TRIP REPORT: An Unveiled Bean – There and Back Again

TRIP REPORT – An Unveiled Bean
There and Back Again

It’s time to greet a Chicago Icon, one that I haven’t seen up and close for some time (thanks to construction work). It’s time to head to Cloud Gate… or The Bean.

In this adventure

• Let’s have a Melancholy Introduction
• To the 2:40 Coach and Heathrow Terminal 3
• Lounging in Terminal 3 with Cathay Pacific and American Airlines
• AA99 London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare (Main Cabin)
• Into the USA and The Holiday Inn/Staybridge Suites, Rosemont 
• Airplane Art Extra from the Holiday Inn/Staybridge Suites, Rosemont
• Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• Airplane Art Extra from the Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• An Unveiled Bean
• Did I mention I hate suitcases?
• Exploring The Loop from Above
• Random Food Adventures
• Off to O’Hare Terminal 3. Wait. T3? With the American Airlines Flagship Lounge
• BA296 Chicago O’hare to London Heathrow (World Traveller)
• Coffee and the Coach
• One step forward

During the past two trips through Chicago, one of Chicago’s icons has been covered up – Cloud Gate- to a point, with construction work being done in Millennium Park to improve the experience and the area’s accessibility.

Well, it can’t have looked any worse than last time.

One of the better views….

Cloud Gate in March this year, throw a fence gap. 

Cloud Gate (or The Bean) is a sculpture by British artist Anish Kapoor, which sits in Grainger Plaza at Millennium Park as one of the centrepieces of the place.

Since its dedication in 2006, then there has been additional work, with the City of Chicago initiating work last year for accessibility improvements, including ramps and new steps, replacing pavers, and waterproofing  – hence the last two trips Economy Class and Beyond have been to Chicago, Cloud Gate has been kept under wraps.

After being behind fencing for most of a year, the sculpture was reopened to the public on 23rd June  2024.

So, it’s time to take a look at the new plaza. The good news, there are ramps. The bad news – is there’s still a fair number of steps – least of all for those who want to climb up to Granger Plaza, without wanting to go around the sides to enter the park (and that’s if security lets).

Good luck getting up these stairs if you have accessibility issues. 

New ramps. Some steps though

It’s still a fun object to practice photography with – the beauty of pictures and objects – is they don’t tend to move around – allowing you to practice framing, positioning, timing and so on, without too many obstacles.

You can’t account for people though sadly.  Ad that’s something you’ll have to account for when taking your photos (to be honest, it’s rare to find the plaza empty unless it’s late and freezes your body to the bone cold.

One of the places I enjoy shooting is upwards, under Cloud Gate. Again the mirrored surface and curves give some nice effects.

If you want to try something different – throw some light on the matter. I used the on-camera flash in this Canon R50 just to add a little sparkle, with the flashlight bouncing around.

We’ll come back to this concept… in the night. 

And you won’t be the only person trying for different shots under The Bean – consider it a hall of mirrors. Depending on where you stand, you’ll get different parts of the park and the city reflected in it. You can spend a good hour finding an angle and reflecting on your life.

One thing that has persisted for the past few visits is the addition of extra security checks – meaning you have to go through a checkpoint to enter the park.

A fact of life I supposed – they want to remove a few undesirables, as well as things like pepper spray.

Don’t ask.

Let’s do a bit of nighttime photography. If you’re the kind of traveller who thinks tripods are a “meh. Next time” thing (eg, me), there are places for cameras to rest for those who enjoy long-exposure photography.

About 3 seconds for this exposure. 

Trying to get a moving L train, as well as moving traffic can be an art on a Sunday night. 

Night is where this sculpture still shines, as it swallows light, and spits it back at you.

I tend to shoot with a much more restricted shuttler length, as I want to preserve handhold ability over shakey pictures when it comes to processing. But I like the underexposed look.

Going back under the navel of The Bean, I decided to add light – not just the highlights that were there – but coloured lights. Addressable RGB lighting has a lot to answer for, especially in some of the unicorn-vomit computer setups). But it really pops here with different lighting profiles.

And the thing is… it is still as popular as ever – be it in the afternoon or 7 pm.

Overall

It’s wonderful to see people take a sculpture like this to heart – and make it part of the city and visitor attraction. Having one of your city icons boarded up for 9 months or so isn’t a good look – but if the improvements are worth it – which they seem to be, with the new accessibility bits installed… even if accessibility from South Michigan Avenue can be a little challenging.

It’s a shame they removed a lot of the older seating areas – which are now occupied by sometimes open/sometimes closed food huts if I were to see a downside.

But if there is better accessibility, I’m all for it.

Next:

Did I mention I hate suitcases? I might have done so a few times. Let’s go shopping for a new one…

To the off-rack shops!

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