The design legacy of Richard M. Daley during his years as the longest serving mayor of Chicago, was notably capped with the creation of Millennium Park, the gleaming downtown attraction that prominently featured the work of celebrated artist Anish Kapoor and architect Frank Gehry. On Thursday April 16 The Chicago Architecture Foundation honored him at their 40th annual Gala at the Brigeport Arts Center.
The evening began with cocktail reception in the Sculpture Garden which was transformed by Event Creative by adding Chicago accents including an elevated train and a jazz duo.
As guests got comfortable chatting with CAF Teen Academy ambassadors, viewing and bidding on silent auction items on display, it was time to head upstairs for the dinner and remarks portion of the evenings festivities. As groups took turn ascending the freight elevator to the Skyline Loft, a few adventurous ones, inpatient ingrids like myself, decided to take the stairs, it was all the sam building we thought. Turns out, not quite. Once a group of us got upstairs and realized we were going the wrong way, we quickly headed back down the stairs, this time wait patiently for the elevator. Funny moment for all involved and lesson learned.
Lynn Osmond, President & CEO of Chicago Architecture Foundation along with Chairman of the CAF Board John Pintozzi made brief remarks before introducing a video montage narrated by Bill Kurtis to honor former mayor Daley, who attended with daughter Nora Daley Conroy and son Patrick Daley.
Lori Healy, the mayor’s former Chief of Staff also made a few remarks as well. Cindy Pritzker, wife of Jay Pritzker, whom the pavilion at Millennium Park is named after, an benefactor of Millennium Park, introduced the former mayor Daley before presenting him with his award, though he kept his speech brief.
To top it off, Marc Schulman, President of Eli’s Cheesecake wheeled out a giant 3-tiered chocolate strawberry cover cheesecake for him to cut which was then served to guests afterwards.
As the night ended and guests made their way home, they parted with some fresh made Dinky’s Donuts, smell-o-vision come to life.
Freshly made mini donuts ftw #CAFGala
A photo posted by SociaLifeChicago (@socialifechicago) on
All proceeds from the annual gala benefits the CAF’s education programs which reaches more than 45,000 students each year.
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