Cloud Gate & Willis Tower

클라우드 게이트와 윌리스 타워

Chicago's skyline has two famous stars. One is Cloud Gate, a shiny steel sculpture nicknamed the Bean, in Millennium Park. The other is Willis Tower, once the tallest building in the world. Both stand in the middle of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States.

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At a glance

Country: United States
Location: Chicago, USA
Built: 1973
Height: 527 m
Type: Skyscraper

Quick answers

Where is Cloud Gate & Willis Tower?

Cloud Gate & Willis Tower is in Chicago, USA, United States.

When was Cloud Gate & Willis Tower built?

Cloud Gate & Willis Tower was built in 1973.

How tall is Cloud Gate & Willis Tower?

Cloud Gate & Willis Tower is about 527 m tall.

Chicago's mirror-like "Bean" sculpture and the Willis Tower, once the world's tallest building.

Cloud Gate was made by the artist Anish Kapoor between 2004 and 2006. It measures about 10 by 20 by 13 metres and weighs about 110 tons. Its surface is so polished that the city and the clouds seem to bend across it. Willis Tower, finished in 1973, has a roof height of 442 metres and reaches 527 metres with its antennas. Together the two give visitors a mirror to look into and a tower to look down from.

Cloud Gate, the Bean

The sculpture is made of 168 stainless-steel plates welded together and polished until no seams show. The artist took his idea from liquid mercury. Its mirror surface bends the skyline and clouds into curves, and people can walk under a 3.7-metre arch to see their reflections repeat. Underneath is a hollow chamber called the omphalos, a Greek word for navel, which warps and multiplies the reflections even more.

It cost about 23 million dollars, paid for entirely by private donations, and was dedicated on May 15, 2006.

How the Bean was built

Making one seamless shell was hard, and some experts doubted it could be done. Engineers first worked from a wooden model and a computer model, and the artist picked the metal workshop that sent back the best sample and could make nearly invisible welds. Shipping it whole from California was judged too risky, so the panels travelled by truck and were put together in the park.

The finished sculpture ended up almost twice as heavy as first guessed, so the roof and wall under it needed extra support. The press had already nicknamed it the Bean while it was being built, a name Kapoor first disliked but later accepted.

Willis Tower

Engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan and architect Bruce Graham designed it as nine square tubes bundled together. This 'bundled tube' idea helped later super-tall towers stay strong. Its Skydeck on the 103rd floor opened in 1974.

It was called the Sears Tower until 2009, when it was renamed Willis Tower, but many locals still use the old name.