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(NEXSTAR) — There’s much to love about Chicago, including its various tourist-attracting spots. From its museums to its skyscrapers, none may be more iconic than The Bean in Millennium Park.
As beloved as it is, you’ve probably been calling The Bean by the wrong name its entire life.
If you’ve lived in Chicago for more than 20 years, you may know the work of art’s actual name, but if you’re one of the more than 228,000 people who moved to Illinois last year, maybe you’re unfamiliar.
Let’s take you back to the early 2000s, specifically 2004.
One of the world’s largest permanent outdoor art installations is unveiled in Chicago’s Millennium Park. The man behind it all is Anish Kapoor, a British sculptor known for his large-scale works, according to the Millennium Park Foundation.
The silver structure in Millennium Park would go on to become arguably his most famous. What he likely didn’t expect at the time was that people wouldn’t call it by its intended name: Cloud Gate.
Slideshow: Early days of Cloud Gate
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Lights, scaffolding and workmen are reflected in the shiny exterior of the Cloud Gate as final work on the giant reflective sculpture continues Monday, March 7, 2005, in Chicago’s Millennium Park. The seams of the stainless steel sculpture are being welded and polished to a mirror finish, the final step in completion of the structure. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) -
Steve Susnis works inside the Cloud Gate sculpture as work continues, Monday, March 7, 2005, in Chicago’s Millennium Park. The seams of the stainless steel sculpture are being welded and polished to a mirror finish, the final step in completion of the structure. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) -
Andrew GiaCobbe marks off seams on the Cloud Gate, a stainless steel reflective sculpture in Millennium Park, Monday, March 7, 2005, in Chicago. The welding and polishing to a mirror finish, the final step in completion of the structure, will be finished by the end of May when the sculpture goes back on display to the public. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) -
CHICAGO – JUNE 02: Visitors walk past the partially exposed sculpture known as “The Bean,” and officially named “Cloud Gate,” at Millennium Park June 2, 2005 in Chicago, Illinois. Work on the stainless steel, 110-ton sculpture began in January and involves grinding and buffing the seams of the 168 plates to a mirror-like finish, was to have been completed by this past Memorial Day. The art piece’s budget, originally priced at $8 million, has now reached an estimated $17 million. (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images) -
CHICAGO – AUGUST 25: Workers, scaffolding and skyline are seen reflected in the 110-ton, stainless steel Bean, also called “Cloud Gate” sculpture at Millennium Park August 25, 2005 in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Workers are finishing up the polishing, buffing and grinding of its stainless steel seams as the public will have a close-up few of the Bean at its official unveiling Sunday, August 28. Cloud Gate, by artist Anish Kapoor, has been under wraps in a tent with workers polishing, buffing and grinding its seams for the last eight months, but parts will soon once again go under for yet more work on October 3. (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images) -
CHICAGO – JUNE 02: Rich Benbennick from Arlington Heights, Illinois touches an unfinished seam of the partially exposed sculpture known as “The Bean,” and officially named “Cloud Gate,” at Millennium Park June 2, 2005 in Chicago, Illinois. Work on the stainless steel, 110-ton sculpture began in January and involves grinding and buffing the seams of the 168 plates to a mirror-like finish, was to have been completed by this past Memorial Day. The art piece’s budget, originally priced at $8 million, has now reached an estimated $17 million. (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images) -
CHICAGO – AUGUST 25: Visitors are seen walking near the 110-ton, stainless steel Bean, also called “Cloud Gate” sculpture at Millennium Park August 25, 2005 in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Workers are finishing up the polishing, buffing and grinding of its stainless steel seams as the public will have a close-up few of the Bean at its official unveiling Sunday, August 28. Cloud Gate, by artist Anish Kapoor, has been under wraps in a tent with workers polishing, buffing and grinding its seams for the last eight months, but parts will soon once again go under for yet more work on October 3. (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images) -
CHICAGO – JUNE 02: People look at the partially exposed sculpture known as “The Bean,” and officially named “Cloud Gate,” June 2, 2005 at Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. Work on the stainless steel, 110-ton sculpture began in January and involves grinding and buffing the seams of the 168 plates to a mirror-like finish, was to have been completed by this past Memorial Day. The art piece’s budget, originally priced at $8 million, has now reached an estimated $17 million. (Photo by Tim Boyle/Getty Images) -
Sculptor Anish Kapoor is reflected on the ceiling of his sculpture “Cloud Gate” after the official dedication ceremony in Chicago’s Millennium Park Monday, May 15, 2006. Popularly know as the Bean, it is a 110-ton sculpture shaped like a jellybean and polished to a mirror-like finish. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
If you’ve visited it, you can see how that name would fit. It not only looks like a cloud, it lazily reflects the clouds above Chicago’s skyline, making even the dreariest of days seem less daunting. Liquid mercury served as inspiration for the structure.
