Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate, the sculpture everyone calls the Bean, was unveiled in 2006. Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate was unveiled in its finished form in 2006, the centerpiece of Millennium Park, which was built atop old railyards and parking lots that had scarred this edge of Grant Park for a century. The polished stainless-steel form, 66 feet long and seamless, was inspired by a drop of liquid mercury.
Its mirror surface swallows the skyline, bends the clouds, and turns every visitor into a funhouse reflection. Underneath is the omphalos, a concave chamber that multiplies your image as you stand beneath it. The park around you came in wildly over budget and years late, then became the most popular attraction in the Midwest.
Walk up and find your reflection, then look past yourself to the wall of Michigan Avenue skyscrapers curving across the steel.