Friday, June 19, 2009

Zaha's Web, Ben's Incredible Ice Cream Suit - the Burnham Pavilions in Chicago's Millennium Park

Two Burnham Pavilions, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and UNStudio Ben van Berkel, were unveiled to the press Thursday morning just as the sun, breaking through the usually omnipresent clouds, set them both to brilliant shimmer. One of them is finished; the other is not. But even in its unfinished state, the Hadid pavilion had a delicate splendor. We were told it would soon be concealed from public view by a construction tarp, but we captured it in pictures before it disappeared under the covers.
Friday, June 19th, is the official opening. A photo essay, including videos of the architects explaining the origins of their designs and their relationship to Chicago and Daniel Burnham's 1909 plan, plus everything you need to know about this weekend's Burnham Centennial events, here.

2 comments:

Hugh Pearman said...

Why is it that so many buildings look better as structure, before the cladding goes on? Great pix of the Zaha aluminium frame.

Anonymous said...

I was in the park on Saturday. The kids were attempting to climb up the “egg cup” apertures, X-game style. They would get running starts on the platform, then jump onto the sliding apertures and try to get enough traction to shimmy their way up rock-climbing style to the top. One tall, skinny guy succeeded and stood on top of the van Berkel in a conquering pose, before negotiating the treacherous descent back down on the seat of his pants. He managed to break the ride down just enough to land safely and avoid egg on his face. Name of the event: The Burnham X-games at the van Berkel, in Millenium Park. Or X-games at the Egg Shell, in MP.