Chicago Art Institute: Modern Wing--page 2 (of 4 pages)

The glass curtain wall--Monroe Street (north) facade This facade, Paul Goldberger says, is "a mix of glass and metal and stone that possesses the dignity of classicism, and the crisp, tensile energy of Modernism. The metal is white, the stone is a limestone similar to that used in previous wings, and there is more glass than any public section of the Art Institute has contained. The glass is detailed in a manner that gives new meaning to the term 'curtain wall'--it is set between vertical steel mullions, and at several key points it extends up or down beyond the building portion it is enclosing, as if to make clear that it is not a structural wall, but a covering applied later". (94)
The west side with the Nicols Bridgeway The pedestrian bridge is 620 feet long, descending in a gentle slope to ground level in Millennium Park. The surface of the bridge is textured aluminum which can be heated in cold weather so it is negotiable in icy Chicago winters.
The Bluhm Family Terrace above the third floor of the museum
		This terrace is next to the Terzo Piano Restaurant (punningly named since in Italian it means third floor but of course Piano was the architect). The terrace will feature exhibits of contemporary sculpture.

Continue to page 3.

Works quoted and/or consulted:
Cuno, James, Paul Goldberger, and Joseph Rosa. The Modern Wing. Renzo Piano and the Art Institute of Chicago. New Haven and London: The Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, , n. d. [2009?]
Ouroussof, Nicolai. "Renzo Piano Embraces Chicago." New York Times, May 14, 2009.


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