The Experiential Design Index

Jay Pritzker Pavilion — Millennium Park

The Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the outdoor concert bandshell at the center of Chicago's Millennium Park and home of the Grant Park Music Festival, opened July 16, 2004, designed by Frank Gehry of Gehry Partners with theatre planning and architectural lighting design by Schuler Shook.

VenueMillennium Park
Project typeNew Building
StatusCompleted
Year completed2004

Credits

FirmRoleNote
Gehry Partners, LLP Architecture Frank O. Gehry, design partner
talaske AV Integration credited as The Talaske Group at the time; acoustic design and sound-reinforcement (LARES enhancement) system design; acoustics itself is outside this index's role vocabulary, sound-system design credited here
Schuler Shook Lighting Design theatre planning and architectural lighting design of Gehry's stainless-steel panels; also credited by ArchDaily as 'Theatre Consultant'

Description

The Pavilion seats 4,000 under a stainless-steel proscenium with lawn capacity for roughly 7,000 more (11,000 total). Schuler Shook worked with Gehry Partners on facility planning — stage space, circulation, seating, and power/support systems for future productions — and designed the programmed, color-changing lighting of the steel panels. Acoustic design and the LARES sound-reinforcement system were by The Talaske Group (now Talaske). Structural engineering was by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and mechanical/electrical engineering by McDonough Associates — not credited here as engineering is outside this index's role vocabulary. U.S. Equities Realty provided project management. Millennium Park's broader 25-acre landscape (distinct from the Pavilion itself) was designed by Terry Guen Design Associates.

Sources