As Kapoor explains on his website (alongside sketches of the piece), “Cloud Gate draws in the sky and the surrounding buildings. In a vertical city, this is a horizontal object. Seamless form confuses scale.”
Cloud Gate is 33 feet tall at its highest point, 42 feet wide, and 66 feet long. It also weighs much, much more than a cloud at 110 tons — that’s about 99,790,000 kidney beans, in case you’re wondering.
So where did the naming go wrong?
Kapoor doesn’t name his pieces until they’re complete. But, before present-day Cloud Gate was finished, renderings were released to the public, Choose Chicago explains. Since the installation was unnamed at the time, Chicagoans named it themselves: The Bean.
As you can guess, one name became more commonplace than the other. Google search data dating back to 2004 shows “The Bean” is vastly more searched than “Cloud Gate.”
Despite the adoration Chicagoans and visitors to the city may have for The Bean, Kapoor wasn’t immediately warm to the idea. He notably called the name “completely stupid,” even noting he would “just as happily do without a title.”
That has changed, though. In a 2017 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, when he visited his piece for the first time since its dedication in 2006, Kapoor said, “It’s great for [Cloud Gate] to have a colloquial name, its own lingo.”
“I call it ‘The Bean,’ too,” he added.
You can see more of Kapoor’s work at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys; the base of a New York luxury residential tower; and more.
More of Anish Kapoor’s work
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 06: Anish Kapoor’s mirrored bean sculpture is seen at the base of 56 Leonard Street on February 06, 2023 in New York City. Kapoor’s 19-foot-tall, 48-foot-long amorphous artwork was commissioned 2008 was formally unveiled last week. The sculpture sits at the base of the “Jenga Tower” which was designed by renowned Swiss architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) -
A visitor takes a photograph of an artwork by Indian artist Anish Kapoor displayed by the Galleriacontinua gallery on the eve of the public opening of the Art Paris 2023 art fair at the Grand Palais Ephemere in Paris on March 29, 2023. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION – TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION (Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images) -
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 06: People take photos in front of Anish Kapoor’s mirrored bean sculpture at the base of 56 Leonard Street on February 06, 2023 in New York City. Kapoor’s 19-foot-tall, 48-foot-long amorphous artwork was commissioned 2008 was formally unveiled last week. The sculpture sits at the base of the “Jenga Tower” which was designed by renowned Swiss architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) -
NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 19: The sculpture called “Sky Mirror” is displayed at it’s unveiling in Rockefeller Center on September 19, 2006 in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for Tishman Speyer) -
Indian-born artist Anish Kapoor poses for photographers with his stainless steel installation, entitled C-Curve, near the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park, London on September 27, 2010. The Gallery, in London’s Kensington’s Gardens, will host four of Kapoor’s larger installations, until March 13, 2011. AFP Photo / Carl Court (Photo by CARL COURT / AFP) (Photo by CARL COURT/AFP via Getty Images) -
ARLINGTON, TX – AUGUST 30: A view of Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror before The AdvoCare Cowboys Classic between the Florida State Seminoles and the Oklahoma State Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on August 30, 2014 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
If you’re planning to visit Cloud Gate anytime soon, be aware: construction around it will limit your access to the shimmering sculpture until spring 2024. Plus, it is reportedly expected to survive 1,000 years.
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