Grant Park

Grant Park continued...

The Art Institute, located in the park since 1893, is one of the city's treasures, from the quiet garden on Michigan Avenue and Monroe Streets to "American Gothic," "Nighthawks" and "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" within.

Here's a bonus: Go to the new Modern Wing and find Gallery 395. There's some Max Ernst paintings in there, but never mind that now. Look out the window. Before you, in all its glory, is Millennium Park's Lurie Garden, Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavilion and, beyond that, some of Chicago's finest tall buildings. Art, in Chicago, is everywhere . . .

The Pavilion supplanted the Petrillo Music Shell -- east of the Art Institute -- as the city’s main summer home of classical concerts, but the older facility and grounds remain the venue for Taste of Chicago and other city festivals.

Then comes Buckingham Fountain -- a true Chicago icon. Enjoy not only the fountain -- day or night, it's special -- but the gardens around it. Have a coffee or an ice cream from one of the concessionaires. Look across Lake Shore Drive -- or just cross it (with the light, of course) -- and dream of sailing one of the boats bobbing in Monroe Harbor.

Cross Balbo Drive south of the fountain and its plaza, time it right (early evening after work is usually good) and you can enjoy watching The Chicago Game -- 16-inch softball, no gloves, bizarre pitching rules -- being played on one of the plain's 12 diamonds.

At some point along this exploration, be sure to look west, toward Michigan Avenue. You'll see a sampling of vintage buildings whose grace complements the park they face, among them Burnham's Orchestra Hall (1904, part of Symphony Center), the gallery-filled Fine Arts Building (1885), the Blackstone Hotel (1910) and the Hilton Chicago, which, when it opened (as the Stevens Hotel) in 1927, was at 3,000 rooms the world's largest.

Also here, the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies is home to a fascinating collection of artifacts and rotating exhibitions. The Chicago Architecture Foundation has exhibits, offers tours and provides one of the area's better souvenir shops. The Museum of Contemporary Photography has showings by skilled artists. The Auditorium Building reminds us of Louis Sullivan's genius.

There are restaurants and clubs in the Michigan Avenue buildings and behind them. The Artist's Cafe, in the Fine Arts Building, is a longtime favorite for casual meals and snacks. Eleven City Diner follows the New York deli-tradition of naming sandwiches for celebrities. On Wabash Avenue, Miller's Pub -- a restaurant and long bar -- is a Chicago classic; down the street (and speaking of classics), Buddy Guy's Legends, in new digs, helps keeps the blues alive as it has for more than 20 years.

Back in the park, near its south end, a bronze Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, Civil War hero and, later, an Illinois senator, sits astride his bronze horse on a hill overlooking all those cast-iron legs. The statue (1897) has long been a focal point of demonstrations, notably anti-war rallies during the Vietnam War era -- and famously during the 1968 Democratic National Convention (held in the International Amphitheatre in the Back of the Yards/New City neighborhood).

Grant, curiously, has no statue in his own park. He's got a good one, though, in Lincoln Park. There's no Logan statue in the Logan Square neighborhood, either.

But there is, not far from Gen. Logan, a fitting tribute to another man.

The Aaron Montgomery Ward Gardens, named for the catalog-retail magnate who was a passionate advocate for keeping the park "clear and free," have been near Grant Park's southern edge since 2005. Beneath a bust of the man is this:

"Grant Park is his legacy to the city he loved . . . his gift to the future."

The future is now. Enjoy the legacy.

For more information about Grant Park, please contact the Chicago Loop Alliance at 312.782.9160.