
façade and tile to evoke eternal qualities. Now stained and in disrepair, the
stadium has been all but abandoned aside from the occasional F.C. game that
does not even come close to filling the massive stadium. Unlike Chicago’s
Millennium Park OAKA did not have a concrete maintenance schedule or budget
despite the best of intentions for it to be used long after the Olympics.
Unlike Millennium Park, the fleeting and temporary nature of the Olympics worked
against OAKA and prevented it form achieving anything like Millennium Park’s
long-term and steady use. The mammoth scale of the building created shoes that
were too hard to fill post-games, which inspired London’s “down-scaling” strategy
for its 2012 Olympic architecture. Marc Auge’s theory of “non-places” explains
OAKA’s fall from grace. He describes his theory of the loss of place’s identity
as something that occurs at certain sites with quick transfer qualities, a
concept the Olympics’ fleeting nature fulfills.
Millennium Park with its more realistic architecture and
recreational offerings continues to thrive to this day, while OAKA’s
impractical size and lack of maintenance make it a lifeless landmark. The architecture
of these spaces can only go so far in breathing life and purpose into the
locations. Without thoughtful planning and strategy a public landmark can
quickly become an abandoned eyesore as opposed to a vibrant meeting place that
inspires wide-reaching growth and prosperity for a city.
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