The hair of the...

A couple of weeks ago I went to Chicago for the first time in more than a decade. It was a business trip and I had only a little over an hour the last day for exploring... but I had heard of the pavilion in Millennium Park, and I was curious. On the way in from the airport, the shuttle driver had pointed it out and said it looked "like something attacked by a bad can opener." An architect friend in Chicago dismissed that, so I decided I need to see it up close.

The Jay Pritzker Pavilion is made of stainless steel ribbons and connects to a network of steel pipes that criss-cross over the lawn that sits beyond the amphitheater seats. It's interesting, and up close its details can be quite beautiful. But as a whole I find it a mess.

I disagree with the shuttle driver, though: It doesn't look like something attacked by a bad can opener.

It looks like the head of a robot on a bad hair day.

P.S. After I wrote this, I noticed that the park's own web site (see above) describes it as a "headdress". Guess Gehry achieved what he wanted, anyhow.