Crown Fountain is an interactive work of public art and video sculpture featured in Chicago's Millennium Park, which is located in the Loop community area. Designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects, it opened in July 2004. The fountain is composed of a black granite reflecting pool placed between a pair of glass brick towers. The towers are 50 feet (15.2 m) tall, and they use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to display digital videos on their inward faces. Construction and design of the Crown Fountain cost $17 million. The water operates from May to October, intermittently cascading down the two towers and spouting through a nozzle on each tower's front face.
Crown Fountain spouting water on visitors
Opposing 50-foot (15 m) towers represent Plensa's dualism theme.
Tourists often interact with the fountain by silhouetting themselves against the fountain's lighting at night.
The water nozzle
Millennium Park is a public park located in the Loop community area of Chicago, operated by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. The park, opened in 2004 and intended to celebrate the third millennium, is a prominent civic center near the city's Lake Michigan shoreline that covers a 24.5-acre (9.9 ha) section of northwestern Grant Park. Featuring a variety of public art, outdoor spaces and venues, the park is bounded by Michigan Avenue, Randolph Street, Columbus Drive and East Monroe Drive. In 2017, Millennium Park was the top tourist destination in Chicago and in the Midwest, and placed among the top ten in the United States with 25 million annual visitors.
Millennium Park
Pritzker Pavilion and BP Bridge in Millennium Park, with Daley Bicentennial Plaza behind, seen from Willis Tower in 2007
Concertgoers listen to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the centerpiece of Millennium Park.
Videos are displayed on Crown Fountain. Water falls from the top between videos.