Enlarge image Photo by Whit Preston, courtesy of Frank O. Gehry & Associates.      MILLENNIUM PARK MUSIC PAVILION AND GREAT LAWN Chicago 1999– This development in the heart of downtown Chicago relates to a series of Gehry's open-air projects that includes the Merriweather-Post Pavilion (1966–67) in Columbia, Maryland, the Concord Performing Arts Center (1973–76) in Concord, California, and numerous renovations to the Hollywood Bowl (1970–82) in Hollywood, California. Prominently located in a new park along Michigan Avenue next to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Millennium Park Music Pavilion and Great Lawn is part of Gehry's contribution to an ambitious larger plan that includes a theater and extensive gardens. In his design, a serpentine footbridge provides pedestrian access to Grant Park, located to the west, and also functions as a buffer against street noise. As with the Experience Music Project (EMP) (1995–2000) in Seattle, the Millennium design suggests musical qualities. The projecting forms of the stainless-steel orchestra shell are reminiscent of brass horns and facilitate the projection of sound toward the lawn. A trellislike structure emanates from the shell and arcs over the great lawn while its form suggests sound waves washing over the audience. Its design was prompted by the client's desire to avoid the typical forest of speaker towers, which would otherwise obstruct the audience's view of a performance. Rather, a sound system mounted on the trellis allows the music to float above the audience.