So excited for a new piece of design here in Chicago! The long-awaited Constellation sculpture by Santiago Calatrava! I still find it hard to believe we haven’t had anything by the starchitect until now. Granted, the incomparable Milwaukee Art Museum is nearby but it’s not the same as having something by him right at home.
I did photograph this from wide, commercial perspectives so I’ll share some of those shots at the end of the post so you know what you’re looking at but I want to focus my attention on the details of this piece.
His design is said to be leaf-like but I do wonder if it’s more like bird feathers since so many of his designs are inspired by birds wings, skeleton, etc. Whichever the true inspiration is, it’s a beauty. Not to mention the vibrant red is the perfect contrast to the shiny glass, blue buildings surrounding it. Or even the blue sky. And, no doubt, it’ll be pop against a gray, whiteout sky as well. So many possibilities! You know I’ll be visiting this one many times.

The light in this area at this time of year is super fleeting and lasts about 20 minutes. Then you get about 15 more where it bounces off neighboring buildings creating this dappled effect you see in the shots. While the color of this is incredible and makes it hard to think black & white processing is worthy of this piece, I do think there’s something to simplifying down to the light and patterns when the color is removed. You be the judge…



Now for some wider perspectives so you can get a better feel for what you’re looking at. We’ll ease into it 😉






I made a ridiculous number of photos of this so feel free to peruse more here.