We have created a survey to get a better understanding of the tourist/resident visitor ratio of the park. Our research was initially qualitative only, but the addition of the survey has brought us to use mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative to fully examine the use of Millennium Park. Here is an example of the survey we handed out. 

 St. Patrick’s day weekend, and the park was busier than it had been in past visits.  We went at 7:30pm.

 

 

So I went to the park on Wednesday of our Spring Break.  There were a lot of people at the Bean and I saw a security guard in a green coat…pretty interesting.  I am assuming that that coat and color may be for spring?  I guess we will find out.

There was a lot of security around and a lot of tourists.  I am assuming that there were more people there because of spring break and because most of the people there were in their early 20s.  I took some pictures:

  There were a surprising number of people who came and sat down on the tables and benches in front of the Bean.  This only captures a few of them…

This is an example of the amount of people there.  There were a lot of people looking over the edge of the balcony.  Most of these people took a picture and left, so the volume of people coming and going was very high.

This girl posed for 5 photos before they walked up to the Bean.

These must be their security spring coats.  You’ll see that the last photo is cropped…I had to pretend like I was taking a photo of my boyfriend so they didn’t notice.  As you can probably tell, he noticed.  oops.

Here is a view of the benches again.  Like I said, a lot of people were sitting here.  I personally thought it was interesting that there were two different people sitting by themselves on two different benches.

 And finally…it seems Spring has sprung in the Lurie Garden…

Here is a map of Millennium Park with my addition of security camera locations.  I will be updating the map to include all the cameras after my next field observation.

Note: Cameras are noted with purple circles.

Notice that the Crown Fountain does not have cameras around it.  in 2006 cameras were installed on top of the fountains, but because of public outrage they were swiftly taken down.  See the following article for more information:  

http://www.chicagocarless.com/2006/12/19/crown-fountain-cameras-kaput/

2:30 and Millennium park was drenched. The few people that were seen in the park were either under the bean or hustling through under their umbrellas. 

Finally a place where I can post pictures from one of our observations.  I’m glad that you (David) and I have been able to capture these interactions.  Here are some photos from Feb. 22nd:

 Security on the ice rink.  These two boys seemed to keep pretty close to them:

 It had snowed the day before and it has accumlated on the Cloud Gate sculpture.  It was 20 degrees but in the sun it felt like 40.  The sun was so hot that it was melting the snow off the Cloud Gate.  Using cones is how security informs the visitors of the falling snow.  Later we heard them laughing about the visitors being hit by the clumps of falling snow.

 Here is an interaction between one of the security guards, and a woman and her dog.  Dogs are not allowed in the park, and as their signs in the park state, it’s to “protect ‘our’ lawns and gardens”.  The woman and her family were there with the dog for close to a half hour before any interactions occurred.

I wish I would of gotten everyone in this photo but, right after the guard yelled at the woman with the dog, he proceeded to walk over to this group of people.  One man in particular was yelled at for leaning over the balcony.  It was not indicated how he was breaking any sort of rules of the park. 

Hopefully more photos to come.  David and I went to the park after class on Wednesday, and I did some observations in the garden.  I think it’s time we expand past the Cloud Gate and start observing different parts of the park.  I think this week will be nice enough to do that. 

Happy Observing!