What’s that in the Sky? A Bird? A Plane? Renzo Piano’s Addition to the Art Institute?

For everyone that doesn’t live here in Chicago or does live here but can’t make it downtown to see the progress on the addition at the Art Institute, here are some pictures of the progress. The big thing going on right now is the Nichol’s Bridge which will link the museum with Millennium Park, a very good idea in my mind. And yes, apparently this is the shape of the bridge, rounded on the bottom. According the museum’s press release this was inspired by: “the hull of a boat or sleek racing shell. It is a long, thin structure with a rounded bottom.” I thought it would be flat and thinner, but then again there’s only so much modeling you can do with balsa wood (I spent some time looking at the model in the museum’s grand staircase hall). So without further ado here are some photos I took:

This is the where the bridge will lead into the museum. The green trusses are holding the bridge up while the supports are properly secured.

Panning down the bridge towards Millennium Park.

Looking at the bridge across the South Shore train yard. You’ll notice that the bridge is as yet unlinked as this was taken on Thursday. Images of the bridge spanning the road follow.

The landing site in Millennium Park, all ready to receive the bridge.

An admittedly crappy photo I took on my camera phone yesterday. You can see that the bridge now spans Monroe Street.

An admittedly much better photo from the Chicago Tribune, by an unknown photographer. Perhaps they weren’t using a camera phone, taking pictures at night, in the rain.

More Chicago architecture news to come.